Bonus at the supermarket

When I went to the store today I saw a special sale price on raspberries.  Obviously the store had too many that were becoming ripe so they sold half pints for $1 instead of the usual $3-6.  I looked closely at them and could tell that there were some that were already past their prime, so I choose carefully.

Fresh Raspberries at a bargain price.

I had to buy 10 packages because that was the limit allowed per customer, and we love raspberries.  I also know that they don't store well, so I had to have a plan in mind or it would just be a big waste of money.

I picked through the packages carefully, sorting the berries into "good for freezing" or "borderline freshness, turn into a puree". I will take the frozen berries out of the freezer tomorrow and put them in bags with the date.

These looked great for the freezer.

Some of these were a tiny bit smooshed, so I threw them in a blender and pureed. 

After I pureed the berries, I tasted them and added a small amount of sugar.  I pureed the berries and sugar, and tasted them again to see if they still needed more sweetness.  This is why you add a small amount of sugar first.  You can't take the sugar out but if you add in small amounts, you will get it only as sweet as you need it.

Pureed berries:  add a small amount of sugar and taste.

We eat a lot of frozen raspberries in smoothies, but the pureed raspberries would be great on top of ice cream, panna cotta, brownies, cheese cake, stirred into yogurt, or drizzled on a molten chocolate cake.  I poured this into freezer bags, flattened them to get as much air out as possible, and stacked in the freezer.

Freeze berries on a sheet pan so they remain separate when bagged.

Now when will I make those desserts?