Freezing Raspberries

Learn how to freeze red or black raspberries. Freezing raspberries is easy and a great way to preserve the excess. Keep your berries fresh and flavorful with these helpful tips.

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Black or Red?

Both red and black raspberries freeze just fine. Because they are slightly firmer than the red ones, canning black raspberries is another good option. In my opinion, freezing is a better option for red raspberries as they are a bit more delicate.

Just a note: Blackberries are different than the black raspberries in these images. But they also freeze exactly the same.

I’ve got pictures of both on this page, but freezing steps are just the same for either red or black…and for other berries as well.

The first step is simply pick your berries. Remove as much stem and leaves or debris as possible. Rinse with clean cold water, drain in a colander.

You want to remove as much excess water as possible. Lay them out on a paper towel helps. Or put them on a baking sheet and blot dry.

No Sugar added

Dry Pack with No Sugar

Dry packaging in a Ziplock bag is the easiest way to freeze berries, and it’s the way usually I do mine.

Flash Freezing on a Tray

Spread the berries on a piece of freezer paper or parchment paper in a single layer. Blot to remove an excess moisture. Place this in the freezer, and when the berries are frozen, you can take the tray out of the freezer and transfer your berries to freezer bags. I recommend no larger than quart-size bags. The berries will be single frozen, and you can take them out to use them in the quantity you desire.

Freezer Bags

Another way to dry pack while freezing raspberries is to skip the flat layer option and just put the cleaned berries in a Ziplock bag to start with. The berries tend to freeze together and may become one big chunk. But if you know you have recipes that use a specific amount of berries, you can pre-measure that amount to freeze and use later.

Freezing Raspberries with Sugar

Both of the previous methods add no sugar. If you like a little sugar, you can freeze raspberries with sugar instead.

Freezing Raspberries in Sugar

Sprinkle cleaned raspberries with sugar stir gently to mix. Place in a freezer bag. The raspberries will get juicy with the addition of the sugar. Amount is according to taste, so you might want to start with 1/2 cup sugar for each quart of raspberries. Then you can add more or less as you find what you like. Be gentle as you mix in the sugar, as the raspberries are very soft and fragile and will mush up if you are too vigorous.

Freezing Raspberries in Sugar Syrup

Make a sugar syrup by heating water with the desired amount of sugar until the sugar dissolves. Again, amount of sugar is according to taste. A very light syrup would be 1 cup sugar to 2 quarts water. You can add more or less as you like.

Then cool this syrup off completely before adding your berries. GENTLY stir in the berries. You don’t want to break the raspberries up. Place in freezer bags or other freezer containers. Be sure and leave a couple inches of headspace to allow for expansion as the mixture freezes.

Do raspberries get mushy after freezing?

I don’t know if mushy is the right word but, I’d say yes. Raspberries do lose texture. They are still great to use in smoothies, muffins and other things. Black raspberries maintain more firmness than red.

To my knowledge there is no guaranteed way to keep frozen raspberries from getting soft. It’s just a nature of the preservation method. However here are 2 tips that seem to help.

• Flash freezing is the best option. That quick freeze on a tray preserves the berries quicker.
• Thawing berries in the refrigerator and not at room temperature does help. I’ve never tested this myself. I’m not sure why that would be true.
  

Dehydrating them is another option. But if you rehydrate them… they’ll still lose texture. The only way to keep them fresh, is to eat them fresh.

Does Freezing Raspberries Make Them Sour?

Frozen fruit does taste slightly different than fresh, and some people do think frozen raspberries aren’t as sweet as the fresh ripe fruit. If this is a concern, just freeze your raspberries with a little sugar as provided above. 🙂

Before you go

Just in case you have an abundance of raspberries, did you know you could combine them with currants and make this fabulous Raspberry Currant Jam for either canning or refrigerator? Its sooo good!

Recipe Card

Freezing Raspberries

Freezing raspberries is probably the best way to preserve red raspberries for later, though you can also freeze black raspberries too!

Print Recipe

Prep Time:30 minutes mins

Total Time:30 minutes mins

Equipment

• Freezer Bags or containers
• Cookie Sheet or tray
• Freezer Paper

Ingredients

• Raspberries
• Sugar optional

Instructions

Dry Pack

• Spread a single layer of berries on a cookie sheet or tray lined with freezer paper.
• Place in the freezer.
• Remove from freezer and transfer frozen berries to labeled freezer bags.

Packed with Sugar

• Sprinkle raspberries with sugar (½ cup sugar to 1 quart raspberries).
• Place in freezer bags/containers.
• Remove air, seal, and label.
• Freeze.

Packed with Syrup

• Make sugar syrup (1 cup sugar to 2 quarts water).
• Cool syrup completely.
• Gently stir syrup into berries.
• Place in freezer bags/containers.
• Remove air, seal, and label.
• Freeze.

Author: Sharon Peterson

Other Pages

• Fruit Leather
• How to Freeze Strawberries
• Canning Berries