It’s strawberry season! Strawberries are one of my favorite fruits. I love to use them all year round. Since the season is so short, I like to make strawberry puree to preserve them for later use. This week I’m making a whole batch of puree.
Making puree is a great way to store strawberries for upcoming cakes or for next winter. What’s the difference between puree and jam? The fruit is only cooked very briefly, so it keeps a fresh taste. I also only use half the sugar than for strawberry jam or jelly.
Because less sugar is used, the puree doesn’t have such a long shelf life at room temperature. But it freezes really well and keeps in the freezer for several months. I usually freeze it in small batches so I can just take what I need.
What can you use strawberry puree for?
- To flavor Swiss Meringue Buttercream or American Buttercream (recipes in English coming soon)
- Bake strawberry cake
- As a light jam
- Great ingredient for smoothies
- As a müesli topper
- To flavor your plain yoghurt
- … for many other desserts
How to make homemade strawberry puree
The detailed recipe for printing is below! You can use as many strawberries as you like. Wash them, dry them and hull them. Then cut into quarters.
Place the berries in a large saucepan and cover with jam sugar. (Jam sugar contains the natural gelling agent pectin – this prevents our strawberry puree from being too liquid).
Bring to berries to a swift boil and let them simmer on medium-high for no longer than 5 minutes.
Puree your strawberries using a stick blender. Optional: You can flavor your puree with vanilla extract and, or rosewater (a trick I learned from Bravetart!).
Fill your puree into tupperwares (for freezing) or into sterilized canning jars (for the fridge). Let cool completely before placing in a cooling device.
This is the full recipe:
Strawberry puree by Minh Cakes
Ingredients
- 500 g strawberries
- 250 g jam sugar (with pectin)
- Optional: 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Optional: 1 tsp rose water
Preparation
Wash and dry the strawberries, then hull them and cut into quarters. Place in a saucepan with the jam sugar and bring to a boil. Cook for 5 minutes, then remove from the heat and let cool for 10 minutes. Stir in the extracts, if using. Blend with a stick mixer blender or regular blender. Fill into tupperwares or sterilized canning jars.
Uses:
- To flavor Swiss Meringue Buttercream or American Buttercream
- Bake strawberry cake
- As a light jam
- Great ingredient for smoothies
- As a müesli topper
- To flavor your plain yoghurt
- … for many other desserts
Have fun pureeing! As always, please leave your questions in the comments.
Love,
Hi, what can I use in place of the Jam sugar? Can I use ordinary sugar?
Hi Merril, thanks for writing! Yes you can use regular sugar, but it won’t thicken as much. You can also add a teaspoon or so of corn starch to help with the thickening (just dilute it in cold water before adding to the cooking fruit). Happy puree-ing! Love, XM