In this Post: Candy is Magic: Roasted Strawberries and How to Use Them

Taking my cues from the Candy is Magic cookbook by Quin Candy’s Jami Curl, I’m sharing these lusciously delicious (de-luscious?) Roasted Strawberries with Lemon today. Quin Candy was a beloved Portland-based candy wonderland, that has now closed. But! Preserving their legacy and favorite flavors through the recipes in this incredibly fun and cool book is a wonderful gift to us all. Here, I’m so happy to share Jami’s method for creating perfect, wildly flavorful roasted strawberries along with her ideas/suggestions as to how to go about using them up in the most delightful ways possible.

One of those ways, the Roasted Fruit Whipped Cream, is particularly fetching to me, and I’ve demonstrated my personal favorite way to use it here – on a classic angel food cake. I have and typically use a great recipe for angel food cake, that was my great aunt’s, but I actually think this gussied up fruited whipped cream is a fantastic way to jazz up a store-bought cake for a quick-fix, yet still very memorable, dessert.

Jamie also shares recipes for other fun (and delectable) ways to utilize your roasted fruit purees and syrups, offering an easy and straightforward method for Roasted Strawberry Simple Syrup that can be used in sodas and cream sodas, flavored milks, sweet and fruity iced teas, lemonade, mixed drinks (like a strawberry bubbly or Bellini), milk shakes “and any other beverage you can imagine.

From the book, Candy is Magic:

“

Roasting fruit intensifies flavor, reduces water content, and results in a silky smooth, intensely flavorful puree good for a multitude of uses. Quality frozen fruit is a good stand-in for fresh fruit, especially if you simply must make cherry lollipops in the middle of winter. Every fruit that follows (fresh or frozen) is roasted at 375 degrees F. This temperature is hot enough for the water in the fruit to evaporate quickly (which intensifies flavor) but not so hot that the fruit takes on too much color or begins to burn. For the roasting vessel, I prefer a 9 by13-inch pan. The sides must be tall enough to trap the precious juices released by the fruit. Because different batches of fruit vary in juiciness, the roasting times in the recipes are approximate As long as you hit the minimum time indicated, the fruit will be fine.

Once the fruit is roasted, the next step is to puree it until it’s velvety smooth. All of the purees can be used right away, or they can be refrigerated in an airtight container. They also freeze beautifully in freezer-safe jars or ziplock bags. When it comes time to prepare a recipe, simply scoop out of chisel off the amount of puree you need and pop the rest back into the fridge or freezer.

I’m in love with these fruit purees because they can do so much. Once you’ve got these recipes handled, they can be used to make recipes found in later chapters. There are lollipops snd other hard candies, caramels, flavored milks, whipped creams, ice creams, gummy candies, and more – all of them relying on these roasted fruit purees as their foundation. – Jami Curl, Candy is Magic

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Roasted Strawberries with Lemon

Recipe from Candy is Magic by Jami Curl

Ingredients

• 3 pints strawberries hulled
• 45 grams fresh lemon juice about 3/8 cup
• 1 vanilla bean split and scraped
• 227 grams granulated sugar about 2/3 cup

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Spread out the strawberries in a 9 by 13-inch pan and sprinkle the lemon juice evenly over the top. Nestle the vanilla bean and scrapings in the berries, the shower the sugar over everything.
3. Slide the pan into the oven and roast the berries for 55 to 65 minutes, rotating the pan if you start to notice one side of the berries getting darker than the other. As the berries roast, they will release a great deal of moisture, so take care when opening the oven, as the steam will be hot. The berries are ready when the tops that are peeking out of the juices are visibly darker than the rest of the berry. There will be a good bit of juice in the pan, and that’s perfectly fine.
4. Remove the pan from the oven and allow the contents to cool slightly. Once cool enough to handle, pluck out the vanilla bean. Pour the contents of the pan into a strainer placed over a bowl. Spoon the strawberries into a blender. Next use a scale to wright out 100 grams of the reserved juice and add it to the blender with the berries. Whirl the berries and juice on high speed for about 1 minute, until velvety smooth.
5. The puree is now ready to use, or it can be refrigerated for up to 1 week or frozen for up to 6 months.

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Roasted Fruit Whipped Cream

This fruity whipped cream can be used for any dessert in which you’d use whipped cream. It’s especially good between layers of vanilla cake that are nestled into some sort of trifle with fresh fruit. But let’s be honest, it’d be just as good heaped on a milk shake or served with a bowl of summer blueberries.

Course Dessert

Ingredients

• 8 fluid ounces heavy whipped cream
• Heaping 2 tablespoons roasted strawberry puree
• 1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar

Instructions

1. Chill the bowl of your stand mixer and fit the mixer with the whisk attachment, or ready a chilled bowl on a damp kitchen towel and grab your favorite whisk. Pour the cream into the chilled bowl. If using a mixer, start it on low speed and add the berry puree and brown sugar. Increase the speed to medium and whip the cream until it holds a peak. If using a bowl and whisk, add the cream to the bowl followed by the cherry puree and brown sugar. Using as much stamina as you can muster, whip the cream until it holds a peak. With either method, don’t take it too far or you’ll be on your way to berry butter. Use immediately.