Glazed Strawberry Brownies with Frozen Strawberries
These glazed strawberry brownies are moist, buttery, and positively popping with strawberry flavor. Made from scratch with frozen strawberries, these oven-baked brownies call for just 20 minutes of active prep time. No need to wait for strawberry season! You can enjoy the bliss of peak strawberry flavor with these strawberry brownies all year long.
A From-Scratch Strawberry Dessert
Calling all strawberry lovers! If you are sweet on strawberries, these glazed strawberry brownies are for you. Ranking up there with my homemade strawberry shortcake and strawberry crème brûlée, they are easily competing for the top spot among my all-time favorite strawberry desserts.
No, they don’t contain chocolate, but they are called brownies because their dense texture and intense strawberry flavor far exceeds what you would expect in a strawberry cake. While many of the strawbery brownies you’ll find on Pinterest or in a Google call for boxed cake mix, this version is made completely from scratch.
However, the real genius behind this strawberry brownie recipe is that it uses frozen strawberries. The same strawberries you keep on hand for making your favorite strawberry breakfast smoothie are perfect for these strawberry brownies. The icing on top? Well, that’s just powdered sugar and milk, and it makes these strawberry brownies extra special.
What You’ll Need
Since we are skipping the boxed cake mix, we will make up for it with basic cake ingredients: all-purpose flour, baking powder, and white granulated sugar. Our strawberry flavor comes from frozen strawberries and is complemented with a dash of vanilla. One ingredient you may not have on hand is the red food coloring, which is optional. Yes, it makes them look more pink, but it doesn’t alter the flavor in any way, so it’s your choice to include it or not. See the recipe card below for exact measurements.
Featured Ingredient: Frozen Strawberries
If you’ve been around a while, you’ll already know that I love working with frozen blackberries because they are picked and frozen at peak ripeness, so they lock in that in-season freshness. Two of my favorite frozen blackberry treats are blackberry lime sorbet and blackberry white chocolate pots de creme. Working with frozen strawberries is no different.
The only thing that changes when you freeze berries is their texture. Instead of maintaining a firm texture, the freezing process breaks down some of their cellular structures, causing the berries to soften to mush when thawed. While this doesn’t work well for recipes that rely on whole berries for presentation, if you are pureeing the berries before adding them to a recipe their texture becomes far less important.
You don’t even need to wait for the strawberries to thaw to make these easy berry brownies. Just take the frozen strawberries out of the freezer when you start to gather your ingredients and let them thaw on the counter for 5 minutes. Before adding the mostly frozen strawberries to the brownie batter, puree them in the food processor or a blender. That’s semi-frozen strawberry puree is what is going to add so much incredible flavor to these irresistible strawberry brownies.
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- 9×13″ baking dish
- stand mixer or hand mixer
- mixing bowls
- measuring cups and spoons
- blender or food processor
- silicone spatula
How to Make The Best Strawberry Brownies
The first step in making these brownies is to pull out the frozen strawberries so that they have a chance to turn from rock solid berry lumps into slightly softer semi-frozen strawberries. Since we aren’t adding any extra liquid to the berries, having them slightly thawed makes it easier for your blender or food process to do it’s job. Five minutes or so should do it.
Just like boxed brownies, these are mixed together and go directly into the oven, so turn the oven on to preheat early on in the process. Prep your baking pan dish by lining it with a piece of parchment paper, which can then be used to gently lift the brownies out of the pan to make cutting and serving even easier. Now let’s get baking!
How To Use Food Color In Baked Goods
Food coloring is available in powder, gel, and liquid forms, in both natural and artificial options. In my kitchen, I prefer to use natural food coloring, which may not be as intense as artificial colors.
All food color is vibrant and while it’s easy to add more, it’s impossible to remove too much, so start with a little bit and work your way up. Remember, the color will always be more pronounced in the batter before it is baked.
For this strawberry brownie recipe, you don’t want flaming red brownies, just brownies with a hint of pink. The red will fade to pink when we add the flour and while baking. If the color fades too much after adding the flour, you can boost it with a bit more color at that step.
