Red Wine Strawberry Sorbet

It was supposed to be red wine raspberry sorbet but my raspberries went moldy in the refrigerator before I got a chance to make the sorbet. Strawberries would do. This recipe is genius. Look at it: a bottle of wine, some sugar and lots of fruit. Perfect summer treat.



I didn't strain the pulp because I was lazy and I did not care for the smooth consistency. My sorbet came out tasting like soft frozen sangria. Maybe because I didn't boil the wine long enough - which isn't a bad thing. I think I got drunk from eating half a cup of it. It's quite embarrassing, actually.



The best part of this batch of sorbet is that I froze some in ice cream pop molds. Things always taste better on a stick, I don't know why.

Strawberry Crumb Cake

If you haven't tried this recipe this strawberry season, run to the store as soon as you can. Buy three pounds of strawberries and turn on your oven. Or beg somebody else to do it for you. Because this cake is that awesome (if you love your fruit in cakes like me.)



It has gooey, sour and fruity strawberry bottom with the middle layer of soft and fluffy yellow cake and topped with sweet crunchy crumb.

Peach and Strawberry Crisp

I love fruit season. Just this week I consumed (or caused other people to consume) 5 pounds of peaches, 2 pounds of apricots, 4 pounds of strawberries and 2 pounds of blueberries. In this crisp, I used 6 peaches and about 2 cups of strawberries but I imagine any combination of stone fruit and berries will come out as delicious.



Ingredients

• 6 peaches - pitted and cut into small chunks (with peel)


• 2 cups strawberries - hulled and quartered


• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour


• 1/4 cup Agave nectar


• 1 cup whole wheat flour


• 1 cup rolled oats


• 1/2 cup toasted wheat germ


• 1/4 cup sugar


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 4 tablespoons chilled butter


• 1 teaspoon vinegar


• 4 tablespoons cold milk

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.


2. In a large bowl, combine peaches and strawberries with 2 tablespoons flour and Agave nectar.


3. In a separate bowl, combine whole wheat flour, oats, wheat germ, sugar and salt. Cut in butter. Mix vinegar with milk. Sprinkle over the mixture and rub in by hands until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Vinegar will prevent the wheat gluten to develop too much.


4. Transfer the fruit into a large enough baking dish. I used 2.2 quart Pyrex dish. Sprinkle the batter over and bake for 50 minutes.

Strawberry Rhubarb Bread

I forgot to put fat again and have come to believe that straight fat, i.e. oil or butter, in small amount in quick bread sometimes is not that important. Take this bread. It's full of strawberries and rhubarb to give it enough moisture. Agave nectar sweetened it just enough. I think it was delicious.



Ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat flour


• 1/2 cup all purpose flour


• 1/4 cup toasted wheat germ


• 1 teaspoon baking soda


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 2 eggs


• 1/2 cup plain yogurt


• 1/2 cup Agave nectar


• 1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries


• 1 stalk rhubarb - sliced into 1/4 inch thick (about 1/2 cup)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube pan or a 9-inch square pan (I used tube pan.)


2. Mix together whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, wheat germ baking soda and salt.


3. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, yogurt and Agave nectar until combined. Pour over the dry ingredients. Stir until just wet.


4. Fold in strawberries and rhubarb. Spread the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes if using a tube pan or longer in a square pan.

Note: I was told that I just got used to eating dry low fat, whole grain and too little sugar in my baked goods. She insisted butter made everything 500 times better.

Strawberry Clafoutis

I don't really know what Clafoutis is. I saw this recipe here and thought I would give it a try. Turned out it's really easy and delicious. It took no time to whip up the batter - which then is poured over prepared fruit. The result was comfortingly soft pudding-like strawberry cake.



In an attempt to reduce wheat in my diet (so that I can eat more bread), I substituted oatmeal for all purpose flour. Since the whole batter is mixed in a food processor anyway, processing oatmeal into oat flour isn't so much more work. This recipe is a keeper. I will use it again and again with any fruit in season.

Strawberry Oat Muffins

I like the strawberry and honey combination. I had these frozen strawberries in the my freezer since I don't know when. They would be good in muffins. And I needed to take a break from baking cookies.

These muffins are tender, moist and lightly sweetened with a quarter cup of honey. Measuring honey is a pain but I think it's worth it in this case. The honey lends a distinct smell and sweetness to the muffins. This recipe is a keeper. I shall come back to this one whenever I want to make oat muffins.



