I found these two products from the L’Epicerie website.  I wonder how they would work for making a strawberry or raspberry mousseline buttercream.  I don’t think that they would affect the consistency of the buttercream as much as adding fruit purees or conserves.  These products have perked my interest.  I am just wondering if anyone has any experience working with fruit powders in buttercream recipes.  They also have lemon, orange, and lime powders as well.

    Dehydrated Strawberry Powder -  USA - 

Freeze-Dried Strawberries are processed using a refrigerated vacuum drier, which retains the natural color, flavor, nutritional value and particle size of the fresh fruit. Strawberries are then powdered retaining all the intense flavor of the fruit.

These powders can used in combination with sugar to produce a perfectly colored coating for fruit jellies and in sauces were a boost of flavor without the addition of liquid is necessary. They are useful in candy fillings, desserts, breakfast cereals, yogurt flavoring and in any application where a fresh fruit flavor is desired. These fruits are processed to retain as much of their natural goodness as possible.

 
    Dehydrated Raspberry Powder -  USA - 

Freeze-Dried Raspberries are processed using a refrigerated vacuum drier, which retains the natural color, flavor, nutritional value and particle size of the fresh fruit. Raspberries are then powdered retaining all the intense flavor of the fruit.

These powders can used in combination with sugar to produce a perfectly colored coating for fruit jellies and in sauces were a boost of flavor without the addition of liquid is necessary. They are useful in candy fillings, desserts, breakfast cereals, yogurt flavoring and in any application where a fresh fruit flavor is desired. These fruits are processed to retain as much of their natural goodness as possible.

 
 
   
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  Dehydrated Raspberry Powder - USA  
L’Epicerie     Freeze-Dried Raspberry Powder - 8 oz. Re-sealable foil bag

#706108     $ 24.50

 
 
   
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  Dehydrated Strawberry Powder - USA  
L’Epicerie     Freeze-Dried Strawberry Powder - 8 oz. Re-sealable foil bag

#706508     $ 18.75
Shipping Weight:  1.00 lbs
 

  Quantity Desired:

Aran from the blog http://cannelle-vanille.blogspot.com/ uses them.

They look interesting, please let us know what you think if you try them.  They sort of remind me of when I was experimenting with freeze-dried fruit (“Just Strawberries”), grinding it up and trying to come up with a good, all-natural strawberry cake. 

Provided the flavor is as good, I would be more tempted to use them with neoclassic/classic bc than with mousseline, which needs some liquid (liqueur or puree) in order to be its best.

I’ve just bought a selection of freeze-dried fruit and powders to try this. 

I ground some freeze dried raspberries and added some to the regular raspberry mousseline recipe (using concentrated raspberry puree from TCB) - I usually add a maximum of 1/2 cup puree to the mousseline because any more than that and it gets too soft for me to pipe nicely.  The powder worked really well to boost the raspberry flavour, and got great reviews.  I think people liked it because the tartness of the powder really cut down on the sweetness of the buttercream and it just ended up tasting really really fruity.  It was almost too tart, I think, so it needs slight adjustment in future.  But the best part for me was the colour it added to the mousseline.  Usually I need to add a touch of red gel or powdered colour to the berry buttercreams that use puree.  The added fruit powder gives a gorgeous deep pink hue that eliminates the need for any addtional colouring.

I also reconstituted some freeze dried blackcurrants with just enough water to enable me to puree the berries in my blender.  The blackcurrants were intensely tart so I tempered this with a bit of powdered sugar and with the resultant paste (the consistency was somewhere between paste and puree) I flavoured some mousseline.  WOW.  LOVE IT (and so does my toddler).  Again a gorgeous purple colour, and tasted like Ribena in a buttercream form.  Must post a pic if I remember to take one in natural light tomorrow, just to show the colour.  If I can get my hands on some commercially ground blackcurrant powder I’ll try using that to supplement the paste for even more flavour.  I could not grind the blackcurrants as finely as I managed the raspberries.

I’ll be using the strawberry powder next.  I think the powders will be a mandatory part of my fruit buttercreams from now on.

Thanks, LittleIsland!  This is a great idea, and one I never would have thought of myself!!!!  There’s lots of interesting freeze dried fruits out there, too, which makes it fairly a exciting prospect!

Just wanted to post a pic to show the blackcurrant buttercream.  No colouring added, just the blackcurrant paste from reconstituted freeze-dried fruit.  The light is not the best and neither is my photography but you get the general idea

Wow, that’s gorgeous- not only the color, by the sharply defined swirl as well!  Thanks so much for following up on this and letting us know how well they’ve worked out for you.

Ditto! That’s really beautiful, and that sharp piping shape is very pretty!  Thanks again for this great idea of using the freeze dried fruits!