Strawberry Season Special: Little Red Riding Hood Streusel

This recipe was created by Darienne for our Children's Book Week.
Inspired on the story, she tells "I  baked the strawberries right into the cake, adding a splash of balsamic vinegar to deepen the flavor and hint at the darkness lurking in the woods."
How inspiring!

Little Red Riding Hood’s Strawberry Streusel Cakes

You can adapt this recipe for muffins or a larger cake, if you're careful to adjust the baking time.

Strawberry filling
1 1/2 cups strawberries, washed, hulled, and sliced
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons arrowroot or cornstarch
squeeze of lemon juice

Cake
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain, unsweetened yogurt

Streusel topping
1 cup flour
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch salt
6 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil four mini loaf pans.

Combine strawberry filling ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to low and cook, continuing to stir, for a few minutes until thickened. Mash strawberries with a fork to desired consistency and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Adds eggs and blend well, then add vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and stir well to combine. Add a third of the flour mixture to the mixing bowl, combine, then mix in half the yogurt. Then mix in another third of the flour, the other half of the yogurt, and finally the rest of the flour mixture, stirring in each addition well.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt with a fork. Stir in melted butter until mixture is chunky and crumbly.

Divide cake batter among four loaf pans. Spoon strawberry filling on top. With a butter knife, gently swirl the filling into the top of the batter to marble it a bit. Spread the crumbly streusel topping over each loaf. Garnish the tops, if you wish, with a strawberry slice or two.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cake comes out clean.

Strawberry Season Special: Herbal Galette

Here's our second strawberry celebration.
I still remember its taste and texture: The marriage of fruit and herbs is just perfect in this beautiful dessert or tea treat created by Darienne. As she described, this is "It is a celebration of summer, a last explosion of bright berry flavor tucked into a here-comes-fall pastry crust".
Believe-me, it's so easy to make and guests of all ages will be delighted by its charm.

Herbal Strawberry Galette

A simple sugar paste with lemon verbena leaves added a lovely touch to this simple dessert. You can use the same technique with any herbs you like. Like yesterday's fig galette, this makes a small pie to feed six comfortably. Double the recipe if you wish.

1/2 single pie crust (use a refrigerated crust, your favorite recipe, or this pâte brisée recipe)
2 cups sliced strawberries
2 tablespoons herbal sugar paste
water
1 tablespoon sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine strawberries and sugar paste in a large bowl, and let sit for about 10 minutes.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll out dough into a roughly 8" round or square and set on the parchment paper. Lay out strawberry slices in the center of the dough, leaving a 1 1/2- to 2-inch border. (With a round, you can invert a bowl in the center and press lightly to mark where the fruit will go. With a square, try marking the corners with pieces of fruit.) Carefully fold up the edges, pleating where necessary.

Lightly brush the edges of the dough with water and sprinkle with sugar (or rub with additional sugar paste). Bake for 20 to 28 minutes, until dough is golden brown and crispy.

Herbal Sugar Paste

I started off with lemon verbena sugar paste from Jerry Traunfeld's The Herbfarm Cookbook. The technique would work well with other herbs such as mint, lemon balm, and basil.

1 part lightly packed leaves
2 parts sugar

Process sugar and leaves in a food processor until they form a paste. Store any leftovers in the freezer.

Strawberry Season Special - Cheers Strawberries Cocktail

Who can resist to the redness and sweetness of a ripe strawberry? My family and I can't.

Last weekend we were in the windy fields of one organic farm close to Santa Cruz, California, buying some of the Chandler variety of organic strawberries. The music playing in my mind was "Strawberry Fields Forever." All of a sudden I traveled back in time: I had learned, with a bit of disappointment, that the Beatles' song was not really a psychedelic inspiration on a strawberry field—but was mentioning a children's home close to Lennon's place. That revelation happened while I was working with my friend, photographer Tina, on a feature for a magazine in Liverpool in the mid-'90s.

When I realized that our weekend program, to pick organic strawberries, was not really possible, I also got disappointed. On top of that, my camera had just run out of batteries! The strawberries were not ready yet—as many were still in the need of more sun to mature, and spring had unusual cold weather, compromising some of the crop. The boys were able to understand that the plants needed more time, and off we went to buy strawberries already picked from other fields of the farm—delicious ones—and a jar of their extraordinary jam.

This short series of strawberry based recipes is going to be online from today to Sunday. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do! Cheers!

Kids are always asking me to have some more exciting drinks, once they set up their own paperboard clubhouse in the backyard!
One of the good reasons to love it, it's because you can use those not-so-fresh strawberries that were left behind. This is a reinterpretation of a recipe created two years ago for Mother's Day.

Strawberry Cocktail

With some not-so-fresh strawberries, I prepared a syrup-like compote, simmering the fruits with orange juice. I used the mix as a base for the cocktail. 

2 tablespoons strawberry compote (recipe below)
1/2 cup sparkling mineral water with lime
1/4 cup apple juice (optional)
4 leaves fresh mint, chopped
Ice (optional)

Combine all ingredients, stir slowly, and add fresh chopped mint on the top.

Strawberry Compote

2  cups whole strawberries
1 cup fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon orange zest
5 or 6 juniper berries, dried

Simmer all for about 30 minutes or until the fruits are smooth. Remove juniper berries. Refrigerate and reserve for the drink.