Ingredients

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour


• 1 cup whole wheat flour


• 1 cup quick cooking oats


• 2 teaspoons baking powder


• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 3 tablespoons extra light tasting olive oil


• 1/4 cup honey


• 2 eggs


• 1/2 cup apple sauce
• 
  
• 1/2 cup soy milk


• 1 cup roughly chopped frozen strawberries (do not thaw)


• 1 tablespoon raw sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a muffin pan with non-stick spray.


2. Combine all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.


3. In a separate bowl, whisk oil, honey, eggs, apple sauce and soy milk together.


4. Pour the wet mixture onto the dry ingredients. Stir until just wet. Do not over mix.


5. Fold in chopped frozen strawberries. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle raw sugar on top.


6. Bake for 25 minutes. Let cool in the pan for a couple of minutes. Pop out and cool completely on a cooling rack.

Three Berries Ice Cream

Nevermind that it's freezing out. There's an ice cream maker in the kitchen and we need to use it. I can't take the credit for dreaming up this berry ice cream this time. It's my Slovenian friend - Jaka. It was Creamy Raspberry-Strawberry-Blueberry Ice Cream. The ice cream was a way too sweet. I thought it should be more sour. But Jaka said we shouldn't have put lemon juice in there at all. Basically it's not good enough. So, can't post the recipe yet - just pictures.


Berries soaked in sugar for about 30 minutes.


2 cups of cream, some milk, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla and the berries in the ice cream maker.


We couldn't fit all the berries in the ice cream maker. So we used them to top the ice cream.

Single Serving Honey Strawberry Pie

That's right. Honey strawberry pie baked in a heart-shape dish for people (me) without a honey - and therefore single serving. I should make more of these so that I don't eat 8 servings of pies by myself. I had leftover pie crust dough from the apple pie frenzy. To save the planet, I decided not to throw it in garbage but bake some more pies...



Directions - toss as many strawberries as you can fit in your heart-shape dish with as much honey as you want. Top with rolled out pie crust. Bake at 350 degrees until the top crust brown. Let cool. Refrigerate. And eat by yourself. Do not invite any friends.




Single serving honey strawberry pie - or - bleeding heart pie <3

Strawberry Oatmeal Muffins

After making Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes for Jen's birthday party on Sunday, I found myself with a lot of leftover strawberries. I decided to make these Strawberry Oatmeal muffins from a recipe that I found online, with a few modifications. They turned out very well - moist, not too sweet, and full of berries. This was great way to use extra stawberries, and buttermilk, too. I like my oatmeal very thick and rough, so I used Bob's Red Mill Thick Rolled Oats, which added nice texture and flavor. I doubled the recipe and it made close to 36 muffins.

Strawberry Oat Muffins

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 1 t. salt
• dash of cinnamon, dash of nutmeg
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c. vegetable oil
• 3/4 c. brown sugar
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1 cup chopped fresh strawberries
• zest and juice from 1/2 lemon

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
- In a small bowl, combine oats and buttermilk. Let stand for 5 min.
- In another small bowl, combine the chopped strawberries with the lemon zest and juice.
- In a medium bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour through nutmeg). Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat together the egg, oil, brown sugar, and vanilla.
- Blend in the oat mixture
- Stir in to flour mixture, just until moistened.
- Fold in the strawberries/lemon mixture.
- Fill muffin cups 2/3 to 3/4 full.
- Bake for 15-20 min, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Think Pink

Saturday is the Bernal Heights Garage Sale, a huge neighborhood-wide event where people can sell their crap to other people so that they have more money to buy more crap. Yay! This year, I am going to help out my friend Jude and we are going to sell cupcakes and her adorable little hand-stitched felted onesies, too (she's a crafty one, I tell ya). Recession - ha! We laugh in your general direction.

I am going to make my Hummingbird cupcakes, and she is going to make my Salted Caramel Chocolate cupcakes. I wanted to make some kind of mini for the kids, and also something summery, so I found this recipe on line from the book "Screen Doors and Sweet Tea" by Martha Hall Foose. I adapted it slightly and it turned out great. Above is my trial batch.

