Description
These homemade Twizzlers have the stretch, flavor, and chew of the store-bought version, except they're made with real fruit! There are surprisingly only a few ingredients needed to make these, and you don't need any corn syrup!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 2 cups hulled strawberries (250 g)
- Juice of 1/2 large lemon (~1 tablespoon)
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 g)
- 2 cups cake flour (240 g)
- 1 1/2 cups cold water
- 2-3 tablespoons freeze-dried strawberries, ground and seeds strained out (6-10g)
- Natural red food coloring (optional)
Instructions
- To a blender, add the strawberries, lemon juice, and a splash of water and blend until smooth, then use a fine mesh sieve to strain out the strawberry seeds.
- To a wide-bottomed saucepan over medium low heat, add the strawberry pureé and granulated sugar. Bring to a simmer and let cook for roughly 10 minutes, until the color intensifies and the syrup thickens.
- While the syrup cooks, to a large mixing bowl add the cake flour, 1.5 cups cold water, and the freeze-dried strawberry powder. Whisk thoroughly, until there are no clumps (even small ones) remaining.
- Once the syrup has thickened, turn the heat to low, add the flour and water mixture in small (1/4 cup) batches, whisking with each addition, until all of the flour and water mixture has been added. If you're using food coloring, add it in now.
- Turn the heat back to medium low and continue cooking, stirring frequently and scraping the bottom to prevent scorching. After a few minutes, you'll see some clumps start to form. Continue cooking and stirring. The mixture will become very clumpy (and honestly, it will look like you've messed up, but don't worry! Just keep going).
- Once the dough doesn't have any visibly wet sections remaining (it should resemble a glossy play-doh), move it to a nonstick work surface and let it cool for a few minutes.
- Once the dough is cooled, shape your twizzlers by rolling out two 1-tablespoon portions of dough into 1/4 inch thick strands, then wrap them around each other into a roughly 8-inch long twist. You can also try using a piping bag (not recommended – you need some SERIOUS muscle for this) or a spritz cookie press to pipe the dough out. (Spritz also not recommended – it can be finicky.)
- If you have a dehydrator, dehydrate for roughly 5 hours at 140˚F. They're done when they're chewy, but not tough, and the center is no longer wet. The best way to test this is by taking a bite! If you don't have a dehydrator, move to a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake on the oven's lowest setting with the oven door slightly cracked open for 3-4 hours.
Notes
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
- Strain the strawberry puree and the freeze dried strawberries. Though it's not completely necessary, you'll be surprised at how many strawberry seeds you'll strain out. If a little bit of crunch doesn't bother you, you can skip this step.
- Don't have cake flour? Sub it out for a 3/4 all-purpose flour and 1/4 cornstarch ratio instead.
- The most important tip: Add the water and flour slurry to the strawberry and sugar mixture in small batches, or it will clump up almost immediately and make it difficult to evenly incorporate into the syrup.
- It will look wrong before it looks right: This is a recipe where you have to trust the process. The flour will start clumping up, and will get even clumpier as it keeps cooking, until you're left with what's basically one big clump of dough.
- Make sure to stir constantly through the cooking process to prevent the dough from scorching on the bottom of the pan. Medium low heat is your friend as well.
- We haven't tested them in the oven, but 175˚F for 3-4 hours should do the trick.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Dehydrate Time: 5 hours
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Better Than Store Bought
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 twizzlers
- Calories: 190
- Sugar: 22 g
- Sodium: 2.7 mg
- Fat: 0.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 44.8 g
- Fiber: 1.2 g
- Protein: 2.5 g