If you prefer not to use food coloring, you can totally skip it. Omitting the color will not affect the flavor of the brownies at all. Your brownies will have a pale, slightly pinkish-tan color, similar to a blondie, and all the yummy strawberry flavor your heart desires.
Tips for Success
As with most recipes, I’ve always got a few tips that will help you make this recipe right the first time. Here are a few things to remember when making these brownies.
- Parchment paper will prevent the brownies from sticking to the baking pan and help get them out of the pan a breeze. Just make sure you’re using parchment paper and NOT waxed paper.
- When testing for doneness, stick a toothpick into the center of the brownies. A few crumbs sticking to the toothpick is fine, but if the toothpick comes out gooey it’s not finished yet.
- The baked brownies should cool completely before adding the glaze. If not, the glaze will soak into the brownies instead of forming a layer of icing on top.
- For a more intense strawberry flavor, mix a spoonful of strawberry preserves into the glaze. To switch things up, try it with strawberry rhubarb jam.
Serving Suggestions
These tasty strawberry brownies are pretty much perfect as is, but for a special occasion I like to dress them up with a little something extra. In the photos I topped each brownie square with a thinly sliced fresh strawberry. You could also crumble some freeze-dried strawberries on top or sprinkle on some hot pink sugar crystals for an extra splash of pink.
Being that they are perfectly pink, they make a great sweet treat for Valentine’s Day and look great on a platter of Christmas treats. Since they are strawberry flavored, they are delicious to eat throughout the summer season.
How to Store
These brownies can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for about 5 days. If you plan to keep them for later, I would skip the fresh strawberry garnish until you are ready to serve. If you want to store them longer, seperate them into servings and freeze on a baking sheet until solid, then transfer to an airtight freezer safe container. They can be kept for a couple months in the freezer, thawing out single brownies on the counter top as you wish to eat them.
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Glazed Strawberry Brownies with Frozen Strawberries
Ingredients
Strawberry Brownies
- 1 cup butter (softened)
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 5 ounces frozen strawberries (see notes)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 pinch red food coloring
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (spoon and level)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2-3 tablespoon whole milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350º F. Set out butter to soften and strawberries to partially thaw. Line a 9''x13'' brownie baking pan with parchment paper and set it aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat softened butter with sugar until light and fluffy.
- Process partially frozen strawberries in a blender or food processor until pureed. Fold strawberry puree into the butter mixture. Mix to combine. The butter may lump back up to the cold strawberries.
- Add one egg at a time, mixing well after each addition. Don't worry about the curdled look; that's expected.
- Add red food color to the brownies. Food coloring can be extremely powerful, so add one pinch at a time until you get the desired look. Note: after baking, it will look paler, so exaggerate it to get a lovely pink in the end.
- In a separate bowl, mix together flour and baking powder, then add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing to combine. The result will be a stiff brownie batter.
- Pour your batter into the prepared baking pan, spreading it evenly. Bake for 25-28 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Note: For fudgy brownies, 23-25 minutes is desirable. For moist but more spongy brownies, 25-28 minutes is ideal. I baked my own for 27 minutes.
- Remove brownies from the oven, place on a rack and allow them cool to room temperature.
- Meanwhile, make the glaze. In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, two tablespoons of milk, and vanilla extract mix until smooth. If the glaze is too thick, add the third tablespoon of milk to make a thinner glaze.
- Once the brownies have cooled, pour the prepared glaze evenly over the top.
- Wait for the glaze to harden before unmolding and slicing. You can do this at room temperature or speed things up by placing them in the fridge for 20 about minutes.
- Once the glaze has hardened, unmold this brownie by lifting the brownies from the pan by the loose ends of the parchment. Place on a cutting board, slice, and enjoy!!
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Notes
- 5 ounces of frozen strawberries equals 5 ounces of fresh strawberries.
- 5 ounces of strawberries equals 1 cup of whole frozen strawberries or 8 large strawberries.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated and is for general information purposes only. For the most accurate information, calculate using your select brands and exact measurements.
I have to say I wondered how these would taste but decided to try em on a cool rainy day….so glad I did….they were delicious! I didn’t even do the glaze because hubby doesn’t like super sweet stuff. Thanks so much for the recipe!
Made these with fresh milled flour and they were so good