5 Things to Make with Fresh Strawberries

I just love berry season and am so thankful I live in a part of the country with an abundance of berries: blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, black raspberries, boysenberries, marionberries, logan berries and of course, strawberries! Whew. This week, I think we are going to go pick some raspberries. Until then, here's a recap of the yummy, fresh strawberry recipes I made using our 17 pound haul of the pretty red berries.

Strawberry Syrup Recipe Comparisons

Strawberry Cream Cheese

Strawberry Stuffed French Toast

Fresh Strawberry Lemonade

Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

I didn't make jam because my Grammy beat me to it, which means the whole family had plenty for the rest of the year. I did want to try the cream cheese stuffed strawberries I see all over blog land. Or the patriotic, red, white and blue strawberries (dipped in white chocolate then dipped in blue sprinkles).

This past weekend was the Oregon Berry Festival in Portland. I so wish I would have been able to go. However, this weekend was jam packed with a family reunion (6 hours driving round trip) and wedding of a long time friend. Hopefully next year!

Lemon Poppyseed Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

I wanted to make these for the Scentsy Cake Party my friend Michelle hosted last weekend, but had a disaster of a time attempting to make strawberry buttercream from Martha. I think part of the problem was patience. And maybe lack of a candy thermometer. Too complicated for me. I didn't give up though, and found another recipe to work with and, voila, here they are.

To make these, first, take a lemon cake mix and follow the directions on the back of the box up until you pour in your desired pan, in this case, a muffin tin. Add 1 Tablespoon (or a little more) of poppy seeds to your batter and fold them all in. Bake as directed.

For the frosting, I tried this recipe with much better results than my first attempt at Martha's. I did alter it slightly. Here it is:

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
1/4 cup strawberries, pureed*
1 teaspoon vanilla
3-4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

*Next time I will use 1/3 cup, or even 1/2 cup, pureed strawberries to achieve a stronger strawberry flavor. The lemon cupcakes were just a little stronger and overpowered the strawberries.

Cream softened butter for about 3 minutes on slow, until smooth. Add strawberry puree and vanilla. Mix until combined. It will not seem perfectly combined, but smoothed together. Slowly add powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached - thicker for piping, thinner for spreading. I added just shy of 4 cups. Then, I used a Wilton 1M tip (my favorite) to pipe the frosting on top of the cupcakes. This recipe will frost about 12 regular cupcakes if using Wilton 1M tip, as it makes approximately 2 cups of frosting, give or take.

As tasty as these were, next time, I think I'll make some chocolate cupcakes and add the strawberry frosting, then garnish with a slice or two of fresh strawberry.

For more delectable sweet cupcake treats, check out this Cupcake only link party:

Strawberry Syrup Recipe Comparison

Thanks to picking a million 17 pounds of strawberries, I had to find plenty of uses before having to freeze the leftovers (as you may have noticed the handful of strawberry related posts lately). I wanted to try and make my own strawberry syrup. Google magic. First I tried this recipe from allrecipies.com. It wasn't bad, quite yummy actually, just not as syrup like as I was thinking it would be. It was more like jam. Really simple to make with only three ingredients: strawberries (mashed), sugar and water.

Then, I tried Emeril's recipe from the Food Network. It has some pretty spectacular reviews, but it still wasn't what I was hoping for. It did taste different than the first (in a good way!) because there is a different ingredient than the first recipe: strawberries (diced), orange juice and zest. Again, I was hoping for a more syrup consistency.

Pictures are of Emeril's recipe only, simply because the final products are too hard to distinguish in a photo. They just taste a little different.

I wanted to try this recipe from food.com but needed to save strawberries for other recipes. And frankly, I was tired of cutting/hulling, boiling/simmering and being bummed to have two more pints of strawberry jam-like "syrup", in addition to the multiple jars of jam Grammy gave me. The photo with the food.com recipe looks more like the syrupy texture I was hoping for.

Maybe next berry picking round! Anyone have any tips or a killer syrupy, syrup recipe I could try? 

Fresh Strawberry Lemonade

This is by far, one of my favorite drinks on earth. Oddly enough, I've never made it myself with fresh strawberries.

So simple, too. It is perfect for an afternoon refresher or to take to that last minute BBQ. All you need are three things:

1. frozen lemonade concentrate (12oz)
2. about 2 cups strawberries, pureed or blended
3. water

First, puree the berries. I stopped my blender before they were perfectly blended because I wanted a few chunks of strawberries in my lemonade. Next, make your lemonade according to the can. Pour your pureed berries into the lemonade and stir. (You will need to stir/shake it up any time it sits for a while, as the berry puree will sink to the bottom.) Add a few freshly cut berries if you wish. Next time, maybe I'll try my hand at making fresh lemonade to combine with the strawberries.

Now you're set for a nice afternoon outside in the sunshine!

