Number thirty-eight on my new 101 Things in 1001 Days list is to brainstorm uses for fruit powders, and try all decent resulting ideas.  Here’s the list I came up with:

Make flavored marshmallows.
Make flavored buttercream frosting.
Use for flavoring homemade yogurt.
Use in baking (flavor muffins, cakes, pancakes, etc.).
Use to make a smoothie powder/mix.
Use to give a nutritional boost to standard recipes.  (This will probably work better with veggies than fruits, but still.)
Use to make an “instant” fruit spread (similar to jelly).
Make fruit syrup/sauce with it.
Use as a topping (like cinnamon sugar).
Flavor whipped cream with it.
Flavor milk with it.
Use with unflavored gelatin to make homemade “Jell-O.”

If you’ve tried any of these, I’d love to hear about it.  Or if you have a recipe that makes use of fruit powder for these, or any other, purpose.

And for anyone who may be wondering, fruit powder is what you get when you dehydrate fruit to the point of crispness, then run it through a blender or food processor to powder it.  It’s very concentrated.  I dehydrated two whole pints of berries and got probably about half a cup of strawberry powder.  (It’s the first thing I’ve tried.)

[UPDATE: I have since discovered that home-dehydrated fruit tends not to powder well, because of the sugar content.  In order to get a true powder, you really need to freeze-dry it.  (You can powder most veggies at home, but not most fruits.)  However, you can buy freeze-dried fruit powders from the link above.]