Mistakes Everyone Makes When Baking With Frozen Fruit

If the treats you make with frozen fruit aren't turning out as you hoped, you may be making some elementary mistakes. Perhaps you spent raspberry season carefully picking red jewels from a thorny patch in the backyard, freezing extras as you dreamed of a scrumptious raspberry pie. Finally, just before summer ended, you retrieved the amount of fruit you needed for the recipe. The crust came together perfectly. Then, you added the raspberries and stuck the masterpiece in the oven. Everything looked great, but the finished pie wasn't what you had imagined. The filling was too mushy and sour, and the crust drooped from too much moisture. It was a complete and utter disaster — no one wanted to eat it.

If that describes your experience baking with frozen fruit, don't worry. Here, you'll find tips from a variety of experts to take your frozen fruit baking up a notch. Professional chefs, a registered dietitian, and the founder of a frozen food company weigh in on how to get the best outcome from this ingredient. Follow their advice and you're sure to get better results from your frozen produce by the time the next harvest rolls around.

Some frozen fruits may go perfectly in one dish but ruin others — knowing which recipes to make with a specific fruit is vital. First, think about how the fruit responds to freezing. Some, like bananas and peaches, turn to mush. Don't use them in recipes where the fruit needs to maintain its shape. On the other hand, delicate fruits — raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries — hold together better frozen, especially when you mix them into batter. Once you bake them they may disintegrate, while simultaneously creating heavenly little pockets of flavor in your muffins and pancakes.

Registered dietitian and Michigan State University food safety educator Kara Lynch recommends against using frozen fruit in pies — especially peaches. She says, "Peaches do tend to break down some and can get mushy, so they may be better in something that doesn't require a plump fruit structure, for example, a glaze for a cheesecake."

Chef Steven Hernandez, who received his title from the Institute of Culinary Education, says, "Frozen fruits shine in cobblers, smoothies, and quick breads." Meanwhile, BBQ expert Jakob Miller adds, "Think of classics like blueberry muffins, raspberry scones, or mixed berry pies. The intense cold can help these fruits retain their shape and flavor during baking, resulting in bursts of fruity goodness in every bite. "

Frozen fruit seems like such a practical solution — it's already chopped and cleaned. It's tempting to simply pour it into the batter as is, without waiting for it to thaw. If you do, you may be making a big mistake, though. Thawing is a fundamental step in some recipes and skipping it could cause the finished product to fail in a number of ways.

RD Kara Lynch warns, "Depending on the product, your cooking time may take longer," and adds that this can result in "a product with uneven doneness." She has a great point. If you've ever eaten a muffin that seems a little raw right around the fruit bits, the baker may have used unthawed frozen fruit. That causes the treat to bake more quickly in some parts and less so in others.

Using thawed versus unthawed frozen fruit changes the texture of a dish as well. Think about a banana bread recipe. Lynch notes, "Bananas should be thawed before baking as they are typically mashed, I usually also drain off the liquid that seeps from the thawed bananas. Frozen bananas do produce a great moist baked product." No one wants to find a huge chunk of banana in their banana bread, and first draining off the excess liquid is the perfect way to account for extra moisture.

If you've ever made raspberry muffins, you know how hard it is to keep the pieces of fresh fruit whole. That's a great reason to freeze these berries a few hours before getting started. Once they're hard, they're easier to fold into the dough without getting crushed. Of course, you still shouldn't overdo it with the stirring.

Julie Morris, founder of Julie's Family Kitchen, says, "When incorporating frozen fruit, gently fold it into the batter to prevent it from breaking apart and coloring the entire dish." This is especially true of brightly colored berries like raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries. If you don't want your quick bread tinged pink or purple throughout, you'll have to delicately mix these fruits into the batter. If you're making muffins, you may find it easier to pour the batter into the muffin tin and then distribute the berries evenly into each one.

Freezing fruit makes it less sweet and flavorful so some bakers adjust by adding more sugar, according to Julie Morris. They may be making a mistake, though. Adding too much sugar can cause serious repercussions on the quality of the final product — your dessert may become too soggy to fully enjoy. In fact, Mark Coe says he usually tries to reduce the amount of sugar he uses when baking with frozen fruit.

Cooks need to be careful with sugar because it produces a chemical reaction that impacts much more than just flavor. For example, macerating fruit is a process of softening by soaking, often in sugar. This works because the sugar releases liquid from the fruit by osmosis. That, in turn, decreases the pressure in the fruit and makes it softer, which is particularly useful when you're using fresh fruit that is not at peak ripeness. 

Freezing already draws out moisture from the fruit, so if you add too much sugar to the mix, it simply becomes liquid goop. Chef Steven Hernandez explains that "Overcompensating for the lack of sweetness in frozen fruits by adding extra sugar can throw off the moisture balance." This doesn't mean bakers should forego sugar altogether, though. That will also negatively affect the texture. Rather, if you're having trouble with a particular frozen fruit recipe turning out too moist, try reducing the quantity of sugar and adjusting based on the results.

Not all frozen fruit is created equal — if you're using produce that's less than the best, it may negatively impact the flavor of your final creation. Check the ingredient label at the supermarket first. Julie Morris recommends skipping products with added sugar and preservatives because "This ensures a better flavor profile in your baked goods."

For example, Walmart's Great Value brand offers frozen fruit at fantastic prices — a pound of a mixed blend with strawberries, peaches, mango, and pineapple costs under $3. Look at the label, though, and you'll see it contains ascorbic and citric acid, which could change the flavor of your baking. Check out the label on the brand's organic blueberries, though, and you'll note that blueberries are the only ingredient present.

Finally, it's important to remember frozen fruit will not maintain a top quality forever. If you come across a bag of cherries in your freezer and can't remember when you put them there, you may want to check they are still good before adding them to your next baking project. Follow Kara Lynch's instructions on how to spot frozen fruit that's past its due date: "If fruit has a lot of ice crystals on it or spots that appear dry or damaged, it may not make you ill, but the poor quality will result in a less desirable product." In other words, you may be best off throwing out the bag of cherries and buying a new one.