Strawberry Stuffed French Toast

Sunday mornings are possibly one of my favorite times of the week. Sleeping in a wee bit and having a tasty breakfast is pretty much the best way to start off my day. Add a few friends or family and I'm golden, just as I was this past Sunday at Michelle and Steve's house. I am a breakfastaholic. I'd eat it every meal if I could. Naturally, I couldn't help but eagerly anticipate when I would get to make this Blueberry Stuffed French Toast recipe from Lyuba at Will Cook for Smiles.

Thanks to an abundance of fresh, hand-picked strawberries, I decided to alter the recipe to fit my berries. In this case, alter = substitution. I'm sure come blueberry picking season, I will try her recipe, just to taste test and indulge.

Seriously, do make this as soon as you can and you will have no regrets, except that you waited so long to try it.  This recipe will make about 6 thick stuffed slices. (You will probably have some filling left over, but it can always be a topping or refrigerated for later, simply to top regular slices of french toast or pancakes!)

For Strawberry Filling:

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 2 Tablespoons milk
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup strawberries, diced (to whatever size you want to eat - my small berries were cut into fourths, bigger ones in sixths)

For French Toast:

• 3 eggs
• 1-2 Tablespoons milk
• 1-2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• one loaf French or Italian bread (I used French)

1. Beat cream cheese, milk, powdered sugar and vanilla together until smooth. Fold in strawberries. Refrigerate.

2. Whisk eggs, vanilla and cinnamon in a wide enough dish to dip bread into.

3. Cut a 2 inch slice off the loaf. Then, cut nearly through the middle of your slice lengthwise, to make a pouch to fill.

4. Spoon the filling into the slice pouch, making sure not to overfill, or you will have a lot of strawberry filling on your griddle.

5. Dip both sides of the stuffed slice into the egg mixture.

6. Set on medium hot griddle, until golden on one side. Flip to golden the other side. (about 3-4 minutes each)

7. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, top with a few berries or a few drops of syrup.

8. Share with amazing friends or family and dig in, just like Ellie. Yummy, yummy!

Strawberry Cream Cheese

So after picking loads of strawberries (17 pounds to be more or less exact), I obviously needed plenty of reasons to use them. Here is one, very simple thing I made with them: strawberry cream cheese.

 

It really is quite easy, as you only need strawberries & cream cheese, and a smidgen of powdered sugar. Try this:

1. Allow 8oz. cream cheese to be at room temperature, so it is not so hard to mix.
2. Puree 1 to 1.5 cups of strawberries, adding 1 Tablespoon (or so) to the liquid.
3. Mix puree into cream cheese thoroughly.
4. Taste to make sure you like it. Add more strawberries, if necessary, but remember, the more you add, the thinner your cream cheese will become.
5. Enjoy on whatever you wish! (I did refrigerate mine before doing this because I like my cream cheese firmer than it was after mixing strawberries in.)

Strawberry Syrup Recipe Comparisions

 
Thanks to picking a million 17 pounds of strawberries, I had to find plenty of uses before having to freeze the leftovers (as you may have noticed the handful of strawberry related posts lately). I wanted to try and make my own strawberry syrup. Google magic. First I tried this recipe from allrecipies.com. It wasn't bad, quite yummy actually, just not as syrup like as I was thinking it would be. It was more like jam. Really simple to make with only three ingredients: strawberries (mashed), sugar and water.

Then, I tried Emeril's recipe from the Food Network. It has some pretty spectacular reviews, but it still wasn't what I was hoping for. It did taste different than the first (in a good way!) because there is a different ingredient than the first recipe: strawberries (diced), orange juice and zest. Again, I was hoping for a more syrup consistency.

Pictures are of Emeril's recipe only, simply because the final products are too hard to distinguish in a photo. They just taste a little different.

I wanted to try this recipe from food.com but needed to save strawberries for other recipes. And frankly, I was tired of cutting/hulling, boiling/simmering and being bummed to have two more pints of strawberry jam-like "syrup", in addition to the multiple jars of jam Grammy gave me. The photo with the food.com recipe looks more like the syrupy texture I was hoping for.

Maybe next berry picking round! Anyone have any tips or a killer syrupy, syrup recipe I could try?

Strawberry Pickin'

Yesterday afternoon, notably one of the warmest we have had at 85 degrees (yay mild Oregon summers), my mom, sisters, niece and I went to pick strawberries at Grandpa's Farm - not our grandpa, just the name of the farm.

 
Of course, Addison ended up with a whopping 3 nearly-not-smushed berries in her tub, the rest in her tummy, or on her face.

Keeping in strict toddler fashion, she didn't leave the patch dirt-less either.

My sisters and I picked about 17 pounds of strawberries! At 90 cents a pound, I couldn't resist.

I've got a handful of ideas that our bowls of berries will turn into. I'll share the outcomes soon enough!