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STRAWBERRY REDUCTION -Concentrated Strawberry Puree For Baking

Square Overhead photo of small bowl of red strawberry puree and measuring cup of pink strawberry buttercream and strawberries on a white table.
Welcome to a lesson on making aconcentrated strawberry puree (strawberry reduction), that can be used in your baking. Apply the same basic technique for any fruit/vegetable puree, & take your baking skills up a notch. Add to buttercream for a great taste & also natural, food-safe colourant.
Caro @ Caroline's Easy Baking Lessons
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 55 minutes
Cooling & Chilling 45 minutes
Total Time 2 hours
Serving Size 6 servings*

Equipment

  • Scales or measuring cups (optional)
  • Knife and chopping board
  • Tablespoon (optional)
  • Medium sized cooking pot
  • Wooden spoon
  • Bowl for blending
  • Blender, stick blender, food processor
  • Cling film/plastic wrap

Ingredients

  • 678 grams Strawberries (24 oz, 1½ lb after hulling and trimming - see notes*)
  • 3 tbsp Sugar (I used granulated, but any sugar like brown, caster/super fine, fruit sugar, coconut sugar. Not sweetener)
  • Water (You might need 1 or 2 tbsp water, see recipe)

Instructions

Prepare The Strawberries

  • Make sure your strawberries, or whatever fruit(s) you are using, are cleaned properly. For berries in particular, I wash in water with white vinegar. See my tips above the recipe for how to keep fruit longer. For this puree, we just need to clean well, no drying required.
    Large clear tub of halved strawberries - photo 1.
  • Now prepare your strawberries, by hulling the tops, & removing any bad bits. Then cut the strawberries in half, or more if quite large. You want them all to be cut to about the same general size. See Photo 1 above.
  • Once that is done, either weigh out how much strawberries you have ready to puree, or use measuring cups. Note that measuring cups are not as accurate an amount because it is volume and depends on the size the fruit is cut into. But if you know how much you had in ounces before cutting, you should have a rough idea, and know how much sugar to add. Note this is not for a particularly sweet puree & depends on the strawberries you have and personal taste. Sugar does help preserve the puree.
    Collage of 2 photos showing chopped bright red strawberries in cooking poton stove and after a minute cooking - photo 3.

Cook The Strawberries

  • Add the strawberries to your cooking pot and mix in a little water. You don't want to add too much water at this stage. You may have noticed before that uncooked strawberries, while cooking in a pie, give off quite a lot of liquid. Let the strawberries start to cook on a medium heat to begin with, until the strawberries have become a little less dry. Mix a few times during this period, just to make sure nothing is too dry or sticking to your pot. See Photo 2 above.
    Collage of cooking pot and strawberries getting slightly smaller and softer & with more liquid - photo 3.
  • Increase the heat to high or med-high, and let the strawberries start to come to a boil. The strawberries should look a little softer, and there should be a lot of moisture given off by this stage. (See Photo 3 above). Reduce the heat to med-low and let simmer until the strawberries are quite soft, and there will have been a change in the shade of red - being less vibrant. (See Photo 4 below or video for reference).
    Collage of strawberrie sin cooking pot even smaller and softer and now a less vibrant red colour - photo 4.

Blend Cooked Strawberries

  • Remove the cooked strawberries, including the juice & place in another bowl, before blending (processing, liquidizing or blitzing, using whatever you have). Be careful when blending hot food. You should have a relatively thin liquid mixture now. See Photo 5 below - a before and after pic.
    Before and after photo collage of cooked syrawberry pieces & after blending to a red liquid - photo 5.

Cook Down The Puree

  • Return the strawberry puree to the cooking pot, and add in the sugar, & bring to a boil. (*** Be sure to cover the area around the stove, particularly anywhere you don't want to stain red. As I always find using an immersion blender & hot food, always ends with the mixture bubbling a lot & trying to splash up & out the pan.) You do want at least 5 or 10 minutes of a vigorous boil to help with reducing to a concentrated puree. See Photo 6 below.
    $ photo collage of adding sugar to pan of blended cooked strawberries, boiling and reducing to deeper red - photo 6.
  • Reduce the heat & let the mixture simmer and reduce by at least half. The red of strawberries (a very deep shade), on my light green pot, makes it very clear where the initial level was. You can mix the puree every so often during the simmering, as well as check the thickness by pouring off a wooden spoon & testing the thickness on the back of the spoon. To test, run the end of a teaspoon along the back of the puree covered wooden spoon to make a line. Once thick enough the line itself will be relatively clear to see, as well as seeing the thickness of the puree that runs parallel to the line. Checking at the beginning of concentrating the puree, the line will be a lot less defined. (See Photos 7 & 8 below & the video for reference).
    Two photo collage of the strawberry puree thickening and darkening and pointing to level reducing on sid eof cooking pan - photo 7.
  • In Photo 7 above you will also see how the thickened puree is sticking to the sides of the pan as it reduces. The thickened puree will also be a much deeper red, almost mahogany, & not a letterbox red colour anymore. (Compare Photos 5 & 6 with Photo 7). If you want to concentrate the puree even further, go ahead and let it reduce more.
    Collage of photo of red thick strawberry puree on the back of a wooden spoon with a line donw th emiddle showing thickness, and when removed form pot to bowl - photo 8.

