Strawberry Sugar (With Video & Vegan Strawberry Sugar Option)

This strawberry sugar is sweet, tart, and full of real strawberry flavor! It’s the only strawberry sugar recipe you’ll ever need. With just 2 ingredients (freeze-dried strawberries and granulated sugar), this is one of my favorite flavored sugars to make.

 It’s ideal for adding summer strawberry flavor to strawberry recipes year-round like triple strawberry cupcakes,  strawberry cheesecake, strawberry-rhubarb fried pies, Italian strawberry crostata, and strawberry cannoli — you name it! Watch the How to Make Strawberry Sugar Video below to see just how easy this flavored sugar is to make!

What is Strawberry Sugar?

Strawberry with sugar is a tasty combination! And great news, you only need two ingredients to make this homemade strawberry sugar: unsweetened freeze-dried strawberries and granulated sugar.

I’ve been making this strawberry-flavored sugar for the better part of a decade now simply adjusting the amount of strawberries depending on how I plan to use the flavored sugar (keep reading to learn how to customize homemade strawberry sugar).

If you love flavored sugars and strawberries as much as I do you might also want to check out these recipes for Homemade Sicilian Lemon Sugar, Sicilian Blood Orange Sugar (Italian Sunshine in a Jar), Strawberry Butter, 30-Minute No-Pectin Strawberry Jam, and Easy Strawberry Cheesecake with Biscoff Crust.

Best Strawberries to Use For Homemade Strawberry Sugar

Unless you’re working with a summer berry recipe that specifically calls for adding whole, sliced, puréed strawberries, or strawberry jam, it can be tough to get the pure essence of strawberry flavor packed into a recipe without adding extra liquid (or using strawberry extract that is often artificially flavored and often taste as much). Until now!

Injecting natural strawberry flavor into recipes (especially baked desserts where chemistry matters) is not as simple as adding pure vanilla extract, orange essence, or even lemon flavor to your baked goods. This is because strawberries are full of water which can cause serious baking issues if used the wrong way.

This is where freeze-dried strawberries save the day. For this super easy strawberry sugar recipe, we’re using 100% freeze-dried strawberries.

By infusing granulated or powdered sugar with freeze-dried strawberry powder you can add strawberry essence to so many more things without compromising the recipe with artificial ingredients, or flavors, or by adding extra liquid (fresh strawberry juice in this case) that can ruin a recipe.

Strawberry Sugar Ingredients (Summer Berries All Year-Round)

While you can easily buy gourmet strawberry sugar online or from niche food shops, but there’s no need to when you can spend way less and make your own strawberry sugar from scratch.

It takes 5 minutes, uses 2 ingredients, and you get to decide how intense the strawberry flavor and color of your strawberry sugar is when you make it from scratch.  PS...This strawberry-flavored sugar is also a perfect way to sweeten a cocktail, rim a margarita glass, or make the best strawberry butter (see below). You will find the full ingredient measurements in the recipe card below.

• granulated sugar
• 100% natural unsweetened freeze-dried strawberries

How to Make Strawberry Sugar — Measure, Pulse, Scoop, and Seal. 

Making strawberry sugar takes just about 30 seconds in a food processor! I like to process the sugar and the strawberries at the same time because the sugar helps cut the strawberries along with the blade making the whole process quick. But you can process the strawberries into a powder first, then add the sugar and whisk if you’d like. You can find the full instructions in the recipe card below.

1. Process the sugar and freeze-dried strawberries until combined. 

Try other flavored sugars like: lemon sugar, vanilla bean sugar, orange sugar, cinnamon sugar, and even matcha sugar!

How To Store Strawberry Sugar (or any Flavored Sugars)

Store strawberry sugar in a glass jar or other airtight container at room temperature in a cool, dry cupboard for up to 1 year. I like to make smaller batches so it stays fresher for longer. When flavored sugars have been stored for a while, you may need to stir them with a fork to break up the mixture before using them in your baked goods.

Strawberry Sugar Storage Pro-Tip:

Add a small food-safe silica packet to the bottom of the jar to help keep the strawberry sugar dry. Usually, there is one of these already in the package of freeze-dried strawberries. Don’t throw it away. Instead, add it to the bottom of your strawberry sugar jar.

How to Customize Strawberry Sugar

Depending on whether you want a subtle light pink strawberry sugar or a Jem and the Hologram’s style (super intense hot pink) strawberry sugar it’s easy to adjust using the following guidelines:

• For an even more intense strawberry flavor and deeper pink color, increase the amount of freeze-dried strawberries to 1 1/2 cups (40g) per 1 cup (200g) of sugar.
• For a less intense strawberry flavor and lighter pink color, decrease the freeze-dried strawberries to 1/4 cup (6g) or 1/2 cup (12g) total for every 1 cup (200g) of sugar.
• If for some reason you have any larger pieces of strawberries that don’t turn to powder, you can use a fine mesh sieve to separate out these larger pieces before storing the flavored sugar. This will probably only happen if you’re manually crushing the freeze-dried strawberries.

