One of the ingredients that people usually work with when it comes to baking is fruit. You can use these in cakes, in pies, in trifles, in mousses, and many more. You can use these fresh, or you can choose to turn these into preserves like jams and jellies for use with your baked goodies. You can also choose to use dried fruit for some of your baking needs.
There are many kinds of fruit that you can choose to use when baking. There are a lot of berries that hold up very well to baking, and citrus fruits that not only add a certain tang to your products but also a natural sweetness that is different from what you get with granulated sugar. You will also find that fruits like apples, mangoes, pineapples, pears, and many more are great to use when baking.
When baking with fruit, try to choose fresh over frozen since fresh fruit has less extra liquid that can be released when baking.
Choose to use frozen fruit only when the fruits that the recipe calls for is not grown locally or is not in season.
For healthier fruity baked goodies, dried fruit should be considered. These not only give you a denser fruit but also one that does not make your batter or dough soggy.
If you need to rehydrate dried fruit for a recipe, don’t throw away the water that you used to do this. Instead, add this to your batter for additional fruity flavor. You can also use rehydrated dried fruit in lieu of fresh or frozen fruit, when neither is available.
When using fruit in your recipes, you can actually cut down on the sugar that you add into the recipe since fruits already have a natural sweetness. This will help make your products healthier and not overly sweet.
When adding fruit or bits of fruit to your batter, and you do not want it all to sink to the bottom when baking, it is a good idea to coat these with flour before incorporating into your mix. This will help the fruits that you add to float within the batter, making the distribution more even.
