Strawberry Banana Bread

We went strawberry picking a couple weeks back with some of Miss F's classmates. Miss F ate nearly half of her bucket of strawberries before we even left Froberg Farms, dirt and all. She is strawberry obsessed and I can't blame her. The strawberries fresh picked are so much more delicious than those you get in the grocery store. Miss F wanted to make strawberry jam, but after inspecting our diminished haul, I decided we didn't have enough to make jam. I had a few bananas in our freezer, so off to the internet I went in search of a strawberry banana bread recipe. I was in luck, there was a well reviewed recipe from Disney World, specifically the Whispering Canyon Café.  This bread was delicious, just as I remembered from our stay at the Wilderness Lodge.

Strawberry Banana Bread

½ cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup ripe bananas, mashed (about 3 medium-size)
2 eggs
1 ½ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ pound sliced strawberries

Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray, set aside. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the mashed bananas. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, salt and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture, stir until combined. Gently stir in the strawberries. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 60 to 75 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack, slice and serve.

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Italian Creme Cake with Strawberries

I had never made an Italian Crème Cake before, in fact, I am not even sure I have ever eaten one before I made this cake.  Since there were so many guests at the dinner party, I knew I wanted a sizable cake to serve.  This is the first time I have ever made a cake that needed skewers for stability.  I must admit that I forgot to pull them before slicing the cake, so apologies to my guests who got a special surprise in their cake slice.  This cake is the perfect way to use summer strawberries.  I finally have a second bowl for my KitchenAid mixer, so that made things even easier.  Thanks to Restless Chipotle for the amazing recipe.

Italian Creme Cake with Strawberries

6 eggs, room temp
2 cups of sugar, divided
1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter, room temperature
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
16 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
1 ½ to 2 pounds of powdered sugar
A little buttermilk to thin if needed
2 quarts ripe strawberries, hulled and sliced

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans. Separate the eggs, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add ½ cup sugar gradually, beat until stiff peaks form. Set aside. Cream the butter, remaining sugar, vanilla and salt. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat until the mixture resembles whipped cream. Stir the baking soda into the buttermilk. Sift together the flour and baking powder. Add the buttermilk and flour mixture to the butter mixture in half cup additions, ending with the flour mixture. Gently fold in the egg whites. Spoon the batter into prepared pans, bake for 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool in pans for 5-10 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks and cool completely.

Beat the cream cheese and the butter together, add the vanilla. Add the powdered sugar, a little at a time, beating until it reaches a creamy consistency. Add a tablespoon of buttermilk to thin, if needed.

Place one cooled layer on a cake plate, spread a layer of cream cheese frosting over top. Top with a layer of strawberry slices. Top with the second cake layer, cream cheese frosting and another layer of strawberry slices. Top with the final cake layer and stabilized with wooden skewers. Frost the cake with the remaining cream cheese frosting. Stabilize layers with straws or wood skewers and frost with remaining cream cheese frosting. Arrange sliced strawberries on top of the cake. Chill for three hours, bring to room temperature before serving.

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Strawberry Sour Cream Pancakes

We once again headed to Froberg Farms this year and came home with three buckets of strawberries. I made a ton of strawberry jam, ate them sliced over ice cream and of course, served them up for breakfast. Strawberry pancakes are my favorite kind of pancakes, especially when they are overflowing with juicy, ripe strawberries.  Miss F dipped hers in chocolate syrup, but I enjoyed mine plain.  The strawberries were so sweet and delicious, there was no need for syrup.  I still have a lot of strawberries left, probably destined for strawberry cream cheese muffins.  I adapted this recipe from the Pioneer Woman.

Strawberry Sour Cream Pancakes

½ cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
2 eggs
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup chopped strawberries
shortening

Heat a cast iron skillet or griddle over medium heat.

Stir the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl, then stir in the sour cream. Whisk together the eggs and vanilla in a separate bowl , stir into the flour-sour cream mixture. Gently fold in the strawberries.

Grease the pan lightly with shortening. Using a ice cream scoop, dish the batter onto the prepared pan. Cook until bubble form across the surface of the pancake, about 2 minutes. Flip them over and cook a minute or two more. Serve.