Light strawberry sugar is perfect for recipes like coating fried pies or homemade cronuts, making strawberry sugar cookies,  THE best strawberry scones, and so much more!  See above photos that show 3 different strawberry sugars each customized using different ratios of strawberries-to-sugar, so you can decide which strawberry sugar you want to make.

 

Strawberry Sugar Equipment: (3 Ways to Make Strawberry Sugar Without a Food Processor)

The easiest way to turn crunchy Freeze-dried strawberries into a fine powder is to process them for 30 seconds or more in a food processor. However, if you don’t own a food processor, you can try these DIY solutions to crush freeze-dried fruit:

• Use a Vitamix dry blade carafe to turn the freeze-dried fruit into a fine powder and then combine it with the sugar.
• Use a rolling pin and a freezer bag to crush the freeze-dried strawberries together with the sugar until you reach the desired consistency.
• Use a spice grinder to crush the strawberries which is effective, but takes much longer to get the strawberry powder because it doesn’t hold as much.

How to Make Powdered Strawberry Sugar

If you want to make powdered strawberry sugar, substitute powdered sugar for granulated sugar in this recipe. Or, like in the above photo, you can add some of the regular granulated strawberry sugar to the desired amount of powdered sugar and whisk to combine. Use it to make a strawberry powdered sugar glaze for your next cinnamon rolls or strawberry rolls!

If you want to make another flavored powdered sugar recipe, try freeze-dried blueberries, raspberries, or even mangoes which all make delicious flavored sugar. 

How to Make Vegan Strawberry Sugar

If you want to make vegan strawberry sugar, you’ll need to substitute the granulated sugar in this recipe with coconut sugar which has not been processed using bone char (as white sugar typically is). You can read more about this in the FAQ section below.

HOW TO USE STRAWBERRY SUGAR

The uses for strawberry sugar are endless! Use it to replace the sugar in baked desserts like cakes and cupcakes, add it to filled desserts like strawberry shortcake or cannoli cream, and use it to sweeten dessert toppings like strawberry whipped cream, strawberry cheese frosting, or strawberry buttercream!  It’s even perfect for rolling your cookies in, or to sweeten hot beverages, or making pink lemonade.

Strawberry sugar also makes a great food gift for Galentine’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter, 4th of July, and even Christmas!

Here are a few of our favorite strawberry dessert recipes to let this ingredient shine (see photos above).

• strawberry cannoli
• strawberry-lemon sugar cookies
• strawberry cheesecake crostata
• strawberry-rhubarb fried pies (strawberry had pies)
• double strawberry cheesecake
• all-natural strawberry scones
• 30-minute no-pectin strawberry jam
• Italian strawberry crostata (Crostata di Marmellata di Fragole)

Freeze-Dried Strawberries Tips & FAQ’s

Can I use fresh strawberries to make strawberry sugar? No, this recipe is made with freeze-dried strawberries which have had the water removed. Fresh strawberries have too much water.

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Can I use dehydrated strawberries instead? Dehydrated and oven-dried strawberries cannot be used to make strawberry sugar because they contain too much water as you can see from the photo below.

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Is this strawberry sugar recipe vegan? I’ve used granulated sugar for this recipe which some vegans consider acceptable, but for strict vegans, you must instead use vegan-friendly raw cane sugar, certified organic cane sugar, or sugar made from 100% beets. Why is this?

Because refined sugars made from sugar cane are often processed with bone char to achieve their clear white color making them unacceptable for a strict vegan diet. Some brown sugar (those with molasses) also use the bone char processing method and should be avoided when making vegan strawberry sugar.

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Are freeze-dried strawberries healthy? Yes, 100% natural freeze-dried strawberries are very good for you. They hold up to 90% of their original nutritional content throughout the freeze-drying process. This means you can still get your Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and fiber on the go!  Just be sure to purchase freeze-dried strawberries without added sugars or preservatives.  Freeze-dried strawberries are also great for helping regulate blood sugar, and like other berries, they have immune-boosting properties.

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Are freeze-dried strawberries real strawberries? Yes, freeze-dried strawberries are 100% real strawberries that have simply undergone the freeze-drying process to remove the water which makes them very crispy and light as air.

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How much sugar is in strawberries? The average amount of sugar in strawberries varies by size, but surprisingly they’re pretty low in sugar given how sweet and tasty they are. According to the USDA, 1 cup of sliced strawberries (166g) has 8.12 grams of sugar. Whereas 1 cup of whole strawberries (144g) has around 7.04 grams of sugar.

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Are dehydrated strawberries the same as freeze-dried strawberries? No. Dehydrated strawberries are usually moist and chewy because they contain more water. On the other hand, freeze-dried fruit (including strawberries) is crunchy and crisp and contains much less water making it ideal for long-term storage and weighs less than dehydrated fruit.

You might also love this delicious Triple Strawberry cake recipe! It makes the best strawberry cupcakes with strawberry sugar whipped cream and strawberry coulis!

Let’s get started!

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