Why I Will Never Cook My Strawberries and Neither Should You

I’ll say it. I hate cooked strawberries, and I refuse to make a dessert that involves them. First, the texture of a cooked strawberry repulses me. Second, they don’t taste as good as fresh ones. That’s a fact.

You know you have ideal, perfectly ripe strawberries when you can smell them. Walking through the farmers’ market or grocery store, you suddenly get a whiff of their hauntingly bright, pineapple-like aroma.

The complex flavor and aroma of strawberries come from various volatile compounds, which are what you smell and thereby taste. When you bite into a fresh strawberry, you release those compounds, which travel up to your nose, adding to the flavor experience.

Without these aroma compounds, strawberries taste rather bland. Some of the compounds are also heat-sensitive — cooking strawberries can destroy them, muting the flavor and making your strawberry dessert less, well, strawberry-y.  

Unlike, say, apples, strawberries contain very little pectin and a lot of water, so when you cook them, they turn into a snotty, watery mush. Pies and tarts with cooked strawberries require a lot of thickener, diluting the flavor of the finished dish. Or you get puddles of soggy cake batter around each little bit of sad-cooked strawberry. For me, the texture of strawberries is the least appealing of any cooked fruit.

But don’t just take it from me: Many traditional strawberry desserts don’t call for cooking them at all, highlighting the majestic fruit in its fresh glory. Think of the sugar-macerated strawberries that top a shortcake, a show-stopping Fraisier Cake, an elegant strawberry tart, an Eton Mess, a classic fresh strawberry pie, or even simple strawberries and cream.

There are exceptions…

If you really adore strawberries and want to incorporate them into your baking, use jam or freeze-dried strawberries. Why is jam okay when cooked strawberries are not? Strawberry jam gets boiled long enough to drive off most of the water and concentrate the flavors, providing a burst of rich strawberry flavor.

Replace fresh strawberries with a swirl or dollop of strawberry jam in a snacking cake; use jam to fill a layer cake, hand pie, or thumbprint cookies; or spread it onto the bottom layer of a tart before topping it with pastry cream and fresh strawberries.

Enlist freeze-dried strawberries to add concentrated strawberry flavor without any moisture. Chop some up, then add to cookies, muffins, and more. A dusting of freeze-dried strawberry powder on top of a cake gives you a pop of pink and a pow of flavor.

However you choose to add strawberries to desserts, I just request that you don’t cook them. Embrace the fresh fruit in all of its glorious complexity.

Still not convinced? Using fresh strawberries is far easier.