Frozen Prunes Are Actually Amazing
Prunes are not treated well. We don’t treat other dried fruits with nearly the same blatant disrespect. Okay, their high fiber content can make you poop, but since when has that been a bad thing? It’s time to embrace dried plums for what they are: a delicious treat that combines nutrition and sweetness in one bite. Not convinced? I dare you to put a few in the freezer and then tell me what you think. Besides, it’s hot as hell outside and you need more cold snacks .
I used to be a prune hater too (to be honest, the juice might be the problem), but I changed after I ate a cold gummies from the freezer. It was in college and I had a celiac roommate and she had a lot of gluten free snack options. When she reached for the ice cubes and pulled out a bag of prunes, my face must have been “pooh” because she immediately came to their defense, saying, “They don’t look like prunes when they’re frozen.” College for experiments, so I tried one.
Frozen prunes are incredible. They are sweet, almost syrupy and, despite being in the freezer, do not become hard. Do they taste like prunes? Yes, because they are prunes. Somewhere we got lost, mistakenly thinking that prunes are tasteless. Prunes have a noticeable skin, like all fruits, but inside they are softer with pronounced sweetness and very juicy. Biting your skin into something soft can be uncomfortable. Freezing solves this problem by making the flesh inside the same texture as the skin, completely removing contrasting textural oddities, and making it all chewable like gummy candy. Fruit dried to this state retains about 20-30% moisture, so it only freezes semi-hard, whether you leave it in the freezer for an hour or two weeks.
To make yourself a delicious, cold, natural gluten-free snack, simply buy a package of prunes and place the entire package in the freezer for at least two hours. Sometimes I like to change the taste with Sunsweet Ones “Essences”. Right now, I have the Berry Essence flavor , which is only listed as a natural flavor in the ingredients, but I’m also partial to Cherry Essence. (I don’t agree with how much waste plastic is used in this packaging, so I usually go with the brand’s 16oz container.)
If I can’t convince you to use prunes, you can do so with any dried fruit of similar moisture content. Try this approach with dried apricots, cherries, dates, or peaches for great results. After all, it’s summer now, and when you go outside, you feel like you’re in a hair dryer on high heat, all the food you put in your body must be deliciously cold .