strawberry

Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Sandwiches

June 20, 2018

I feel like it went from Spring to Summer in the blink of an eye.

Okay, maybe it’s because we have been traveling for the better part of a month, but all of a sudden it just got hot!

Which means it’s ice cream season! Not that I need any special season to help myself to some ice cream, but it certainly helps with the thermometer is pushing 90 or 100 degrees.

I also can’t get enough fruit during the Summer, especially strawberries, which is why I thought I would combine one of my favorite strawberry desserts with a bit of ice cream for the ultimate Summer treat.

Everyone makes their strawberry shortcake with whipped cream, but why not throw a little ice cream in there instead and call it a strawberry shortcake ice cream sandwich!?

How to Make It

The Shortcake

The shortcake in these strawberry shortcake ice cream sandwiches is the most intensive step in the process. But if you can make a biscuit, you can make shortcake! Trust me, homemade shortcake is well worth the moderate effort it takes to make them!

Start by mixing together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Then add in the chilled and cubed butter.

Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles cake crumbs. You can use two knives, a pastry cutter, or your hands. I used a combination of a pastry cutter and my hands.

Pour in the milk, just a little bit at a time. Mix until a sticky yet firm dough forms. It’s okay if you don’t use all of the milk.

Since these are drop biscuits, drop the dough using a spoon or ice cream scoop onto a lined baking sheet about 2-3 inches apart.

If you want a flatter shortcake (easier to actually eat as an ice cream sandwich), press the biscuit down with your hand. Then brush the top with a bit of melted butter and sprinkle with some coarse sugar. Then pop in the oven and bake until golden.

The Strawberries

Fresh strawberries are best for strawberry shortcake, but if you also want your strawberries to be extra juicy and create a strawberry syrup to drizzle down the ice cream, I recommend tossing them in a bit of sugar.

Slice your strawberries however you prefer, then sprinkle over about 1-2 teaspoons of granulates sugar. Toss the strawberries to coat, then let sit for at least 10 minutes, or while the shortbread bakes.

Assemble

Assembling the strawberry shortcake ice cream sandies is the best part!

Slice the baked and cooled shortcake in half like a hamburger bun using a serrated knife. Then pile on the strawberries. Top the strawberries with a healthy scoop of your favorite vanilla ice cream and even more strawberries.

Top it off with the other half of the shortcake and you have yourself a delicious Summer treat!

Tools and Recipe

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Beautiful Fruit Tart with Almond Crust

April 11, 2018

I have now made this tart three times, and in my opinion, it keeps getting better. After each fruit tart, I learn something new to make it a little better. For instance, for the first fruit tart, I made a shortbread crust. Something super simple and super delicious.

For the second version of this tart, I decided to make a Thomas Keller tart crust recipe. My neighbors, who have had this tart each time it was made, told me they liked the first crust better! So for the third (and final) tart, I made the original shortbread-like crust but kept the delicious mascarpone filling that everyone loved in the second.

However, we all know what makes this beautiful fruit tart so eye-catching! The fruit! I really stepped up my game when I made this for Easter and decided to make some pretty fruit flowers instead of just piling on the fruit. It was a hit! Adding the extra details to this tart makes it look very professional and sophisticated when (just between you and me), it’s SUPER easy to make!

I will even allow shortcuts to the recipe. For instance, don’t want to make your own tart shell? Buy one premade, use a frozen pie crust, use store bought cookie dough, or make a quick graham cracker crust! Sure, it won’t taste quite the same as the one I made, but I guarantee it will still be delicious.

There aren’t really any shortcuts for the filling since it’s just mascarpone and sugar mixed together. But, if you wanted to make it a tad healthier, you could use vanilla Greek yogurt instead.

All I am saying is that this post is more about how to assemble a beautiful fruit tart than it is about making one from scratch. However, if you are interested in the later, I’ve got you covered with the recipe down below!

How to Make It

For those who are interested in how to make the tart shell and the filling, read on. If you just want to see how I created the flowers, skip to the next section!

The tart shell is a cross between a shortbread cookie, pie dough, and the super fancy tart shell that Thomas Keller makes.

Combine almond flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, butter, salt, and a teeny bit of water in a food processor and pulse until the dough forms a loose ball.

Like this!

Roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment until it’s big enough to cover the bottom and sides of your tart pan.

Press the dough into the bottom and along the sides of the pan, then cut off any excess.

Add a sheet of parchment and then pour on pie weights, dry beans, or rice. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, then remove the pie weights and bake for an additional 10.

