Freeze-dried or powdered fruit?

Does anyone know somewhere to get smallish (less than a pound) of powdered fruit (strawberry, blueberry, raspberry) at a local retail store? Preferably Oak Park area. In lieu of this, I'm willing to settle for just freeze-dried fruit that I can grind into a powder myself. Is this something that I'd be likely to find at Whole Foods or TJs? I've never bought it before and have only seen it online.

Thanks!

Trader Joe's carries strawberries, bananas, mangoes and pineapple (maybe not all at the same time) in small foil pouches.

I know what you're thinking, tgoddess - I bet money it's the same thought I've had kicking around in my brain - but I have the fruit! (evil laugh...and reminder to self that I don't have the skillz)

Whole foods carries the "Just Tomatoes, Etc" brand of freeze-dried fruits, but you can sometimes find little mylar-packed envelopes in the health food section of the Jewel or other conventional groceries, but their availability is very inconsistent. We like to add them to cereal, as they're just as colorful as mini marshmallows, but have a lot better flavor...and a lot of nutrition.

but have a lot better flavor...and a lot of nutrition

I'm with you on the flavor, but they aren't especially good on the nutrition side. Certainly better than marshmallows, but less so than an equivalent serving of fresh fruit. Case in point, 1 ounce of dried has 30% of MDR of vitamin C, vs 75% in half a cup of strawberries. And it's roughly 1:10 ratio of dried:fresh, so an equivalent portion of fresh is over 10 ounces. So better nutrition than sugar alone, but not all that great as a substitute for fresh.

I'm mainly looking for it for flavor, since, well...the PLAN is to use it in macarons and dried/powdered fruit wouldn't mess with the structure of the cookies. (Mhays, I figured you KNEW where I was going with this!)

My concern with getting fruit that is merely "dried" and not "freeze-dried" is any residual moisture if I have to grind it up myself. I'd PREFER finding actual powders, but even the stuff I've found online is sold in much larger quantities than I want to commit to, especially since I have no idea how long it keeps once it's been opened.

But the idea is to do strawberry macs for Valentine's Day...the "JustTomatoes" stuff is pretty much exactly what I was looking for, so I'll hit the Oak Park WF this weekend. Thanks, Mhays!

This is definitely true: many of the vitamins in fruits are water-soluble (vitamin C in particular) and presumably evaporate in this treatment. They do retain some fiber and minerals, though.

Comparing apples to apples, approximating your 1-to-10 ratio (nutritiondata.com gives me information on 1 223g apple, the "Just Apples" label for 1 oz/20g of freeze-dried, so it's not an exact comparison) If you go with the freeze-dried, you're losing all your Vitamin A, C, and Calcium, making a small gain in iron, a small loss in calories (16 fewer,) and a small loss in fiber (from 5g to 3g) I won't bore you with a nutritional comparison to marshmallows, though - I think I can safely guess that the freeze-dried fruit is better (I did look it up, just in case )

Yup, tgoddess, that's exactly what I was thinking!

the PLAN is to use it in macarons

That reminds me of the Paris episode of Diary of a Foodie. They featured a Japanese-born pastry chef who put a Japanese spin on classical French pastry preparations. He did a yuzu-powder based macaron. Looked yummy (and had a wonderful color).

The yuzu-powder ones sound really interesting. I'm also planning on some tea flavors (machta, spicy chai) soon as well.

His green-tea custard Napoleons looked great too. I was surprised to see him using egg whites from a carton but a French friend (who happens to be a chef) said that they have pretty restrictive egg-hygiene laws so it's easier to use bulk whites. Plus, he is doing substantial volumes of product.

I have used these powders for a few years and I can tell you that they have great flavor, super concentrated so a little goes a long way. As for your macroons...the raspberry is really good! You can pick them up in the city at the JDY Meats (I seem to post for them alot lately...no I don't work for them!) or find them online. Here is a link explaining many uses:
http://www.solexpartners.com/media/text ... -line.html
JDY meats is not far from O.P. either...I am sure you could give them a call and pick it up.

Or if you can find them here in the U.S. the product is called spray dried fruit/vegetable powders. I have found a couple companies in Europe but am not sure if they import here. They are REAL fun to play with so I am sure they won't sit around long. Hope it helps!
http://www.abcinternational.in/fruits-v ... wders.html

The powders will last a long time as long as you keep them well sealed, dark, in low moisture (away from the stove ) or in the freezer sealed well.

Mhays wrote:I know what you're thinking, tgoddess - I bet money it's the same thought I've had kicking around in my brain - but I have the fruit! (evil laugh...and reminder to self that I don't have the skillz)

Mhays,

If you ever want a macaron "class" just let me know. I just taught three people how to make them last weekend.

Just waiting for a time window to open up on my end - I was going to PM you! Thank you so much for offering!

I've been looking at recipes everywhere, and I have to admit, it's a confusing process: I've made both meringues and conventional macaroons, and really don't understand the process of sqooshing all the air out, though it seems to be crucial. Strikes me as a meticulous process, which puts me right out of my comfort zone...

The late Gourmet magazine had a nice feature on macarons in late 2008 with some nice flavor combinations and straight-forward recipes:

http://www.gourmet.com/search/query?keyword=macarons

Mhays wrote::D Just waiting for a time window to open up on my end - I was going to PM you! Thank you so much for offering!

I've been looking at recipes everywhere, and I have to admit, it's a confusing process: I've made both meringues and conventional macaroons, and really don't understand the process of sqooshing all the air out, though it seems to be crucial. Strikes me as a meticulous process, which puts me right out of my comfort zone...

Feel free to PM me anytime. It's fun (and easier) to have help making them. Once my show (http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/weekend/2004770,CurtainCall-Houlihan-012210.article) is finished at the end of the month, my calendar will be pretty flexible. I live in Berwyn, but work in Evanston.

Honestly, the macs aren't THAT hard to do, just rather time-consuming and the trick is to deflate the whites but not to deflate them COMPLETELY.

Also, it helps to have the following:

- a food processor
- a scale (I always do macs by weight measurement now and have a much better rate of consistency)
- piping bag(s) and plain round tips.
- parchment paper or silpat
- powdered food color (gel is next best, but I'd advise against using that liquid stuff at all).

I've make the macs without any of these, but I saw vast improvement in the quality of them when I DID use all the above.