Oat & Berry Muffins Recipe with Frozen Fruit (2024)

FAQs

Can you use frozen fruit to make muffins? ›

But for solid chunks of the year, the fruit we love to turn into tarts and pies and muffins isn't in season, and frozen fruit is the best possible substitute. And that's totally cool, just as long as you know how to use them.

Frozen fruit should work fine in anything baked or cooked. Keep in mind that some recipes may require additional thickener to balance the extra juice. Rinse frozen fruit to prevent colors from bleeding. Thaw frozen fruit first if what you're making has a short baking or cooking time.

Generally, speaking, you can use fresh and frozen berries interchangeably in your baking recipes, but you may need to make a few tweaks to ensure it comes out perfectly.

Tip #1: Keep your frozen fruits frozen

First, most fruits are about 90% water and usually frozen at their peak ripeness. If you defrost them, thawed fruits will add excess liquid to your ingredients, making pies and desserts runny right from the start.

If they were frozen unwashed, then rinse them quickly and pat dry. Take a spoonful of the flour from your recipe and toss the berries quickly and gently, then fold into the batter. That will keep them from bleeding into and falling to the bottom of the muffin/cake/bread.

Gently and quickly stir the frozen berries into the batter. You'll see a few inevitable streaks of blue, but the entire batter shouldn't turn blue. If that starts to happen – stop stirring, you're done! Make sure not to overmix the muffin batter, or the blueberry juice will still bleed.

In general, frozen strawberries tend to be softer and slightly mushier than fresh strawberries once they're thawed, but to get the best texture possible, avoid using overripe strawberries, dry your strawberries thoroughly after washing them to prevent too much moisture, and be sure to freeze your berries in a single ...

Frozen blueberries are best when added to the batter completely frozen. They will cook up perfectly during the baking process. On the flip side, if the berries thaw before being added to the batter, they will release a lot of juice and bleed blue into the entire batter (see the section about the batter turning colors).

Add the frozen fruit to your oatmeal and stir. Cook for about 2 minutes until the berries begin to soften. Serve this oatmeal with frozen fruit in a bowl, topped with a scoop of Greek vanilla yogurt and a sprinkle of cocoa nibs (or mini chocolate chips).

Fresh fruit: berries, bananas, apples, peaches, mango, or pears. Spices: cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, or nutmeg. Natural sweeteners: a dash of maple syrup or honey. Unsweetened or lightly sweetened chocolate: shaved dark chocolate (with a cocoa content of 70% or more)

When should I add frozen fruit to overnight oats? ›

For the best texture, don't mix in your frozen berries until the morning. I find that allowing the fruit to sit on top while the oats are soaking allows for the perfect consistency of overnight oats.

Don't put fully frozen friits in the blender. It can cause lumpy smoothies and, in some cases, can cause the sharp blades to crack and break. Leave frozen fruits out in the fridge to thaw or put them in a Ziploc bag and thaw in a bowl of water before blending.

Fresh OR frozen blueberries work great in this blueberry muffin recipe. If using frozen berries, don't thaw first! What is this? Toss the blueberries with a teaspoon or two of flour before gently stirring them into the batter.

Use your frozen berries straight from the freezer, don't thaw them first. I actually prefer to bake with frozen berries because they don't get crushed or stain my batter when I fold them in. Smaller frozen berries work best for muffins: avoid whole strawberries or very large blackberries.

Fresh blueberries are also less likely to release excess moisture into the batter, which can make the muffins soggy and dense. However, if fresh blueberries are not available, you can use frozen blueberries in your muffin recipe.

Freezing fruit releases trapped moisture, so once it thaws the fruit loses its shape and the excess liquid drains out. That makes baking with this ingredient difficult since some recipes turn out soggy, especially if you haven't made accommodations for the extra liquid.

Muffins, scones, cake, and coffeecake are quite another, frozen berries bleeding juice into batter to turn these golden-hued beauties a sickly shade of purple-green. This doesn't have to happen, you know. There's a simple solution. Rinse your frozen blueberries before you use them.