While the tart shell bakes, make the filling.

Mix together mascarpone, sugar, and vanilla until it’s light and fluffy.

Once the tart shell has baked and cooled, spread the filling into the bottom of the tart shell.

Now it’s time to assemble!

How to Assemble a Beautiful Fruit Tart

The hard part is creating the fruit flowers. It did take me a few tries to get the strawberries down, but they are pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

The mango flowers are even easier, provided the mangos aren’t too slippery. My mango was very juicy which made the slices a bit harder to roll. But they still aren’t very hard to make.

Like with any flower arrangement, whether on a cookie or on a wreath, I recommend using an odd number of the same type of anything. So I have 5 strawberry flowers and 5 mango flowers. I also have 5 clusters of kiwi. That wasn’t an accident. That was very much on purpose. Odd numbers are more pleasing to the eye so they make this fruit tart look very organic and natural, rather than staged.

However, the best thing about this fruit tart is EATING IT!

It is so delicious! It’s simple, not overpowering, but still incredibly flavorful because of all of the fruit flavors on the top of the tart. I absolutely love this combination of fruit because you have a mix of tart fruits, like kiwi and raspberry, with sweeter fruits like the blueberry, strawberry, and mango. There are also so many different textures, it all comes together to create the perfect dessert!

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised when my neighbors keep requesting this tart for any of our get-togethers!

Tools and Recipe

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Water Color Fruit Cookies (+ NEW Sugar Cookie Recipes!)

June 23, 2017

I am really excited about this post for a couple of reasons. First of all, I love these cookies. They are some of my favorites to date! I have been loving this painting on cookies technique that I picked up over the past couple of months. It’s actually somewhat therapeutic to sit and paint. Plus, with watercolor, you don’t have to be so precise and exact, which I certainly appreciate!

The second reason I love this post is that each one of the watercolor fruit cookies represents the flavor of the cookie! I have been playing around with different flavors for a couple months and settled on four that will be my (actually, you have already seen them in the rotation) my go-to cookie flavors for Summer (and probably beyond).

But I will get to the flavors in a second. First let me show you how I painted the cookies! (P.S. It’s super easy!)

So the trick is to “water down” your food coloring with a bit of a clear alcohol or extract, like almond extract. You don’t want the color to be TOO pigmented, or else it won’t look like water color. Then I just mixed my colors until I found a shade I liked and painted directly on the dried icing. There is no science to it at all! I did have pictures of water color fruit up in front of me while I did this so I had something to work off of. But after a while, I just did what I thought looked good.

Now back to these cookie flavors.

I know I share a lot of sugar cookie recipes. So instead of posting all the recipes here, or sharing them one by one over the course of the Summer, I decided to put together a little mini recipe e-book with all four recipes which you can get here. Each recipe is not only delicious, but I spent a lot of time in Photoshop making them pretty, too! That way you can print them out and save them for the next time you want to make some wonderful cookies.

The lemon cookie is lemon-mint flavored and is absolutely refreshing and delicious! The raspberry cookie is a raspberry lemonade flavor, which reminds me of my all time favorite summer drink. The strawberry is strawberry and honey flavor which is subtle and sweet. And finally the lime cookie is lime and sea salt flavored which almost tastes like a margarita! (As I was decorating, I couldn’t help but think of the Willy Wonka line “the snozeberries tastes like snozeberries!”)

Also, I should mention that these recipes are not my normal sugar cookie recipe with a couple extracts thrown in. I re-developed my sugar cookie recipe just for Summer! It’s lighter and softer than normal. Plus the flavors are all natural! They are not engineered for a flavor extract, which makes the cookies that much more wonderful and delicious!

If you do end up downloading the e-book and trying out the recipes, I would love to know what you think. Also, if you like this idea, I already have some thoughts on another e-book for the Holidays!

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Strawberry Mojito Recipe

June 2, 2017

A few years ago (eight, actually), Billy and I found ourselves in Miami on the way to Puerto Rico. The first night we walked down the beach to find a place to eat (and drink), when we stumbled upon the Clevelander. Actually, you don’t really stumble upon the Clevelander. You are sort of drawn to it. It’s a huge restaurant on a corner with an expansive patio and a towering neon sign. Nevertheless, we settled in and ordered a couple mojitos.

About six mojitos later, it was decided; these were the best mojitos we had ever had! Sure, it could have been that we had consumed SIX mojitos. But I promise you I wouldn’t have had more than one if they weren’t special.