Strawberry Cupcakes

• 2 1/2 C. cake flour
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1/3 C. buttermilk
• 1/4 C. canola oil
• 1/2 t. almond extract
• 1 t. vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 C. mashed fresh strawberries
• 1 t. grated orange zest

- Preheat oven to 350. Line mini muffin pan with baking cups (makes about 50-60)
- In a med bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt
- In another med bowl, combine buttermilk, oil, almond and vanilla extracts - set aside
- In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and granulated sugar until light & fluffy. Add the eggs one at time, beating well after each addition.
- Gradually add the buttermilk mixture. Beat 1 min on med speed.
- Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture. Mix until just combined
- Stir in the strawberries and orange zest.
- Spoon into prepared muffin tins - fill to 2/3 full (DO NOT overfilll, trust me on this)
- Bake for about 20 min

• 1/2 C. chopped fresh strawberries
• 2 T. strawberry jam
• 1 t. fresh lemon juice
• 1 8oz. pkg cream cheese, softened
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softenend
• 2 C. (1 box) confectioner's sugar, sifted

- In a small saucepan over med heat, combine strawberries, jam and lemon juice. Cook and stir for 5 min, or until the jam is melted and the strawberries are soft. Press any big pieces with the back of a spoon to mash.
- In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mis the cream cheese and butter at med speed until creamy. At low speed, slowly add the confectioners sugar and mix until combined.
- Add the strawberries and mix at low speed until blended.

I leave you with this fabulous sticker that my friend Jill just sent me from Cupcake Royale in Seattle (notice that they are featuring Strawberry cupcakes this month). You gotta fight for your right to FROST!

Lemon Cupcakes with Strawberry Creamcheese Frosting

I have been wanting to make this frosting again since these sandwich cookies. I remember not wanting to throw the leftover frosting away since there taste so good. This time, I used it for a cupcake frosting. I didn't want to pair it with just vanilla cupcakes. Baking strawberry cupcakes seemed like too much trouble. Plus my last attempt at strawberry muffins didn't pan out so well. So I decided on lemon cupcakes.



People always love my lemon cupcakes. Strawberry + lemon combo worked out deliciously. Since I didn't want the frosting too sweet, I used less than a cup of confectioner sugar and skipped butter all together. The frosting came out a little too runny. It was difficult to frost pretty but I thought it taste really good. I think this is the first time I have 3 of my own cupcakes in one day!



Ingredients - make 30 cupcakes

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour


• 1 teaspoon baking powder


• 1 teaspoon baking soda


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 2 sticks butter - room temperature


• 2 cups sugar


• 4 eggs


• Zest and juice from 1 lemon


• 1 cup buttermilk


• 10 fresh strawberries


• 2 packages creamcheese


• About 1 cup confectioner sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pans with liners.

1. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.


2. With an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy - about 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time. Beat well after each addition. Add lemon juice and zest.


3. Alternately stir 1/3 of flour mixture and buttermilk into the wet ingredients. Stir until well combined.


4. Fill the prepared muffin pan with the batter up to 3/4 full. Bake for 18 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool completely on a cooling rack.


5. Clean the strawberries and pureed them in a food processor.


6. With a clean electric mixer, beat creamcheese until soft. Add confectioner sugar. Slowly add pureed strawberries. Beat until the frosting is fluffy and well blended - about 2 to 3 minutes.


7. Drop about a teaspoon of the frosting on the cupcakes. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Fresh Strawberry Creamcheese Sandwich Cookies

I bookmarked this recipe from marthastewart.com for the days that I have creamcheese frosting left over from cupcakes. That day never came. I usually just either piled all the frosting on cupcakes or licked the bowl clean.

This past weekend for a friend's party, however, I decided not to make cupcakes but these instead.



The cookies came out very pretty but I thought they were way too sweet and bland. I guess that's how simple sugar cookies taste like. For the filling, I didn't want anything too sweet so decided to use creamcheese with minimal sugar. And since strawberries are really cheap now, I would use them instead of raspberries according to the original recipe.

Fresh Strawberry Creamcheese

• Half a cup of fresh strawberries - hulled and pureed in a food processor


• 1 package creamcheese


• 1/2 cup of confectioner sugar


• With an electric mixer, beat creamcheese and sugar together until fluffy. Add pureed strawberries. Continue beating until well combined.

The creamcheese came out so delicious I could not stop licking my fingers. The combination just came out a bit watery to hold itself between cookies. I think it will be better as cupcake frosting than cookie filling.

Orange Blossom Cake with Fresh Berries

Was just done having 5 people over for dinner. It was so much fun! Plus we got a firework spectacular show at end the evening. We had Spinach Salad (without hard boiled eggs - but with grilled shrimp) for appetizer, beef massaman curry with steamed jasmine rice for main dish, and this cake for dessert. I got original recipe from Epicurious.com. I made a bunch of changes to the recipe: I had only 8 eggs in the refrigerator - so I used 8 instead of 9 and adjusted all other ingredients with my mad math skills. I made a 9 inch round cake and 12 cupcakes out of the batter. I only served the 9-inch cake instead of 2 layers of 10-inch cakes. It's more manageable for 6 people.

