The Fruity Flavor Boosts To Easily Elevate Powdered Sugar

From finishing beignets, doughnuts, and cookies with a light dusting to making royal icing, buttercream, and sweet glazes to creating tender cookies and cakes, smooth icings, and glazes, powdered sugar, the silky sibling of granulated sugar, is a staple when it comes to baking. But what if you want to boost its flavor with a fruity twist for your next creation?

Colorful cakes and cookies are always popular at parties and they seem to be particularly on trend in 2023. And one of the best ways to create a new hue, while also incorporating fruity flavor, is to use freeze-dried fruit. Pairing any kind of freeze-dried fruit like berries, mangoes, or apples with powdered sugar is a super simple way to take icings, glazes, and cupcakes to the next level. All you need is powdered sugar, fruit, and a spice grinder or food processor.

If you're looking to add bold color as well as fruitiness, you'll want to lean toward berries like raspberries, blueberries, or strawberries. But if you're less concerned about the color and your goal is to infuse fruit flavor, apples, peaches, and mangoes work well.

One caveat for buying freeze-dried fruit is to make sure that it is, indeed, freeze-dried and not dehydrated. The two preservation processes differ — while freeze-dried food maintains most of its nutritional value and appearance, dehydrated foods have far fewer nutrients and can look or taste significantly different than their fresh counterparts.

Once you've chosen your freeze-dried fruit, all you need to do is place it in the food processor or spice grinder and grind it until it becomes a fine powder (you can also use a mortar and pestle). Then, after the fruit has been ground, it can be mixed into virtually any baked good or combined with powdered sugar for a fruity, sweet mixture.

The fruit-infused powdered sugar can be used in the same way you would use regular powdered sugar. It can be baked into cookies and cakes or dusted on top of baked goods like truffles. However, using it to make icings and glazes for cakes, cookies, and sweetbreads may be the best way to show off its vibrant color; You can use it in homemade icing or to upgrade the store-bought kind.

There are other uses as well: Try mixing it into whipped cream for a sweet dip, use it to rim a homemade cocktail or mocktail, or experiment by adding it to hot chocolate to change up the flavor profile. You can even toss it with popcorn or nuts for a colorful snack. The colored powdered sugar is also good for making seasonal treats. Use freeze-dried fruit in the colors you prefer to elevate simple muddy buddies or cannoli dip. 

Nearly any recipe that calls for powdered sugar can be upgraded with the simple addition of freeze-dried fruit.