You can use strawberry puree in so many different dishes, and it adds a wonderful strawberry flavor to yogurt, pie, cake, smoothies, and milkshakes. I want to show you how to make strawberry puree for yourself with ingredients you can buy at the grocery.
This is one of those food items that is so much better when you make it yourself. It’s not just the sense of accomplishment from putting it together from raw ingredients, but you also get to make it a whole lot healthier.
If you buy a package of strawberry puree at the store, it will likely be packed with additives, preservatives, and other manmade ingredients. You can keep yours all natural and make it in a way that’s very healthy and flavorful.
How healthy is this recipe for strawberry puree? When I show you how to make strawberry puree, I do it with one ingredient, and that’s fresh strawberries.
Most of the strawberry puree you buy at the store will have sugar in it. Is that necessary, though? It’s up to you how sweet you want strawberry puree to be. Strawberries are a sweet fruit already, so I don’t think the sugar is necessary, but you can add some if you like.
If the recipe comes out tasting not quite as sweet as you would prefer, just add a little bit of sugar at a time until it is as sweet as you like.
What Kind of Strawberries Should You Use for Strawberry Puree?
You may be wondering if it is okay to make strawberry puree from frozen strawberries or cooked strawberries. You can use any kind of strawberries you want, from frozen to fresh to cook or student strawberries.
I always prefer fresh strawberries for how to make strawberry puree filling, but any kind of strawberries will work fine.
If you use cooked strawberries, you can expect a more concentrated puree with a stronger strawberry taste.
If you would like to use frozen strawberries, then make sure you thaw them before you use them. I just put them in a bowl in the fridge or on the counter to thaw out until I’m ready to use them.
The advantage to using frozen strawberries is that they can be cheaper and they last longer than fresh strawberries.
How to Make Strawberry Puree for Drinks
It’s really simple to make strawberry puree that’s great for use in smoothies and milkshakes. You need to hold the strawberries, which just means taking off the green leafy bit. I usually slice off any green extremities on the strawberries as well since those can be a little tough and not as flavorful as the rest of the strawberry.
Then, I wash the strawberries thoroughly in running water. Next, I put the strawberries into a blender. There is no need to chop up the strawberries, as your blender should be strong enough to puree them whole.
You can remove the seeds if you want, and I would do that for a milkshake but probably not for a smoothie. To get rid of the seeds , you can run the strawberry puree through a strainer.
If I’m serving the strawberry puree to kids in a drink, I usually do take out the seeds since they don’t care for them. I think that’s also important for when you want to know how to make strawberry puree for babies. It’s better off to leave the seeds out in those cases.
How to Make Sweetened Strawberry Puree
What do you do if you want to make you puree sweeter? Just about any kind of sweetener will work, but I prefer white sugar and no-calorie sugar substitutes like Splenda. Brown sugar works okay as well, but it can affect the color of your strawberry puree.
Other sweeteners, like honey or agave syrup, may be healthier, but they can seriously affect the flavor and may make the puree taste different from what you would prefer.
How much sugar should you use to sweeten your strawberry puree? You don’t want to make it too sweet, and you don’t want to mix up your puree and then find out that it doesn’t taste as sweet as you would like.
You may not be someone who cares to taste test your food as you make it to see if it needs more or less sugar. So, I will share with you my ratio for sugar to strawberries that works really well for me.
For a 20-ounce package of strawberries, I use 3/4 of a cup of white sugar. This gives me a really good ratio of sugar to strawberries that makes for a sweet strawberry puree.
You can add in a dash of lemon juice as well for a little extra flavor. Just like the recipe I gave you above, you can throw all this into your blender and set it to the puree setting and it will work just fine to make smooth strawberry puree.
How to Make Strawberry Puree for Cake
Do you need to do anything with your strawberry puree recipe to make it ideal for cakes? You can use just plain strawberries and throw them in your blender to make a strawberry puree that works for cakes.
You may prefer to take out the seeds or to add a little sugar for sweetening, however. Consider how much sugar your cake recipe calls for before you add any sugar to the strawberry puree mixture. You probably don’t want your cake to be too sweet.
How to make strawberry puree for cakes that is smooth rather than chunky? You should check your puree carefully once it is finished, mixing it with a spoon and checking for chunks.
There shouldn’t be pieces of strawberry left in your puree when you get ready to mix it into a cake. Just sift through the entire puree slowly looking closely for any chunks that might be left. If you find some, just dump the entire strawberry puree into the blender again and set to puree. Keep blending until your mixture is entirely smooth.
If you want to make a smoothie from strawberry puree, you can add in some other berries or whatever different flavorings that appeal to you. I like mine with blueberries and raspberries, as well as some lemon juice for a little zing.