There's a special ingredient for this recipe: Orange Blossom Water. I got mine from Dean and Deluca. Oh my god.... The thing smells heavenly. I wish I can use it as perfume. It transformed the cake from ordinary sponge cake to the most fragrant and delicious cake I have ever tasted...



Ingredients

• Cake


• 2 sticks butter (1 cup) - room temperature


• 1 3/4 cup sugar (1 1/4 cups + 1/2 cups)


• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract


• 4 cups self-rising cake flour


• 1 1/4 cups whole milk


• 8 egg whites



• Syrup


• 1 cup sugar


• 1 cup water


• 1 table spoon orange blossom water



• Frosting


• 1 stick butter (1/2 cup) - room temperature


• 1 package cream cheese (8 oz.) - room temperature


• 1/2 a box confectioner sugar (about 2 cups)


• 1 teaspoon orange blossom water



• Berries


• 1/2 pound strawberries - half the best looking 6 strawberries and quarter the rest


• 1 pint blueberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with liners. Grease 9-ince springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.


2. With electric mixer, beat butter and 1 1/4 cups of sugar together until light and fluffy. Add vanilla.


3. Alternately, stir in flour and milk into butter mixture in 3 batches.


4. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites with electric mixer at medium speed until foamy. Slowly add 1/2 cup of sugar while the mixer is running. Beat until the mixture forms peak.


5. Gently fold egg white mixture into the batter until there's no white streak.


6. Bake the cupcakes for 20 minutes and the cake for 40 minutes. Cool cupcakes and keep for other occasion. Cool cake in a pan for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and let cool completely.



7. To make syrup, boil water and sugar together. Reduce heat to medium low and let reduce to about a cup. Turn off the heat. Add orange blossom water. Let cool completely.



8. To make frosting, beat butter and cream cheese together until fluffy. Add sugar. Add orange blossom water.



9. To assemble, slice off the dome top of the cake. Cut the cake in half horizontally. Spoon half the syrup on top of the bottom layer. Pile half of the frosting on top of the cake. Sprinkle quartered strawberries and half of blueberries on top of the frosting. Press the fruit a little - making sure that the surface is quite flat.


10. Place the second half of the cake on top of fruit. Spoon the rest of syrup on the cake surface. Frost with the rest of the frosting. Decorate with the rest of strawberries and blueberries.

It took me 2 days to prepare this cake. I baked the cake on Friday night. Prepared syrup in the afternoon the next day. And 2 hours later I whipped the frosting and assembled the cake. A lot of work - but it was well worth it. The cake was beautiful , not too sweet, and smelled like fresh summer.

Strawberry Cream Cake

This cake is what started it all. I had never baked in my entire life. One day I saw a blog post with beautiful pictures of the cake on Simply Recipes. I asked everybody I knew if they could bake me one and of course everybody refused to make me the cake... ~~~~>_<~~~~

A week later - there was a sale on Amazon.com for Kitchen Aid mixers. I bought one, started baking and started a blog.

Now that I moved - physically from Tribeca to Brooklyn Heights and virtually from LiveJournal to Blogger - this cake deserves to be in my new space.



Ingredients
2 pounds strawberries
4 tablespoons sugar

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
5 eggs (3 whites + 3 yokes + 2 whole)
6 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 package cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions
1. Prepare the strawberries. Pick the best looking 24 strawberries and half them. Chop the rest and let sit in 4 tablespoons of sugar.
2. Bake the cake. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease 9 inch springform pan. Combine flour, baking powder and 3/4 cup of sugar in a bowl. Whisk 3 yokes, 2 eggs, melted butter, water and vanilla in a small bowl. Combine the two bowls and whisk until well combined.
3. With electric mixer, beat egg whites at medium speed until fluffy. Slowly add the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar. Fold fluffed egg whites into batter. Keep folding gently until the texture is smooth.
4. Pour batter into the pan and bake for 38 minutes. Let the cake cool.
5. Prepare whipped cream. Beat cream cheese, vanilla, sugar and salt with cleaned electric mixer until fluffy. Add heavy cream. Whip until the mixture is stiff.



6. Assemble the cake. Cut the cooled cake into 3 layers. Line the edges of the bottom layers with halved strawberries. Fill the center with chopped strawberries soaked in sugar. Pile a third of whipped cream on top. Repeat with the second layer. Put the top layer of cake on top. Pile on the rest of whipped cream and decorate with the rest of strawberries. Keep chill until ready to serve.

I love this cake. It's pretty to look at, light and fluffy - has lots of fresh strawberries.