A. Yes. You might get some freezer burn, so you might want to add a little juice (peach or white grape) to fill the air spaces. Or pack them dry using a vacuum food sealer which would eliminate the need to add juice and still avoid most freezer burn.
|Type of Syrup||Sugar||Water||Yield|
|Fruit juice (peach, apple or white grape)||0||0||4 cups|
|Splenda (2 cups)||0||6 cups||6 cups|
|Light sugar||2 cups||6 cups||7 cups|
|Medium sugar||3 cups||6 cups||7.2 cups|
|Heavy sugar||4 cups||6 cups||7.4 cups|
Sugar syrup is used in various types, depending upon the amount of sugar they contain. Sugar content in the syrup will depend on the tartness of the fruit and your taste.
About 1/2 to 2/3 cups of syrup is needed for each pint of peaches. Fruits packed in syrup are generally more satisfactory for uncooked desserts, fruit cocktail and sauces.
More than 3 cups sugar to 1 quart water makes most fruit too sweet. Less than 1 cup sugar to 1 quart of water is seldom satisfactory. Use sugar and water in the following proportions for the various types of syrup:
35 percent syrup
40 percent syrup
50 percent syrup
60 percent syrup
Add an antioxidant to peaches to prevent darkening. Use one of the pretreatment methods listed below. The most common color protectors are ascorbic acid, commercial antioxidants, and lemon juice. Speed in preparing peaches for freezing and fast freezing will also reduce the amount of discoloration.
Slice peaches into a solution of 1 tablespoon lemon juice
per quart of water.
Ascorbic acid: For syrup pack: Add 1/2 teaspoon ascorbic acid to each quart of syrup. For sugar pack: Add 1/2 teaspoon ascorbic acid to each quart of fruit. (Note: 1/2 teaspoon ascorbic acid equals 1,500 milligrams in tablet form.)
Commercial antioxidant: These are a combination of ascorbic and citric acid and sugar. Two brands available locally are Fruit Fresh and Ever-Fresh. Follow the manufacturers' instructions.
The next day, take the bags out of the freezer, seal them and put them back in the freezer!
If any of the frozen peaches are exposed on the surface, just pour a little more sugar syrup (or fruit juice, etc.) to cover them and put it back in the freezer. When that freezes, you can seal them.
Defrost frozen peaches in the refrigerator, or under cold running water. One pint of fruit packed in syrup will thaw in 4 to 6 hours in the refrigerator , and in 1/2 to 1 hour under running water.
Peaches darken and lose flavor rapidly once they are thawed.
Thawed and refrozen peaches will suffer a loss in quality.
You may safely refreeze partially thawed peaches if they have been defrosted in the refrigerator and are cold to the touch and contain ice crystals.