Take a simple strawberry, add a little heat, and wham you have a roasted strawberry. This seems simple enough, like maybe I shouldn’t be dedicating a whole post to a roasted strawberry.
Greater than the sum of its parts, a roasted strawberry isn’t just another way to describe a cooked berry.
Roasting fruit is a great way to intensify flavors, use up fruit that is past its prime (hello day 5 fridge berries, I didn’t see you there!), or a way to take advantage of a shoulder season basket of strawberries that you came across at your weekly farmer’s market.
How to Roast a Strawberry
Roasting strawberries is pretty simple. Slice the berries, toss them with a touch of sugar or syrup, arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet, and roast at 400°F for 30-45 minutes, stirring halfway. Once cooled, they are best stored in a lidded glass jar, for 5 days in the fridge, or up to 3 months in the freezer.
What happens in those roasty 30 minutes? The water evaporates, the sugars caramelize, the fruit cooks down into jammy lumps,, and a fantastically sticky, deep red sauce develops.
So, you roasted a strawberry. Now what?
You could use it like jam and spread it on your scone or toast. Make a ridiculous PB&RB (peanut butter and roasted berry sandwich). Spoon some over your pancakes. Use it in between cake layers, or whip some into your Swiss meringue buttercream (recipes below, eh hem).
Let’s go beyond the obvious uses…
If we added some herbs and spices to the berries during the roast - like a few sprigs of basil, mint, or cracked black pepper we could make this into a charcuterie board winner!
Roasted strawberries are practically best friends with cream cheese, crème fraîche, and balsamic vinegar - building a fancy toast for brunch seems like a good idea.
Last idea, promise — Liven up your afternoon delight by adding roasted strawberries to your iced-tea or matcha.
Be right back, I need an iced matcha with roasted berries stat.
How did I get here?
I ended up with 3 flats of very ripe strawberries from our friends at Santa Cruz permaculture. The berries needed to be used right away, and I didn’t have a use for that much jam, so I roasted them. Then, I built a whole cake to highlight them.
The result was a roasted strawberry tall cake, with roasted berries in the middle and on top.
This is the cake we served at the annual Feast in the Fields Dinner at Live Earth Farms Farm Discovery dinner. Not too sweet, beautifully balanced and full of flavor carrying notes of sweet cream, caramelized sugar, and roasted berry.
My recipes for the butter cake, vanilla meringue, and the roasted berries (in case you missed that part) are below.
A few quick things before we get started:
Working with a kitchen scale and thermometer will give you the best chances for success! If you don’t have a scale yet, this one is my trusted sidekick at home. For thermometers, choose a digital & quick reading one.
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