How to Freeze Raspberries

Who doesn’t love fresh raspberries? But unless you know how to freeze raspberries, you are quite limited as to how often you can enjoy the fresh raspberry flavor. Unless you want to spend a lot of money at the grocery store buying them out of season. But who wants to do that right? Let me show you how easy it is to freeze raspberries now, so you can enjoy fresh raspberries all year long!

Freeze Raspberries now to enjoy them later

So why don’t more people freeze raspberries? It could be a few reasons:

1. Not enough room in a freezer
2. No access to a large amount of raspberries when in season
3. They simply don’t know how easy it is

Well, I can’t really help with reason 1 & 2, but I can help you understand just how easy it is to freeze raspberries. Then you can enjoy the fresh berries all year long. Literally!

After you pick your raspberries, you want to ensure that they are washed and free of twigs, bugs, dirt and debris. Then allow them to drain in a colander for about 10 minutes to allow them to dry. You don’t want to be freezing wet berries, it will turn into a big icy mess with mushy raspberries. And who wants that?

After my raspberries drain, I like to spread them out on a paper towel to absorb any extra water that could be lingering.

Then spread them out in a single layer on a cookie sheet. You want something with a rim to it so the berries can’t roll off into the freezer.

Freeze the berries until they are frozen solid. This can take around 12 hrs. I like to just freeze them overnight. It makes it really easy to throw them into the freezer at night, and then package them up in the morning.

Now it is time to package the raspberries for storing them in the freezer. I use a FoodSaver. Because of all the years I’ve been freezing raspberries; the FoodSaver is the only method where I can freeze raspberries and still have them fresh and not freezer burned for more than 6 months! Any other method my berries always got freezer burned around 3-6 months and they weren’t usable any longer.

Now you can still store your raspberries without a FoodSaver, but they won’t keep as long. Simply place them in the best quality freezer bag possible. Make sure you get out as much air as possible. Label the bag and place in the freezer.

With my FoodSaver, I estimate how big I need the FoodSaver bag. Do I want to divide the raspberries into portion sizes? Or do I want to keep them all together in one bag? I try to portion mine into about 4-6 cups per bag. Simply because that is the portion sizes I tend to use the most. And it allows for a little easier organization in my freezer.

Make sure you label your FoodSaver bag with a permanent marker with the date and amount of raspberries you have included. It is easier to label the bag before you put the raspberries in it. But if you forget, that is ok, you can still label it afterwards.

Fill your FoodSaver bag with your frozen Raspberries and then seal. The FoodSaver removes all air from the bag and seals it all for you. It allows for your berries to stay extra fresh for a much longer time period. I use the gentle setting on my FoodSaver, to ensure it doesn’t over squish the berries.

Now you are complete! See I told you it was easy! With this method to freeze raspberries, your berries should stay fresh up to a year, maybe a little longer. Just in time for the next season’s batch of raspberries to be picked and enjoyed!

Frozen berries are perfect for making smoothies and shakes and work beautifully in baked goods! When you freeze raspberries, it is also a great way to postpone making jam! You know for when you get a big batch of fresh raspberries but just don’t have time to make jam that week! You know your raspberries won’t still be good in a few weeks when you have time. So I just freeze raspberries until I am ready to make my jam. I just simply defrost them and use them like I would use fresh raspberries. I have the best Raspberry Rhubarb Jam that I often make from my own frozen raspberries.

What are your favorite things to create with frozen raspberries? 

Have you ever tried to freeze raspberries before?