Homemade Strawberry Candy

This wonderful Homemade Strawberry Candy is such an easy recipe to make at home, and perfect for a fun dessert for the kids. The dish is made using just one ingredient, Strawberries. No Sugar is needed, yet the flavor of these Candies is a classic combination of Sweet and Sour. They have a crispy and slightly chewy texture, resembling typical Candy. The fun combination of flavors and textures make these delicious kid-friendly treats that are tasty and very healthy

How to enjoy our Homemade Strawberry Candy

The versatility of this dish is great, making them just as tasty as a topping for ice cream as they are a simple sweet treat to serve on their own. They bring a beautiful sweet and sour flavor to a dessert, making them ideal to serve at the end of a meal

This dish is also ridiculously addictive, so you may find whipping up a batch of these and putting them in a bowl is the ideal way to enjoy them. They are a fun treat to chomp away at a few of them throughout the day. However, be warned, you may start with eating just one or two and the next thing you know, the entire batch will be gone!

How to make Homemade Strawberry Candy

This dish is truly one of the easiest to make. All you need are a batch of Strawberries, an oven, and about 2 ½ hours. The Strawberries are simply slowly baked in the oven until all their moisture evaporates. What you are left with are these amazing discs of crispy, chewy sweetness

First step in this dish is to prepare the Strawberries. Remove the leafy green part / stem from the strawberries by simply cutting it off. Then, stand the Strawberries up with the cut-size of the stem facing the chopping board and simply slice them into equal pieces

You don’t want to slice the Strawberries too thin, so I’d suggest for a regular sized Strawberry, aim to get about 3 pieces for each Strawberry. Then, simply place the Strawberry pieces onto a large sheet pan that’s been lined with baking paper

Avoid overlapping the Strawberries on the baking paper but try to pack in as many as you can. This will form one batch of Homemade Strawberry Candy. You can use multiple sheet pans at once if you like, which will ultimately just yield more Candy!

Bake the Strawberry pieces on a low heat

The key to achieving the wonderful chewy texture and sweet flavor of the Strawberries is to bake them in the oven at a low temperature. What we’re doing here is essentially dehydrating them. Most households likely don’t have their own dehydrator, luckily an oven is going to do the trick just as nicely

You want to set your oven to a low heat, around 240F / 120C. At this temperature the Strawberries are going to very slowly begin to dehydrate, with all the liquids slowly coming off them. What you’ll be left with is basically the ‘essence’ of Strawberry. Nothing but beautiful, sweet flavors

Cook the Strawberries for about 2 ½ hours, but it’s also a good idea to check on them periodically as they cook. There’s not much you need to do as it cooks other than turning them halfway through. So, simply set a timer and let them cook away

Turn the Strawberries halfway through the cook

At the 1-hour mark, remove the Strawberries from the oven and carefully flip them over. At this point they’re not going to be crispy and cooked through, but they should be pliable enough that they can easily be turned over without breaking them

You can turn them by using tongs or simply turn them by hand. They will be quite hot, but they technically ‘can’ be turned by hand. To be safe, best to use some tongs. Just try to avoid pinching them too much with the tongs as we want to keep their shape

They will likely be a little bit sticky on the parchment paper, so just take your time when turning them. The parchment paper is critical to avoid them completely sticking to the bottom when they cook

Pop them right back into the oven and allow them to cook for the remaining 1 hour or so. I recommend checking on the Strawberries every 20 minutes once you’ve turned them over. You can tell when they are cooked by looking at them. They will begin to very slightly brown but still retain their brilliant bright red color. This is when they’re completely done. They can go from cooked to burnt very quickly, so look for the change in color and remove them at that point

Serving

Allow your Homemade Strawberry Candy to cool slightly before you remove them from the sheet pan and serve them. They’ll cook quickly, so leave them for about 5 minutes before placing them into a bowl. They’re now ready to enjoy

Set them aside in a bowl for folks to enjoy as they please, or keep them as a fun and tasty topping to enjoy with your favorite desserts. In terms of storing, I’d recommend keeping them for no longer than 1 week in an air-tight container. However, this will likely not be a concern as these Candies are so addictive they’re going to be all gone well before then

Have fun with this recipe

When we made this recipe, we also tried it with a batch of Grapes. We prepared the Grapes in the same manner as the Strawberries, and they also turned out great. We didn’t get the same texture as the Strawberries; the Grapes were chewier and less crunchy. The flavor, however, was also amazing

I’d recommend giving this fun Homemade Strawberry Candy recipe a try and see if you enjoy them (we guarantee you will!). If so, why not try following a similar process for your favorite fruits to extract all the delicious sweetness and flavor? I bet Apples, Mangoes, Plums, and Pineapple will be fun to try and taste amazing

Homemade Strawberry Candy Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups of Strawberries
  
  

Instructions

1. Slice the green stem off the Strawberries. Place the Strawberries upright on a cutting surface and slice them into 3 equal sized segments
2. Place the Strawberry segments onto a sheet pan lined with non-stick parchment paper. Place as many Strawberries as you can fit onto the parchment paper while avoiding any overlapping
3. Bake the Strawberries in the oven at 240F / 120C for 1 hour
4. Remove from the oven and carefully flip them overusing tongs. They may slightly stick to the parchment paper but should come loose easily
5. Return to the oven and bake for another 1 hour to 1 ¼ hours until they begin to very slightly brown. At this point, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool before removing them and place them into a serving bowl
   
   

Recipe Notes

• The Strawberries will be done once they begin to very slightly brown. You want to ensure they still retain their red color, so keep an eye on them as they cook
• They will keep for about 1 week if refrigerated in a sealed container
  
  

This Homemade Strawberry Candy recipe is such a fun one to make. The flavors are sweet and sour and literally taste just like candy, but without all of the sugar, making them a healthy and fun dish to serve the kids. They can be enjoyed as a tasty treat or fun dessert. They can be enjoyed as a topping to Ice Cream or simply eaten as they are

For more tasty dessert dishes, check out these fun recipes of ours:

• Chocolate and Pistachio Brownies
• Carrot Cake with Lemon Frosting
• Dark Chocolate Cookies
• No Egg Chocolate Mousse
  
  

Happy Cooking!