Valentine's Day Strawberry Cream Popsicles - Home Sweet Recipes (2024)

FAQs

How to sweeten berries without sugar? ›

No extra sugar needed with this method — just crank up the oven to increase the sweetness of bland berries. Roasting strawberries in a 350°F oven for about 20 minutes works to concentrate the natural sugar in the fruit, leaving it with a heightened sweetness, deep, rich flavor, and slightly softened texture.

Toss them in sugar, honey, or maple syrup, along with a little fresh juice or alcohol (an herbal liqueur, like elderflower spirit, would be great). You don't need a lot to get the berries rocking; a quarter- to a half-cup of juice or booze, and about double the amount of sugar, is all you need.

A mixture of vinegar and water can destroy harmful bacteria and kill off mold spores on the strawberries. Vinegar gives berries a thorough cleaning and can get rid of any dirt or little bugs that may be on them. Soaking your berries in vinegar won't affect how they taste.

The taste difference is marginal at best so if you're desperate for a sprinkling of sugar over your strawberries, Stevia is the healthier option. If you're looking for something that's easier to mix into a bowl, agave syrup is another naturally-occurring and tasty alternative that will sweeten strawberries.

Adding spices can enhance the taste of food. Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, allspice, mace, cardamom and star anise are commonly associated with sweetness. These spices are often used in baked goods and pair especially well with fruit dishes. Vanilla extract can also make food seem sweeter, perhaps due to its aroma.

Add a little sugar and salt! Wash your strawberries, cut them, and hit them with a pinch of salt and a couple good three-finger pinches of granulated sugar, give them a little tossy-toss, and watch them magically start to darken and get extra juicy.

Macerate them

This is the best way to intensify the flavour of your strawberries. By tossing them in sugar (be it white, brown or – for a real treat – sugar infused with a vanilla pod) and leaving them to sit for a while, you not only get juicier, sweeter berries but you're also left with a natural syrup to drizzle.

Frozen strawberries are picked at the peak of ripeness, at the perfect moment, so they have time to develop more sugar. This means that regardless of the season, you're guaranteed a burst of strawberry goodness in every sip of your smoothie. No more disappointingly bland berries that leave you wanting more.

What pairs with strawberries? ›

Strawberry's subtle sweetness pairs extremely well with the effervescence of herbs such as mint and basil in foods like ice cream. Chocolate's bitterness makes it a perfect partner for strawberries in baked goods like chocolate strawberry bark or bars.

A moldy strawberry should be thrown out. If a berry is just bruised but does not show any signs of mold, the bruised part can be trimmed away. If you accidentally eat a moldy strawberry, you'll know because moldy strawberries will have an off-flavor that is a bit sour and acidic and may remind you of blue cheese.

Macerating fruit simply means to soften or steep it. It might sound fancy, but the process is really quite simple: Macerating typically involves adding sugar and often a liquid (like fruit juice or liquor) to fruit, and letting it all marinate until the fruit is soft or more tender.

Add a little sugar and salt! Wash your strawberries, cut them, and hit them with a pinch of salt and a couple good three-finger pinches of granulated sugar, give them a little tossy-toss, and watch them magically start to darken and get extra juicy.

Strawberries perform best in well-drained, fertile, and slightly acidic soils. In fact, these plants tend to yield more and are sweeter when grown in compost-enriched, sandy soil. Planting strawberries in raised beds is also a good idea, as this (along with adequate soil) ensures for better drainage.

Our appreciation of flavour comes from both taste and smell—sweetness often arises from the amount of dissolved glucose or fructose in the fruit, and a unique aroma comes from volatile compounds known as esters and terpenes.