Once we got to Puerto Rico, we made a point to take a trip to the Bicardi factory where we learned even more about mojitos. From that point on, Billy and I were on a mission to make a mojito as good as the ones we had in Miami and San Juan!

We have actually gotten pretty close over the years. Every Summer when limes are in abundance, we stock up and try out hand at a few mojitos. This Summer I wanted to mix things up. We have had plenty of plain ol’ mojitos. Why not try a strawberry mojito?!

How I made them

Mojito’s require a little bit of elbow grease. Forget just pouring a couple liquids together. You have to work for this one!

In the bottom of a glass, I put mint leaves strawberries, and a bit of sugar. I don’t have a muddler, so I use the back of a wooden spoon to muddle the strawberries and mint leaves. I want my mint leaves to be beat up and the strawberries to be smashed. The sugar just acts as an abrasive to help with both of those things.

To that, I add the rum and some simple syrup and stir everything together. I top it with some ice and sparkling water. I had some lime La Croix’s on hand, and that worked perfectly!

Then I drink it as quickly as possible and make myself another one!

Just kidding! You guys have no idea how slow of a drinker I am. It’s pathetic. But I drank this strawberry mojito before the ice had a chance to melt. And that’s saying something!

It really is the perfect Summer drink! Lime and mint is already a refreshing combination. But with the addition of strawberries, it is sent over the top! It’s like that perfect drink to sip on a hot day by the beach, by the pool, or on the patio.No need to fly down to Miami or Puerto Rico. Unless you happen to find yourself there. Then definitely find a spot at the Clevelander and settle in!

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Roasted Strawberry and Rosemary Scones

May 20, 2016

Leave it to me to find breakfast inspiration from a drink. Last week we had friends in town which is all the excuse I needed to indulge in a fancy cocktail. We took them out to one of our favorite restaurants that is more of a speak-easy bar than a restaurant, so you can probably imagine how great the drinks are. I can’t even tell you what I ordered except that it had muddled strawberry and a rosemary sprig. I would have never thought to put the two together before, but they were delicious! As I was taking my first sip I immediately thought that this would make a great scone or muffin recipe. Minus the gin, of course.

I didn’t just want this to be any old strawberry scone, so along with a hint of rosemary, I roasted the strawberries for an extra, unexpected flavor. Roasted strawberries are just a little bit sweeter, softer, and since the juice has had a chance to cook out, they mix in perfectly with the scone dough so that it isn’t too soggy

The rest of the scone recipe is pretty basic, almost like a biscuit dough. Cubes of butter are cut into the flour and sugar and then mixed with milk, an egg, and some vanilla. I have ruined a few scone recipes before by over mixing the dough, so now I know that it’s okay if the dough is a little lumpy. In fact, it’s preferred. All those little lumps of butter will melt and make the scones light and flaky!

Right at the end, I mixed in some chopped up fresh rosemary leaves and the roasted strawberries. Typically I roll out the dough and cut it into rounds, like biscuits (0r you could cut them into wedges). In an attempt to be a little rustic (and because I was lazy), I just dropped spoonfuls of the dough onto a baking sheet. And then because they looked a little too rustic once baked, I camouflaged them with a drizzle of strawberry glaze made with the reserved strawberry juice and some powdered sugar.

I will admit, I was a little nervous about the rosemary in a sweet and fruity scone, but it just worked! Normally I pair rosemary with garlic so I think of it as a savory herb, but now I know it doesn’t have to be.

But if that doesn’t convince you, you can just drop the rosemary all together and just make these roasted strawberry scones, instead. They will still be delicious!

Also, if you haven’t signed up for Yummly, I would highly recommend it! It’s a great way to find and collect recipes. If you are on Yummly, I would really appreciate it if you “Yum” my recipe,by clicking that little orange button.

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No Churn Strawberry Banana Ice Cream

May 9, 2016

Boy it’s starting to feel like Summer. It got up to almost 90 degrees here this weekend. Perfect ice cream weather! Of course, since I am trying to stick to a Paleo diet right now, real ice cream is out of the question. No diary or sugar allowed for me! But that doesn’t mean my craving for ice cream is going away anytime soon.

Instead of diving head first into a carton of cookie dough ice cream, I decided to McGuyver some frozen bananas into a no churn strawberry banana ice cream (maybe more or a sorbet?) that would satisfy my craving. Being on a Paleo diet means getting really creative with the foods you can eat to make them into the foods you can’t.