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Strawberry Basil Cheesecake

Ever since I ordered a new springform pan, I have been very into making cheesecake. I absolutely adored the recipe for Meyer Lemon Cheesecake, so I decided to change it to a simple, plain cheesecake. I once held a lemon themed dinner party, complete with Lemon Mousse for dessert. The lemon didn't go over as well as I thought it should, so plain cheesecake seemed like a better fit. And I decided to macerate some strawberries with fresh basil as a topping so people could decide if they wanted it or not (they all did!)  The entire cheesecake was eaten by the end of the party, which is my mark of a delicious dessert.

Strawberry Basil Cheesecake

Crust:
1 ¼ cups graham-cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
4 tablespoons melted butter

Filling:
3-8 ounce packages of cream cheese, room temperature
1-8 ounce container of sour cream, room temperature
1 ½ cups sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 eggs, room temperature

Topping
1 pound fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
¼ cup sugar
2 tablespoons minced basil leaves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the graham-cracker crumbs and brown sugar. Mix well. Mix in the melted butter until well-moistened. Press mixture into a springform pan.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat cream cheese, sour cream and sugar on low speed until smooth. Scrape sides of bowl as needed ensure even mixing. Add in the lemon juice, then the eggs one at a time, mixing until each is well incorporated before adding the next one. Again, scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl as needed to get the mixture uniform.

Pour the filling into a springform pan and gently smooth the top of the filling. Place cheesecake in the oven, and reduce the heat to 300 degrees. Bake for 45 minutes. Do not open the oven again until the cheesecake is cooled. Turn off oven and keep the cheesecake in the oven for 2 hours (without opening oven). If the cheesecake doesn't feel 100% cool after 2 hours, allow to continue cooling, up to another hour or so. Refrigerate until firm, at least 4 hours.

Stir together the strawberries, sugar and basil 15 minutes before serving. Top each slice with the strawberry mixture before serving.

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Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes

We had a ton of strawberries from our pick fest at Froberg Farm and I knew I wanted to make the blackberry chocolate cupcakes again and the strawberries provided the perfect inspiration.  The cake batter is super thick, so it works perfectly to add a strawberry inside the cupcake.  Miss F was in charge of adding the strawberries and she took her job very seriously.  Once they were baked and cooled, I frosted them with a simple ganache.  It couldn't have been easier!

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes

1 cup flour
½ cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ cup sour cream
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon white vinegar
½ cup hot water
12 strawberries, hulled

½ cup cream
1 1/3 cup chocolate chips

6 strawberries, halved

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin pans with paper liners.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir on low to combine. Add the eggs, vanilla, sour cream, vegetable oil, vinegar and hot water and mix on medium until smooth. Submerge one hulled strawberry into each cupcake. Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pans for about 10 minutes; remove the cupcakes from the pan and cool completely before frosting.

Heat the cream and chocolate chips over a double boiler, stirring until the chips have melted completely. Dip the cooled cupcakes into the chocolate and top with a fresh strawberry half.

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Recipe Swap: Strrawberry Shortcakes

We went strawberry picking at Froberg Farms and I had a ton of strawberries on hand.  This recipe was just perfect for the fresh berries.  For this week's recipe swap, it was blogger's choice, so I could choose any recipe from Simple Gourmet Cooking.  I had to go with a strawberry recipe and Miss F was thrilled to be able to help me prepare them.  She was a huge fan of these shortcakes.  I omitted the Grand Marnier to make them kid friendly.  I was torn between her recipe for strawberry yogurt or strawberry shortcakes, but I went ahead and opted for the shortcakes because I know how much Miss F loves whipped cream.  Be sure to check out all the other great recipes below.

Strawberry Shortcakes with Fresh Whipped Cream

1 cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
6 tablespoons (¾ stick) cold butter, diced
1 large egg, lightly beaten
¼ cup + 1 tablespoon cream
1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled and thickly sliced
3 tablespoons sugar
Sweetened whipped cream, see recipe below

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the flour, 1 tablespoon of sugar, the baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and mix on low speed until the butter is the size of peas. Combine the egg and ¼ cup cream in a small bowl or measuring cup. With the mixer running on low, add to the flour mixture. Mix until just combined. The dough should be sticky.

Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place onto a well-floured surface. Lightly coat a rolling pin with flour and roll the dough ½ inch thick. You should see lumps of butter in the dough. Dip a 2-inch plain round cutter or top of a drinking glass in flour and cut 8 biscuits. Place on the prepared sheet pan, brush the tops of the biscuits with the remaining tablespoon cream, and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the tops are browned and the insides are fully baked. Cool on the pan.

