Cooking with Creative Gourmet frozen berries and fruits Use frozen berries and fruits straight from the freezer for cooking and baking – no need to defrost. And, there is no need to defrost the berries and fruits if adding to chilled sweets like jellies, trifles, cheesecakes and ice-creams. Add frozen berries and fruits straight from the freezer. However, if you like more berry colour in say, ice-creams, partially thaw the fruits and berries before stirring through mixtures so the juices delicately colour the food. Gently fold frozen berries and fruits into cake, muffin, friand, baked cheesecakes and pudding mixtures using a large metal spoon (this helps the fruit retain its shape). When poaching frozen berries and fruits, cook in a saucepan over medium to low heat - this helps the fruit retain its juiciness (and helps prevent the skin splitting on blueberries, cranberries, wild blueberries, red and black currants and cherries). Add a tablespoon of caster or icing sugar to taste, depending on your preferred sweetness.