Freezing carrots

Butterfly_Brain

Wash and slice and put in the freezer, I have done this for years with no problems

[Deleted User]

I only ever blanche carrots as I read somewhere it makes them last longer in the freezer and means less cooking when you get them out again I usually have a large saucepan of water that I bring to a rolling boil and then I have a wire chip basket that I have all my sliced carrots in, and I bung it into the boiling water for three minutes.Whilst its coming back up to the boil again I have a washing up bowl full of cold water (even chuck a few ice cubes it to make it really cold ).once the carrots have come back to the boil I lift them out with the chip basket and bung them into the cold water and leave to cool down for about ten minutes ,pat dry on a clean tea towel and lay on a plastic plate or a sheet of tinfoil once cold in the freezer Once completely frozen I bag them up in a poly bag and they are fine until I need a handful or so for cooking I find that If I do this once ever so often then I always have carrots ready for putting in boiling water to cook for ten minutes just before I want to dish up.As I live alone if I see a bag thats been reduced in price I can get a good sized bag of carrots for my freezer that lasts me ages, a lot cheaper than buying a bag of frozen carrots from the supermarkets at a quid or so a time

babybluegirl

krishna wrote: »

The best carrot cake recipe ever. And yes you can freeze it.

[All credit goes to Edna Staebler, "Food that really schmecks: mennonite country cooking". ISBN 07-077392-0. Amazingly good recipes, especially for sweet treats]. It's an American publication.

2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
3 cups finely shredded carrots
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
4 whole eggs
2 tsp cinnamon (personally I put two to three times that in and add 2tsp ginger)
2 tsp vanilla

Mix dry ingredients together. Blend in oil, add eggs and carrots, then vanilla. Blend well and bake in 8" layer pans at 350F for 35 minutes.

NB: When I made it it was a bit wet so I added a little more flour, but still leaving a very runny cake batter. I guess it all depends on your carrots, the size of your eggs and even the flour you used. Anyway it came out perfectly. I have never been able to make a carrot cake well before, they were always crumbly and a bit heavy. Not this one!

Sorry for the silly questions (don't bake often), but can I ask a few questions about the ingredients please:

2 cups sugar - regular white sugar? Or has to be particular sugar, e.g. caster?
2 cups flour - plain or self raising?
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil - don't have this, is Olive Oil okay?

Many thanks,

babybluegirl

12:08pm

csnann

Granulated sugar is fine, but I wouldn't use olive oil in a cake as it has a strong flavour that would be overpowering and unpleasant.

babybluegirl

csnann wrote: »

Granulated sugar is fine, but I wouldn't use olive oil in a cake as it has a strong flavour that would be overpowering and unpleasant.

Thank you for your reply. Do you happen to know which flour to use for this recipe, or any recipe that says flour but doesn't state which?!?

babybluegirl

4:36pm

csnann

Self raising flour, or plain flour with a bit of baking powder.

babybluegirl

The original post was about freezing carrots, I read all the posts and some people wrote that they blanche the carrots first before freezing them. Others wrote that they didn't bother with the blanching and just went straight to freezer, so I was torn what to do.

I decided to just cut up the carrots and put them in the freezer The other day I got out the bag of frozen carrots to defrost so that I could use them in a slow cooker recipe the following day and all I can say is: WOW: the carrots defrosted all mushy and with tinges of brown These carrots were fine before they were cut and frozen! Really disappointed in how they turned out.

Not sure how I could have done this wrong. Next time, I will blanche first and see how this differs.

babybluegirl

10:55am

ALIBOBSY

I chop most veg without blanching to freeze, but I never defrost before use, just bung them into the sauce/stew soup as is without any issues even for the slow cooker.

Mind you I open freeze them on trays then put into bags afterwards, seems to work with all veggies. But sweetcorn on a cob I do blanche first as they seem to take forever to cook from frozen if you don't.

Ali x