My husband is a big fan of freezing cherries. He and my sons eat them like popsicles. I like them too, and the plus is…they are much better for you than popsicles. Freezing is so easy too.

Can you freeze fresh cherries? Yes! This method of freezing cherries makes it so you can also just pull a few cherries from the freezer and pop them in your mouth. YUM! Cold and icy.

A freezer paper lined tray with pitted red cherries spread over it.

Freezing Cherries: Step-By-Step Instructions

You will need:

freezer paper
large cookie sheet or shallow pan
fruit preserver
freezer bags or other freezer container
cherries
sugar – optional

Boxes of freezer paper and parchment paper.

Pitting Cherries

Do You Have to Pit Cherries Before Freezing?

Pitting your cherries is an optional step. If you know for sure you’ll just be eating them, then you can just leave the pits in and spit them out when you eat them. Just like fresh!

However, frozen cherries are more versatile if you get them pitted now. Recipes call for pitted cherries, and pitting thawed out cherries is more difficult. I can be done, but it’s so much easier if you pit them while they’re fresh. Check out our cherry pitter of choice here: Cherry Pitter.

How to Freeze Cherries

After you have decided whether or not you are going to pit your cherries, follow the same procedures for freezing.

You can soak your cherries in a fruit preserver if you wish. There are several varieties available at Amazon. Mine was Fruit Fresh.

Following directions on the package, soak cherries in fruit preserver.

Lay freezer paper on your cookie sheet or pan.

Cherries soaking in the fruit preserver mixture.

Drain cherries well.

Optional – You can sugar coat cherries by sprinkling with sugar.

Spread cherries out in a single layer on freezer paper. Lay another sheet of freezer paper on top of the cherries.

Spread more cherries out on top of that sheet.

I have done up to 3 layers and had no problem. I don’t know if I would go too much deeper than that.

A freezer paper lined cookie sheet with deep red cherries spread all over the top of it.

Place this pan with all the layers of cherries in the freezer. When frozen, remove cherries from the freezer and place in freezer bags or containers.

Packing frozen cherries into freezer bags.

Here’s a tip: When you remove the cherries from the freezer, lift the top layer of cherries by the freezer paper. Use it like a funnel to dump the cherries into your freezer container or bag.

Lifting freezer paper layers of frozen cherries off of the trays.

Don’t forget to label and date.

A labeled freezer bag of frozen cherries.

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