In the morning, I chopped up some strawberries and bananas and tossed them in the freezer. When I got home, the fruit was nice and frozen and all I had to do was blend them up with a bit of coconut milk. It’s essentially like making a smoothie, but much thicker and colder. The blender did warm up the mixture a bit, so I poured it into a shallow dish and popped it in the freezer for a couple hours to let it set up.

After that, it was good to go! I scooped out nice big scoops of ice cream and topped it with some shredded coconut. And boy did it hit the spot. Sure, I would have loved a few chocolate chips thrown on top, but this certainly was delicious all on it’s own.

It’s perfect for a warm Summer day since it’s so light and refreshing! And it won’t derail anyone’s plans on getting that bikini body since it’s 95% fruit! I will definitely be making versions of the ice cream all Summer long. I am going to try chocolate next!

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Sugar-Free Strawberry Lemonade

May 27, 2014

Summer has not officially started yet, but as usual no one has informed the weather that June 21st has not yet arrived. For the past few weeks we have experienced some pretty warm weather almost everywhere, at least below the Mason-Dixon line.

I don’t know about you, but one of my all time favorite Summer (or really, anytime) drinks is strawberry lemonade. I love lemons. I could eat lemons raw, that’s how much I love them. I also love strawberries, so what could be better than the combination of the two, right? One of the things I don’t love about lemonade is how much sugar is in it in order to counter act the sourness. Instead of sugar, I used Stevia, which is great to use in drinks because it dissolves pretty easily without having to heat up your liquid. It is also much sweeter than granulated sugar so you can use less.

The strawberry juice also adds some extra sweetness which means you can use less sugar. There are a couple ways to add strawberry juice to the lemonade:

1. Juice the strawberries using a electric juicer;

2. Puree the strawberries and add it to the lemon juice, seeds and all; or

3. Puree the strawberries and run it through a sieve in order to remove the seeds and pulp.

I choose option #3. But all are fine options.

If you do plan on making this recipe, use it more of a guideline. Start with your lemon juice and strawberry juice, then add part of the sugar and water, adding more until you get the desired sweetness and concentration. You may want to add more stevia/sugar/sweetener and water than I have listed in the recipe. Like most of my recipes, I encourage you to play with it and make it your own.

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Gluten Free and Sugar Free Pancakes

May 9, 2014

I really like to reward myself with some little indulgences on weekends. But what I love even more is to indulge myself while still being healthy. One of my favorite indulgences to give a healthy makeover are pancakes because they offer a variety of ways to experiment and are relatively fool proof. To make these pancakes gluten free, I combined 3 different “flours”. Buckwheat flour, almond flour, quinoa flour (which is just dried quinoa processed until fine like a flour).

To make them sugar free, I just used a banana and a little stevia. You could also use apple sauce, honey, or brown rice syrup if you don’t like the banana flavor. I mashed up the banana and mixed it in with milk and eggs before adding it to the dry mixture. I like my batter on the thicker side, but you can always add more milk to make it thinner and thus result in thinner pancakes. After a quick flip on the griddle, I had myself a nice stack of healthy pancakes. The perfect fuel for my Saturday runs.

But I didn’t just stop with making the pancakes healthy. I also decided to make my own “syrup” using strawberries, water, and a little honey. Boy was that stuff delicious!

And I didn’t feel at all guilty about drenching my pancakes in it either.

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Baked Strawberry Donuts

April 30, 2014

When I was a kid, my dad would always take me to get donuts on the weekends. Something about a donut just brings me back to simpler times when your only weekend responsibility was to play outside and maybe do a little homework. Oh, and not worrying about counting all those calories.

Now, weekends are full of chores and errands, and of course a little fun here and there. And just like when I was a kid, I think weekends are a time for a little treat. A little reminder of being a kid again.

What I love about making (and baking) donuts at home, is that they are just about the same recipe as a muffin just shaped in a circle. You can make them as healthy or unhealthy as you like. This weekend combines a little bit of both. The batter is made with whole wheat flour and Greek yogurt, but they also have 2 layers of icing.

I glazed the donuts first in a vanilla glaze made with confectioners sugar and milk. Then I dipped them into a strawberry icing made with pureed strawberries and confectioners sugar.

I also mixed strawberries into the batter for some extra strawberry flavor. Strawberry jam could instead be mixed into the batter for a more concentrated flavor.

Other than the excessive icing, these donuts are a far cry from the ones I had from a child. They are baked, not fried, and use much more healthy ingredients. It almost makes this childhood favorite guilt-free again. Almost.

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