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How to freeze fruit for iced tea
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varieties of cherries
Frozen fruit keeps your iced tea cold without diluting the flavor and it adds beauty to your glass of tea. You can use purchase frozen fruit, but it doesn’t look nearly as nice and it sometimes freezes together in chunks because it partially thaws between the grocery store and home an then refreezes when you put it in your freezer. It’s best to buy fresh berries or fruit the day before you need them and then prepare them to be frozen
Suggested fruits for freezing
- berries
- fresh pineapple
- cherries
- seedless grapes
To prepare fresh pineapple you need a very sharp chef’s knife. Cut the top off the pineapple at the widest part of its shoulder. Cut the bottom off so it will sit flat while you cut it. Remove the skin by cutting straight down from top to bottom with your chef’s knife. Trim any piece of skin you missed then use the tip of a potato peeler to remove any traces of pineapple “eyes”, the brown spots that remain after it’s peeled.
Find the core of the pineapple. Place your knife at the edge of the core and slice straight down one side of the pineapple making a sheet of pineapple. Do this on all four sides. There will be corners because your knife isn’t round. You can use the knife to cut off the corners also if you think it’s worth it. Cut the sheets of pineapple into half-inch cubes or whatever size you would like. Freeze in individual compartments of ice cube trays covered tightly with plastic wrap.
If you’re using berries, cherries, or grapes, wash them very well then pat them dry and allow them to air dry on paper towel. Traces of water will cause them to freeze to whatever container you freeze them in. Roll each berry, grape, or cherry in sugar then place each one in an individual compartment of an ice cube tray or an inch apart on a cookie sheet lined with a fine layer of sugar. Do not let fruit touch or it will freeze together.
Melon balls can be bought ready-made and frozen. For some reason they don’t seem to suffer from being commercially frozen the way some other fruits do.
When it’s time to serve, bring out the fruit in small amounts at a time or it will thaw too fast. Place a few pieces in the bottom of each glass before pouring in the iced tea or lemonade. Please use a straw to avoid accidentally choking on the fruit.
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