Oat & Berry Muffins Recipe with Frozen Fruit (2024)

FAQs

Can frozen fruit be used in muffins? ›

When mixing frozen fruit into cake or muffin batter, small, still-frozen pieces work better. Keeping the fruit frozen eliminates the possibility of smushing them into your batter while mixing (ultimately turning your beautiful batter red or purple), and keeping the fruit small keeps that distribution even.

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.

Oatmeal – Oatmeal is delicious with the addition of frozen fruit. Not only think of berries but also cherries, mango and even peaches. Below is a basic recipe but, feel free to experiment with your favorite fruits and flavors!

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.

For best quality, use frozen produce within 8 to 12 months of freezing, per the National Center for Home Food Preservation. If you're unable to use frozen fruits and vegetables within 12 months, they're still safe to use indefinitely, though the quality may be lower as time goes on.

When baking a tart or a pie, you could use frozen fruits as a substitute for fresh fruits without losing the flavor and nutritional values.

But anyone who's ever put frozen blueberries into the mix knows—whether pancake, muffin, or cake batter—even if you go straight from the freezer and they don't thaw, the juice that's collected on the outside of them will immediately turn your batter purplish-blue.

Prevent your batter and baked goods from turning a purple-blue hue by rinsing frozen blueberries several times in cold water until the water becomes lighter in color. Then pat them dry on a paper towel and fold into your batter gently.

To minimize the formation of ice crystals (the real culprit of sogginess, they break down the berries' structure, so they become soft when defrosted), it's best to flash-freeze them. This entails freezing them in a single layer, rapidly exposing them to the freezer's cold air.

Blueberries

Blueberries are a nutrient-rich fruit packed with antioxidants that support heart health and cognitive function. 10 They're low in calories and high in fiber, which supports satiety while improving gut health.

When should you 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. If you mix them in the water from the defrosting fruit it will result in a slightly thinner consistency.

Ingredients for Blueberry Overnight Oats

Blueberries: Frozen, sweet blueberries are key here for achieving the vibrant purple-blue color. And as an added bonus, they're so much cheaper than fresh! Lemon: Adds a bit of acidity that balances everything out and helps make the blueberry flavor pop.

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.

Do you need to thaw frozen fruit before baking? Usually, no. For recipes with a short baking or cooking time (like pancakes), thawing is likely beneficial. But for most baking recipes, you'll want to start with frozen fruit.

Frozen fruits and berries are safe to consume raw, cooked or even frozen out of the bag. However, frozen vegetables should always be cooked before consumption to minimize any foodborne illness risk. Luckily for us, there are several ways to make frozen vegetables just as delicious as fresh.

The best part it that you don't even need to thaw them. Toss frozen blueberries in some flour to coat and prevent sticking and sinking to the bottom of the muffins. Then use blueberries following the directions. Baking time may differ, when using frozen blueberries, muffins need to be baked for about 5 minutes longer.

Before you pour the batter into the pan, stir in chopped fresh fruit to give your favourite cake, quick bread, or cupcake a boost. But before adding the fruit or berries to your batter, lightly dust with all-purpose flour to avoid them bleeding into the batter (turning the batter the same colour as the fruit).