Extracting colour out of strawberries
Are there any techniques which I can use to get the colour of strawberries condensed in a way that doesn't contain the flavour?
I am looking to colour cakes in particular with a more natural alternative to bottled colouring agents without affecting the flavour and thought strawberries might be a good place to start!
Best Answer
As the comments seem to suggest, making food coloring from strawberries is generally not done because there is not enough red pigment in the strawberries to develop a concentrated red dye.
Food dyes generally need to be really concentrated to provide the coloration without introducing too much liquid(especially in baked goods). It seems unlikely or at least very impractical to concentrate the pigment enough to be useable as food coloring (unless you want a pale pink).
In this article, someone makes a dye from strawberries to dye yarn: http://knitting.about.com/od/dyeingyarn/ss/Dyeing-Yarn-With-Strawberries.htm by boiling strawberries and then simmering for 20 minutes. But the concentration of the dye needed to dye yarn is much less than what would be need to dye cake. The dye would introduce way too much liquid in the cake before it can really dye the cake the vibrant red. It seems likely that if you boil down the strawberry liquid enough, you might be able to produce a dye that gives a light pink but nowhere near the bright red that you seem to want.
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How do you remove color from strawberries?
the resident scientist demonstrated the process by which to remove color from food, specifically a strawberry and a raspberry, by soaking them bleach for 24 hours. While the raspberry was completely destroyed, the strawberry survived and was bleached almost all the way through.How do you get the red out of strawberries?
Place raspberries or strawberries into a strainer and mash them with the back of a spoon. Then, use the liquid in place of food coloring in your favorite recipes. Berries will produce a much lighter color than commercial food coloring, and they add a strong fruit flavor to your food.Are strawberries artificially colored?
Strawberries turn a natural red color in their ripening process. This is usually a very strong, ruby-red color. Rest assured, strawberries in the US are not dyed. FDA clearly lists all adulteration done to fruits (oranges can be dyed), but strawberries only has a regulation of when the product is considered moldy, etc.How do you get color out of food?
If the stain remains, mix one tablespoon of liquid dishwashing detergent and one tablespoon of white vinegar with two cups of warm water. Sponge the stain with the detergent/vinegar solution. Blot until the liquid is absorbed. If the stain remains, sponge the stain with rubbing alcohol.More answers regarding extracting colour out of strawberries
Answer 2
Could get some color into the cake by macerating strawberries in a cake recipe's entire sugar quantity. Strain and weigh the resulting liquid. the additional liquid has to be subtracted from recipe too.
Problem there is that sugar is a good flavor vehicle...
Tomato? There are those crazy old-fashioned red velvet cakes. Could also try beautifully ripe red bellpeppers (chilli peppers work too, ouch) either as a puree or used to stain the recipe's fat/oil/butter.
Nothing above is even close to commercial colors in that consistency or flavor is influenced but maybe you will find a combination that satisfies you. I'm still looking for a natural orange for kids Halloween!
Answer 3
I have had success making a naturally dyed pink cake...
- Puree
The color with raspberries is better, but I have used strawberry puree too. The recipes with puree (even simmered, reduced, and strained) always seem a bit too wet in the end, to me. What a sad waste of good ingredients. Here are the posts on my blog of cake with raspberry puree and one with strawberry puree. The people I fed liked it, the flavor was very pleasant. But, I wasn't totally pleased with the texture.
- Freeze Dried Strawberries/Raspberries
Again the color with raspberries is a little bit more strong, but both work! To color the batter I processed the fruit in a blender until powdered. Then, I sifted the powder to remove any seeds or larger pieces. Finally, I added the sifted powder to the dry ingredients of a white cake recipe. This is my preferred method (over puree). I also posted the results of this process on my blog.
One last thing...do not bother with fresh beets. I have not tried using canned, but the fresh beets DO NOT WORK. I tried it many ways, pureed, steeped in the wet ingredients then strained, I made a very acidic batter hoping that would help...none of it worked. They also tasted faintly dirty. Blegh. Every time the batter would be gorgeously pink, but, like a sick magic trick, the color would cook out.
I would still love to find a way to make a pink cake that is very intense, but the powdered freeze dried fruit does result in a pretty, soft pink. I hope this helps!
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