While the biscuits are baking, toss the strawberries with 3 tablespoons of sugar in a medium bowl. If time permits, allow the mixture to sit in the refrigerator for at least half an hour to let the flavors really come together.

To serve, spoon some strawberry mixture onto one or two shortcake biscuits and top with sweetened whipped cream.

Sweetened Whipped Cream

½ cup cold heavy cream
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (you can also use a hand mixer), whip the cream. When it starts to thicken, add the sugar and vanilla and continue to beat until firm and stiff peaks form. Don't overbeat! If you do overbeat, add more cream.

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Recipe Swap: Whole Wheat Pancakes with Oats and Strawberries

The theme of this week's recipe swap was breakfast. I am always game for new breakfast recipes since I try to make a hot breakfast for Miss F a few times a week. These pancakes from Becoming Pigzilla are fantastic and quite good for you. Miss F doesn't eat syrup on her pancakes any longer, so I did dust hers with powdered sugar. They are quite filling and would work with blueberries or bananas just as easily as with strawberries.  I submitted my recipe for Apple and Cranberry Baked French Toast for the swap.  Thanks to Taste of Home Cooking for hosting the swap.

Whole Wheat Pancakes with Oats and Strawberries

1 tablespoon distilled vinegar
1 ¼ cup less 1 tablespoon milk
½ cup rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
2 egg whites
¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup strawberries, sliced small

Add vinegar to liquid measuring cup. Add milk up to the 1 ¼ cup mark. Pour into medium-sized bowl and add oats. Set aside and let sit for 10-12 minutes. Meanwhile, in a medium-sized bowl, combine dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Using your stand mixer and whisk attachment, add egg whites to mixing bowl and whisk to soft peaks on medium until frothy and fluffy.

Heat griddle pan over medium heat and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Add vanilla extract to milk and oats. Whisk in dry ingredients until just combined. Add sliced strawberries and fold in egg whites. Using a ladle, add about 1/3 cup of the batter to the pan. Use the ladle to spread the batter so the pancakes don’t get too thick. Once they start to bubble around the edges, they are ready to flip, about 2-4 minutes on each side. Serve with additional strawberries and maple syrup.

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Chocolate Covered Strawberry Pancakes

One of my most favorite flavor combinations is chocolate and strawberry. A local chocolate shop, The Chocolate Bar, has the best ice cream. And my favorite flavor is Sno-Berry, which is vanilla ice cream with chocolate covered strawberries mixed in.  My two most favorite pancakes are chocolate chip or strawberry.  So I thought, why not combine the two?  These pancakes are so good they don't even need syrup.  Miss F just eats them straight up.  This recipe makes about 8 to 10 pancakes if you use a standard size ice cream disher to scoop them on the griddle.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Pancakes

1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup chocolate chips
¼ cup sliced strawberries
shortening (for cooking)

Whisk the egg in a large bowl, add the buttermilk and mix well. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix well. Fold in chocolate chips and strawberries. Heat the griddle over medium heat. Using a paper towel, spread shortening over the griddle. Pour ¼ cup of batter onto the griddle (an ice cream disher works great for this). Cook on the first side until bubbles that form start to pop. Flip the pancake over with a spatula and cook until golden brown. Repeat until all the batter is gone.

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Strawberry Tres Leches Cake

Tres Leches is one of C's favorite desserts. So when we had an abundance of strawberries from our two picking trips to Froberg Farms, I decided to try and incorporate strawberries into the dessert. Turns out there is not a single recipe in cyberspace that adding strawberries to Tres Leches, other than as a garnish. I decided that macerating the strawberries and layering them between the cake and whipped cream would be a good solution. It was! My parents recently moved to Texas and had never tasted Tres Leches before, so I brought it with us to a barbecue at their new home. This cake was a comedy of errors during preparation. Our extra refrigerator decided to die and while I was trying to make the whipped cream topping, I was also trying to consolidate our freezer (we had to throw out so much food.) The stress of the situation kept making me forget about the mixer. So I made butter. Twice. Third time was the charm and the cake was done. And it was also decided that we would be eating turkey from the freezer that week, whether I wanted to or not.

