January 28, 2013 by Felissa Elfenbein
A perfect treat to share with your dogs
Strawberry Recipe {Oven Dried Strawberries}
Looking for a strawberry recipe your entire family can enjoy. Perfect for gluten free, dairy free, egg free and sugar free diets. The only ingredients are fresh strawberries and a pinch of salt.
Author: Two Little Cavaliers
Cuisine:American
Recipe type:Snack
Ingredients
- 1lb fresh Strawberries
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
- Wash and clean fresh strawberries.
- Peel off the leafy part.
- Cut away the stem and white top of the fruit.
- Cut strawberries in half.
- Lay fleshy side up on oven tray leaving space between them in case juice leaks out.
- Sprinkle with salt.
- Turn oven down to keep warm setting.
- Place trays of strawberries in oven.
- Set timer for 30 minutes. When timer goes off open oven to check on the strawberries. (You want to allow air into the oven to circulate the heat.) unless you have a convection oven then you can just turn on the fan and set your timer for the full amount.)
- After an hour and a half flip strawberries over and cook for another hour and a half opening the oven every half hour.
- Once the strawberries are dried take them out of the oven and place on a cooling rack.
Notes
Do not try to speed along the process or cook too many strawberries on a tray. You need to cook these strawberries long and slow or they will burn and be a sticky mess. Makes sure to open your oven once every half hour and push air all the way inside. Your strawberries need to breathe while cooking for best results.
Strawberry for dogs? Yes dogs can eat strawberries. In fact they are healthy for your dog because they contain antioxidants, vitamin C and an enzyme that helps keep tartar off of their teeth. So don’t feel bad if before your make this Strawberry Recipe you slip a few cut up pieces to your dog or keep a strawberry out of the oven to share. Just like with anything else some of the good qualities of the fruit will disappear with cooking. However you are cooking this at such a low temperature you will still be left with a lot of the original vitamins and minerals.Once cooked this Strawberry recipe makes a great training treat.It is a little difficult to use something full of juice to work on your dogs sit stays if there is strawberry juice pouring down their mouths but this way you don’t have to worry.
They also make a great snack or dessert for you and your guests. First they are really healthy. Second they taste like candy without any added sugar, food coloring, or additives. Fresh strawberry plus a pinch of salt put in the oven and slow cooked.
What else is this strawberry recipe good for? How about used as a part of a Vinaigrette dressing? Or as a mix in to your favorite vanilla ice cream? You can add these Oven Dried Strawberries to your grilled salad for a touch of sweet taste without the fat and sugar of candied nuts. You can even add them to your favorite muffin or cookie recipe. The sky is the limit with these!
Place on tray and sprinkle with salt. Place cut fleshy side up to start with.
Flip over halfway through and open oven occasionally to circulate the heat.
What not to do:
Do not start cooking these with the fleshy part down. Not only will it take forever to dry but they will be sitting in a pool of strawberry juice. You want the juice to cook into the fruit not come out of it.
If your strawberries are very large you might want to cut them into quarters so that they do not take as long to cook. Just because your strawberry is large and juicy do not turn the oven temperature up. It will burn the strawberry.
Make sure to cut the stem and white part away. The stem will burn and create a not great smell and the white part is not juicy and so will not add flavor to your treat.
A few notes:
These taste nothing at all like a Twizzler. Nothing considering I haven’t had a single bite of one in years because they have wheat in them and I am allergic so something even remotely similar would be awesome. While they do not taste like the fresh raw fruit they do taste a little sour. My thinking is that because it really is not strawberry season while they looked fresh and delicious they probably were not awesome.
I would let the strawberries sit in water before you begin the process of taking off the green tops and cutting off the white parts. I would also scrub them gently with the rough part of a sponge to try and get rid of some of the seeds which when cooked are a bit hard and overcooked tasting.
The final verdict:
While I am not a huge fan (I don’t like strawberries but was tempted by all the talk that they taste like Twizzlers to make them) Davinia and Indiana are both absolutely fans. They each just had about 1 /12 strawberries each and wanted more. Next time I make this (hey I can give something a second try) DURING strawberry season I will cut them into smaller piece as Davinia wanted to take a whole piece and bring it to a special spot to eat but had a problem picking it up from the floor where breaking it into smaller pieces had them waiting not all the patiently while we did one for you one for you. Davinia and Indiana will wind up eating most of this batch with a few going out to friends.
Have you made these or tried them where they do taste like Twizzlers? What did you do differently? Was sugar added before drying?
Looking for some more great Strawberry Recipes? Visit these other amazing Bloggers!
