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Contrary to popular belief, baking doesn’t have to be unhealthy. In fact, using fruit in baking can be one of the best ways to use this hobby to create treats for you and your family that are filled with nutritional value as well as tasting great. Whether you want to make tarts, crumbles, fruit pies, or other baked goods using fruits, read on to find out more about how to get the best results.
Use What’s in Season
When baking with fruit, shopping for what’s in season can make a huge difference. Baking with local produce can have many benefits, including being much more cost efficient and better for the environment. If you can, go for locally picked fruit, since this tends to offer the most flavour to a recipe. Unlike imported produce, locally picked fruit that’s in season right now will be picked when ripe, which will add more natural sweetness to your baked goods and help you avoid adding lots of sugar.
Use Fresh Fruit
While you can get frozen fruit as a convenient option, it’s always better to go with fresh fruit whenever possible if you want to get the best results from your baking. Often, frozen fruit will be lacking in flavour and can increase the water content in your baking recipes, which could lead to fruit pies and crumbles that are mushy or have far too much liquid to be enjoyable. If you need to use frozen fruit in baking, it’s a good idea to make sure that the fruit is completely thawed and drained beforehand.
Use a Flour Dusting
Fresh fruit can be used in lots of different cake recipes including muffins, loaf cakes, and more. When baking with fruit, it’s a good idea to lightly dust the fruit first with an all-purpose flour before you add it to the mixture. The purpose of this is to stop the fruit from sinking to the bottom of the cake mixture while it is baking, and it will also work for other ingredients that you might add to your cakes like chocolate chips or nuts. You can find sieves and other cake baking tools to use in the process at Cooks Boutique.
Keep It Clean
Before adding fruit to your baking recipes, make sure that it is washed and dried well. Cleaning any fresh fruit that you use in baking is important to make sure that you’re not adding any dirt or pesticides to your cakes and other baked goods. However, since washing the fruit will add water, let it dry out on a paper towel or tea towel before adding it to the recipe. This is because the fruit is already full of natural juices that will come out during the baking process, and additional water or other liquids can leave your fillings messy and mushy.
If you like baking but want to make healthier cakes and baked goods, using fruit can help you avoid adding sugar and get your five-a-day in a delicious way.
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