Tips and Tricks: How to Make Homemade Baby Food

One of the most exciting things about starting solids is seeing how the baby reacts to new food flavors. For me, this stage was also very overwhelming. I wanted to give Manny the best options when it came to food.

The first step to start a baby with solids is baby food puree (or you can go straight to BLW). If you don’t know how to make homemade baby food don’t worry! It is easier than it sounds and I’m going to teach you how I do it.

I will show you how to make baby puree, how to save money, and save time. I will share all the tips and tricks I have learned along the way. If you want ideas on what to make? here are 27 homemade baby recipes you can try

After I pass the learning curve of learning how to make puree, the homemade food puree has been one task that I truly enjoy doing.

I have always made very simple purees and just now (Manny is 13 months) I’m starting to be more adventurous in the mixing of flavors to offer and creating my own recipes.

Secret: Since I started making homemade purees, we all eat more fruit at home. My oldest (12) and I are learning to grab a fruit pouch when looking for a snack. Baby puree making has made us all learn how to make healthier snack choices.

How to Make Homemade Baby Food

Homemade is better than store-bought

Store-bought purees have added preservatives to be able to be on the shelf longer. This preservative, although not harmful, in my opinion, makes the fruit lose their taste. No matter what flavor you grab, they all taste the same.

I always aim to provide fresh ingredients, fewer chemicals to my family and that includes reducing the number of preservatives. This doesn’t mean I don’t buy them and I don’t feed them to my baby. I’m not an extremist. I like store-bought food pouches because they are great to keep in the diaper bag for an emergency snack.

My preference has always been fresh fruit so this is why I make tons of homemade fruit puree.

Save time by Making baby food puree in batch

So my first tip is to make homemade baby puree is to make tons of them ahead of time. Make a lot of them at once so that you dirty your kitchen once and always have a fresh puree at hand.

Tip #2 In order to save money, I like to purchase the big tray of fruits at Costco.

Don’t be too ambitious on purchasing lots of fruit types at once (like me).

I love batch cooking, but if you choose to buy a lot of fruits those will need to be steamed and that process could take some extra time. Maybe buy one or two types of fruits at once or choose to steam multiple fruits at once.

It is safe to batch cook baby food and freeze it

Baby food puree stores fine frozen. Some say food puree lasts up to 2 months in the freezer. I make the baby puree in batches and we eat them so fast I never make it to the two months.

I Keep the fruit puree in the freezer and move them to the refrigerator to defrost as needed.

This saves me time by not having to steam them all the time, and I always have the peace of mind that I have fresh homemade baby food at hand; that actually tastes like real fruit.

Tools for making Baby Food Puree

Steamer

You will need to steam the fruits or veggies to make the puree to make them softer and allow them to blend easier.

You can steam your fruit and veggies on the stove with a steamer basket, you can use a crockpot if you have it, or even an instapot.

I have an all-in-one rice cooker/steamer and that’s what I use.

Food Processor

A food processor works better than a blender for homemade baby food making. When I try to do the purees using a blender it turns them into juice instead of puree. Maybe I’m doing it wrong, so to be safe I always aim for my food processor.

If you added a”baby” food processor to your register, then this is the time to take it out. You can also use a regular food processor. I have a really cheap $10 black and decker food processor (see the blueberry video below) that I had from years ago but making lots of baby food. The motor is about to die so I just upgraded my game to the Hamilton Beach Food processor.

The below products are both rated top choice rated by Amazon users.

Basic Kitchen utencils

Besides from the above, you will need a knife to cut, chop, and remove seeds from the food along with a cutting board.

A potatoe pealer is my best friend when peeling the fruit, otherwise I tend to remove more than just the skin and waste a lot of fruit.

There are other items that are nice to have but not needed. For the pear and apples, I use an apple cutter to remove the core and get the slices easier. For the pineapple I have a pineapple slicer.

How to make baby food puree

After reading many recipes and watching youtube videos on how to make each type of pure like: “how to make apple puree” “How to make Pear puree” “How to make peach puree” “How to make butternut squash puree”

I learned that they are all made based on the same concept. Some will need the steam step and some don’t.

Peal – chop – steam – blend – serve

How to do baby puree for fruits that don’t need to be steamed

Blueberries, Bananas, Mango are all examples of fruits that are so soft that do not need to be steamed.

Peel your fruit if needed (remove skin from banana duh! and the mango). For the blueberries you can leave the skins.

Cut into pieces and with a fork mash the fruit. For a more smooth texture, use the food processor. The food processor is always my choice.

How to make the perfect Puree when you need to steam

Apple and pears are all fruits that even though you don’t need to steam. I like to steam them to make them softer and to have a smoother texture.

The first step is to peel and cut the fruit into pieces. Small pieces enough to fit in the steamer you have.

Place in the steamer basket and steam it for 12 – 15 minutes or until tender. You can check the tenderness with a fork. the softer the better.

Remove the fruit from the steamer and save the water that you used to steam them.**CAREFUL AS THE FRUIT IS SUPER HOT**

Place a few pieces in the food processor with a teaspoon of the water you used to. steam the fruits.

Blend them and if you see is too thick add another teaspoon of water. Be careful not to add too much water as you could turn it into juice.

Tip: If you happen to add too much water add some already prepared oatmeal to thicken the texture.

Continue this process until you have chop-steam-blend the whole tray of Costco fruit.

Storing Batch Baby Food Pure

The best thing about making food puree in batches is that you can freeze it and use it as you need it.

You can store it in the freezer in two ways.

Ice cube trays: If you will be feeding your baby at home a lot, then this is the best option. You can use an ice cube tray and defrost in cubes as needed and in the amount that you need.

This is a great option when you want to serve the baby puree at home and feed the baby using a spoon. It is also a great idea if you, later on, want to experiment with different recipes that require mixing of fruit flavors.

Baby Pouches: Another great way, is to freeze it using disposable or reusable pouches. I keep both at home.

Some babies and toddlers love to self feed using pouches, Manny included. Is easy to grab these from the freezer, defrost it and serve when ready.

Once your baby gets used to the flavor of one ingredient recipes, you can get creative and start doing some mixes with other fruits. You can mix in veggies and my favorite: oatmeal. Make your own combinations and see what you baby likes.

Stay tuned because in the next few weeks I have a list of 27 recipes for homemade baby food pouches you don’t want to miss!

Happy batch cooking! I hope this was a useful resource on how to make homemade baby food. you will be glad to spend one hour in the kitchen, clean up once, and have the peace of mind to always have some fresh homemade baby puree in hand. I bet not just your baby will eath more fruits now.