Strawberry Tres Leches Cake

4 large eggs, separated
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
3 tablespoons whole milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Milk topping:
1 14-ounce can evaporated milk
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
½ cup heavy cream

Strawberries:
1 pound strawberries
1 tablespoon sugar

Frosting:
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar

To make the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease and flour a 9 by 9-inch baking dish and set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer, beat the egg whites on low speed until soft peaks form. Add the sugar gradually with the mixer running and peak to stiff peaks. Add the egg yolks 1 at a time, beating well after the addition of each.

Sift together the flour and baking powder and add to the egg mixture, alternating with the milk. (Do this quickly so the batter does not lose volume.) Add the vanilla. Bake until golden, 30 minutes.

To make the milk topping: In a blender, combine the evaporated milk, condensed milk, and heavy cream and blend on high speed. Whisking works as well and doesn't dirty your blender

Remove the cake from the oven and while still warm, prick the cake with a skewer several times and pour the cream mixture over it. Let sit and cool to room temperature.

Hull the strawberries. Crush the strawberries and toss with one tablespoon sugar. Set aside for 5 minutes. Spread the strawberries over the cooled cake.

Whip the cream and powdered sugar until soft peaks form. Top the cake with the whipped cream. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 4 hours or overnight.

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Strawberry Jam

Once again we visited Froberg's Farms in Alvin to pick a whole mess of strawberries. I was determined to make jam with the spoils of our trip. I was overwhelmed with the amount of sugar in most recipes. My friend Courtney said you could add as little or as much sugar as you wanted. Score! I adapted this recipe from a combination of recipes on allrecipes. I only used one cup of sugar because the strawberries were fresh picked and perfectly sweet. Miss F loves this jam, she eats it straight with a spoon, but her favorite vehicle for the jam is crepes (aka thin pancakes.)  I use my meat thermometer to get the temperature right.

Strawberry Jam

2 pounds fresh strawberries, hulled
1 to 2 cups sugar, to taste
¼ cup lemon juice

In a wide bowl, crush strawberries in batches until you have 4 cups of mashed berries. Place a small plate in the freezer.  In a heavy bottomed saucepan, mix together the strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice. Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high, and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil, stirring often, until the mixture reaches 220 degrees. Remove the plate from the freezer and put a teaspoon of the jam on it, return it to the freezer for one minute.  Draw your finger through the jam, if it stays in place, the jam is ready to be jarred.  Transfer to hot sterile jars, leaving ¼ to ½ inch headspace, and seal.

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White Wine Peach Sangria

It wasn't long ago that I made a batch of Sparkling Sangria for my Foodbuzz 24x24 party. The real reason behind making it was to do a trial run for a baby shower I was hosting. Both bottles of champagne exploded all over the kitchen floor, so I thought it best to try a sangria without the explosion potential. When I saw the recipe on An Apple a Day for White Wine Sangria, I knew that it would be perfect for the shower. And it was! Though, it wasn't without a struggle. The lovely drink dispenser just stopped working after 30 minutes or so. I transferred the Sangria to a punch bowl and the guests were able to scoop the fruit into their glasses, so it worked out for the best anyhow.

White Wine Peach Sangria

¼ cup sugar
¼ cup water
2 bottles white wine (I use Walgreen's Southern Point Chardonnay, it's ~$3 and has a great light taste)
¼ cup brandy
1 can peach nectar
2 large peaches, sliced
5 strawberries, halved

Bring the sugar and water to a boil in a small saucepan over high heat to make a simple syrup. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool. In a large pitcher combine wine, brandy, nectar and simple syrup. Stir to combine. Add peaches and strawberries. Serve over ice.

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Triple Berry Smoothie

I make this smoothie a couple of times a week for breakfast. Miss F probably drinks more than I do, she loves the smoothie. I am tearing through my frozen stash of Froberg Farms strawberries, it is going to be a sad day when they are all gone. Spring is so far away and I am already wanting to pick strawberries again. Triple Berry Smoothie ¾ cup frozen strawberries ¼ cup blueberries ¼ cup blackberries ½ cup plain non-fat yogurt Small handful of ice 2 teaspoons of honey Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth.

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Strawberry Cupcakes

We picked a ton of strawberries at Froberg Farm and I knew Miss F would adore a pink cupcake. And I was right, she ate two in one day. I used the strawberry cake recipe from Confections of a Foodie Bride, but I dumbed down the recipe for a less sophisticated baker, such as myself.  I did make an interesting discovery about my cupcake pans.  The Farberware pan I got for Christmas baked the cupcakes so much more nicely than the Wilton pan I have from my wedding registry.  I will be investing in another Farberware pan for sure.