Cool & Store

  • Transfer the puree to a bowl of container and allow to cool for 10 -15 minutes before moving to the fridge to cool down completely. (Remember to be careful of splashing, I won't be held accountable for any red stains :) See Photo 8 above). The strawberry puree will thicken further on cooling, especially after being in the fridge.
    Photo above bowls of powdered sugar, butter cubes and deep dark red strawberry puree with title use in buttercream - photo 9.
  • Store the puree in an airtight container, in the fridge for up to 5 days. Or freeze for 3 - 6 months**

Freezing & Defrosting

  • Freeze strawberry puree reduction in a suitable airtight container (label & date it & even weigh or measure beforehand so you know how much you have). You can also store small portions of the puree in ice cube trays. Shapes & sizes vary, but you would get about 1 tbsp in a standard sized ice cube tray. Remember to not completely fill & leave a very tiny gap at the top as it will expand ever so slightly, on freezing. This would be ideal for adding small amounts of puree to buttercream etc. Cooked fruit puree, can be used up 3 - 6 months after freezing**
  • Defrost frozen strawberry puree in the fridge for a few hours, but for very small amounts or ice cube sized, it will defrost much quicker.

Uses For Strawberry Puree Reduction

  • Can be used for so many different things - here are just a few examples. Simply drizzle the puree on top of ice-cream or overnight oats (see below). Add to buttercream to make the lovely baby pink coloured buttercream as shown in the pics. Add to homemade ice-cream or frozen yoghurt before freezing into the mixture. Add to the inside of cupcakes, or in poke cakes or use to draw fancy patterns on a dessert plate if you like :) Perfect for weaning babies, or for those on a liquid or soft food diet.
    $ photo collage of looking down on glass of overnight oats with a layer of thick concentrated strawberry puree on top and how it looks on the spoon.

Video

Notes

*Recipe serving based on 4tbsp/58g/2oz portions
**You can print recipe with/without the photos or notes.Overhead shot of white table and strawberries, measuring cup of red strawberry puree and pink buttercream.
 
Strawberries - started off with 892g/31½ oz/2lb,  on sale because of sell-by date and I hulled & trimmed off any bad/bashed spots.
You do not need to use the same amount of strawberries as I did.  The process is the same & you only add a very small amount of sugar. 
White bowl of deep red strawberry puree with strawberries to the background & titled concentrated puree lesson.So as a ratio, you could say about:
1 tbsp sugar to every 8 oz/½lb/226g of prepared strawberries as a base line.  And then increase accordingly.
Recipe Yield - about 1.5 cups/350g/12 oz
Water - you might need 1 or 2 tbsp of water when you are first cooking the chopped strawberries.
 
Use in buttercream, as a cake filling, in meringue desserts, over yoghurt or oats.
** Chilling & freezing references from Freezeit.co.uk  For more information on freezing my concentrated strawberry puree, click to go to their Freezing Strawberry Puree Page.
My process is different, as this is a concentrated strawberry puree, in order to get as much flavour into whatever you intend using the puree for.  Ideal for buttercream in terms of extra flavour, but also as a natural food colourant that will be even deeper on concentrating the fruit puree.
Gluten Free, Halal, Alcohol-free, Vegan etc (be sure to check the sugar is Vegan approved). 
Wholemeal banana bread muffin with caramel sauce and hints and tips logo.About The Baking Lessons - This is a practical lesson, from Caroline's Easy Baking Lessons website.  The site offers structured theory, sweet & savoury lessons & very comprehensive recipes/tutorials for beginner bakers.  Site also includes fondant for beginners, recipe reviews & lots of useful baking info.  Go to my popular article Conversion Table For Common Baking Ingredients.  All hand measured by myself, during recipe development.  All recipes, lessons & reviews, include the measurements in grams, ounces & cups as standard. 
Click to go to the site - Caroline's Easy Baking Lessons.
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**Nutritional calculations calculated via Whisk.com, approximate calculations & not based on personal nutritional evaluation of the ingredients.  Also note these values may decrease on cooking/reducing.
Nutrition Facts
STRAWBERRY REDUCTION -Concentrated Strawberry Puree For Baking
Serving Size
 
4 tbsp
Amount per Serving
Calories
59.2
% Daily Value*
Fat
 
0.24
g
0
%
Saturated Fat
 
0.02
g
0
%
Polyunsaturated Fat
 
0.17
g
Monounsaturated Fat
 
0.05
g
Sodium
 
2.81
mg
0
%
Potassium
 
167
mg
5
%
Carbohydrates
 
14.6
g
5
%
Fiber
 
2.17
g
9
%
Sugar
 
11.5
g
13
%
Protein
 
0.73
g
1
%
Vitamin A
 
3.9
IU
0
%
Vitamin C
 
63.79
mg
77
%
Calcium
 
27.42
mg
3
%
Iron
 
0.45
mg
3
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.