Strawberry Cupcakes
makes 24 cupcakes

4 cups very ripe fresh strawberries
2 teaspoons sugar
¼ cup milk
4 whole eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups + 2 tablespoons flour, sifted
1 ¾ cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Hull, slice and toss the strawberries with 2 teaspoons of the sugar. Let the strawberries sit at room temperature for two hours. Add the strawberries to the bowl of a food processor and puree. Reserve ¾ cup puree for the cake. Use leftover puree to fill the cake or fold into the frosting, if desired.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pans. In small bowl, combine ¾ cup puree, milk, egg, vanilla and mix with fork until well blended. In bowl of stand mixer, add sifted flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix to combine. Continue beating at slow speed and add butter. Mix until combined and resembling moist crumbs. Add liquids and beat at medium speed for about 1 minute or until full and evenly combined. Stop mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl and hand beat for 30 more seconds. Using a ice cream scoop, scoop the batter into the prepared cupcake pans. Bake for about 18 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cupcakes rest in pan for about 10 minutes and turn out onto wire racks. Let cupcakes cool completely (about 1 hour). Frost cupcakes with strawberry buttercream.

Strawberry Buttercream

½ cup butter, softened
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
3 tablespoons strawberry puree

Cream butter, add sugar ½ cup at a time until incorporated. Stir in the strawberry puree.

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Strawberry Cream Cheese Bread

We went picking strawberries at Froberg Farm and I was looking to make something different from my go to Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffins. My parents had been in town and used just enough cream cheese on bread machine bagels to leave me with just enough for this recipe. Since I only use butter on my bagels, I usually don't have just half a block sitting around. This bread was amazing, nearly as good as the muffins.  I adapted the recipe from My Baking Addiciton.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Bread

½ cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon Kosher salt
½ cup buttermilk
2 cups strawberries, rinse, dried and chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan. Cream butter, sugar and cream cheese until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Mix in the vanilla. In separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Blend flour mixture with butter mixture just until blended. Add buttermilk and only stir until just combined; do not over mix. Carefully fold in strawberries. Dough mixture will be thick. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, cool before slicing.

Adapted from My Baking Addiction

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Triple Berry Pie

For our 4th anniversary, I gave C a year of pies. Each month I baked a different fruit pie. I never did any combination of fruits, but I did learn a lot more about pie baking. C's favorite over the year was the blueberry pie, my favorite was the Batali Family Blackberry Pie. We had an excess of strawberries, blueberries and blackberries that were destined to be frozen until C mentioned bringing a pie into work. This pie is a good marriage of our two favorites.  The filling was my own invention, but the crust is from Martha Stewart. It was 80 degrees and humid when I made it, so the crust was not so fun to roll out.

Triple Berry Pie

2 ½ cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter, cut into ½” pieces
3 to 4 tablespoons ice water

1 ½ cups blueberries
1 ½ cups blackberries
1 ½ cups strawberries, quartered or halved, depending on size
½ cup sugar
¼ cup cornstarch
juice of half a lemon

In a food processor, process flour, sugar and salt until combined. Add the butter and process for 10 seconds. Add the water through the feed tube in a slow stream. Process until the mixture begins to come together. Place the dough in a large Ziploc bag and place in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, sugar, corn starch and lemon juice. Toss gently to combine. Let sit for 15 minutes.

Roll out the dough to fit a 9” pie pan, reserving enough dough to create the lattice top. Once the dough is lining the pie dish, pour the berry mixture over top. Roll the remaing dough into 9” strips that are ½” wide. Weave the dough on the top of the pie. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until the crust is golden brown.

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Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffins

It's strawberry season! The strawberries at our local grocer are no longer coming from Florida or California, they are coming straight from Froberg Farms just down south of Houston in Alvin. Last week, Froberg opened up to the public for strawberry picking. I cannot wait to head down there and fill up a bunch of buckets. Miss F is excited as well. These muffins are delicious, the cream cheese is such a wonderful combination with the fresh berries.  I am so happy that strawberry season is here!  I adapted this recipe from Bo's Bowl.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Muffins
makes 24

2 cups all purpose flour
1 ½ cups sugar
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
¼ cup butter, softened
2 eggs
½ cup milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped fresh strawberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a mixer cream together the cream cheese, butter, and sugar. Add the eggs, milk, and vanilla and mix until just combined. In a bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and the salt. Add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and mix until just combined. Be careful not to over mix. The batter will be thick, almost like cookie dough. Fold in the strawberries. Spoon batter into a paper lined muffin pan. Fill the muffin cups about 3/4 of the way full and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are golden. Cool on a cooling rack for about 15 minutes.

Adapted from Bo’s Bowl

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Strawberry~Sour Cream Ice Cream

I was googling strawberry ice cream recipes and came upon this strange sounding one on a food blog that I absolutely adore, Annie Eats. I had leftover sour cream from my new found sour cream pancake obsession, so I decided to give it a whirl. And making ice cream isn't something you can do on a whim. I need to get into the habit of storing the ice cream maker in the freezer so I can make it on a whim, but everytime I leave it in there for any length of time, I end up taking it out to make room for something else that takes priority over making ice cream on a whim.

Strawberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

1 pound fresh strawberries, hulled and rinsed
¾ cup sugar
1 tablespoon vodka
1 cup sour cream
1 cup heavy cream
½ teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Cut up the strawberries and mix with the vodka and sugar in a medium bowl. Stir well until the sugar dissolves. Cover the bowl and let sit at room temperature for an hour, stirring occasionally.

Add the sour cream, heavy cream and lemon juice to the strawberry mixture. Mix to combine, macerating the strawberries.

Refrigerate for one hour, and then freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Adapted from: The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

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Strawberry Shortcake

My intended dessert for my girls dinner party was a big ole strawberry cheesecake. I whipped it up, baked it, set it out to cool and went to bed. I woke up at 6 am with the sad reliazation that the cheesecake had never been put in the refrigerator. Whoops! These shortcakes are easy to make ahead, just whip the cream when you are ready to serve. Everything else can be done in advance. Or just make a cheesecake and abide by proper food safety rules.

Strawberry Shortcake
makes one dozen

6 cups sliced strawberries
¼ cup sugar
4 cups flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons salt
2/3 cup sugar
½ cup butter
1 ½ cup half and half
Melted butter to brush shortcakes
whipped cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a medium bowl, stir together the berries and sugar. Set berries aside to macerate while you prepare the shortcakes. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Cut in butter and shortening. Mix in half-and-half. Drop by large spoonfuls onto a baking sheet. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 15 minutes or until brown.

To serve, split the biscuit in two, spoon the berry mixture over the bottom half top with whipped cream and the other half of the biscuit.

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Strawberry Streusel Muffins

Does anyone remember Ragamuffins? They were a childhood favorite and I cannot find them in Texas. I miss the fake, crunchy strawberry "flavored nuggets". These muffins worked well with the frozen stash of strawberries we had picked at Froberg Farms. Miss F has already eaten two, one for breakfast and one for lunch. I myself had to sneak one minutes after they came out of the oven.

Strawberry Streusel Muffins
makes 12

Muffins:
1/3 cup sugar
¼ cup butter, softened
1 egg
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup fresh strawberries or frozen strawberries, chopped

Streusel:
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl. Add the egg and mix well. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add to creamed mixture, together with milk. Stir in vanilla, followed by strawberries.

Fill 12 paper-lined muffin cups with batter.

Streusel: combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl. Cut in the butter, using a fork, until large, moist clumps form. Sprinkle a generous teaspoon over the muffin batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until browned.

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Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes

I first had these at my friend Sarah's holiday ornament exchange a couple of years ago. I had brought some home for C to have because she had so many wonderful treats leftover. He went crazy for these, so I had to get the recipe from her. The original calls for vanilla wafers and canned pie filling, so I have changed it up with the graham crackers since they feel more cheesecake-y to me and I used fresh strawberries since they are so gorgeous this time of year. These were a hit for Father's Day.

Mini Cheesecakes
makes 48

½ cup graham cracker crumbs (about 8 squares)
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
¾ cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
12 fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line miniature muffin tins with miniature paper liners.

Place ½ teaspoon of the graham cracker crumbs into each paper cup.

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy. Fill each miniature muffin liner with this mixture, almost to the top.

Bake for 15 minutes. Cool. Top each with a fresh strawberry quarter.

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