Celebrating Strawberries : a Crumble + a Cake

       I've been on a strawberry high for the last few weeks. I'd been waiting, waiting for this season to come, for the day when I could smell the strawberries when I passed them in the store...when they'd again be so vibrantly red they could hardly be real. Well, the time finally arrived and I've been downing them by the pound since, tossing them onto and into everything I can manage from salads to ice cream to pies to cereal to cakes to simply gobbling them up fresh and simple by the handful. One such cake and another delicious crumble were yummy enough to share with you all here.

       Last week my sweet friend Brenna asked if I would make her a birthday cake. Of course! came my excited reply. What kind? ... Um, how about strawberry? she considered. Done and done. A very favorite cake of mine, I was thrilled to have someone to make it for. I hunted around for a good recipe, initially disappointed that every one had jello and a boxed cake mix in it. Hmpf. Then, I finally came across this winner with no artificial additions. It turned out moist and light and just sweet enough. Brenna also requested a lighter, less sweet, more whipped cream-esque kind of frosting, which I made but didn't love (the one in the picture). However, I'm a huge fan of cream cheese frosting with a strawberry cake, so I'm listing a basic recipe for it below. Delish. Let me know what you think! {Recipe below.}

       For my second ode to the strawberry I offer a strawberry-rhubarb crumble. Now, I've heard of rhubarb, and lately come across several recipes for strawberry-rhubarb pie, but let's face it, rhubarb just doesn't come around real often and I now know why. Not only does it very much resemble celery (well, purple celery), but it's straight up just not real tasty. By itself, at least. It's stringy and bitter and has a fairly unappetizing tang to it. By itself. But, when combined with sugar and strawberries and butter and lemon juice? Voila! It finds its place. So, rhubarb, I owe you an apology for my skepticism. You actually make a pretty decent pie. Thanks. It's true. This dish turned out so great. The topping is impeccable. And the strawberry-rhubarb combo just right. The juices soften the crispy rhubarb stalks which end up providing a bit more substance to each bite. It's reallly good. As in, I'm having trouble keeping myself from a third bowl. That good. So, hooray for strawberries that are ripe and wonderful! Go getcha some.

ps: this recipe is infinitely adaptable to use with nearly any fruit that's in season. for one, leave out the rhubarb if you're freaked out by it. for two, feel free to swap out the strawberries for peaches or blackberries or any combo of fruits you feel like. it's very flexible. :)

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble

adapted slightly from smitten kitchen

serves 6-8

ingredients:

topping: 

1 1/3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons brown sugar

3 tablespoons raw sugar/turbinado

zest of 1 lemon

1/2 cup pecans, toasted and finely chopped

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

filling:

1 1/2 cups rhubarb (about 6 stalks), chopped into 1-inch pieces

1 quart fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered

juice of 1 lemon

1/2 cup granulated sugar

4 tablespoons cornstarch (up to 1/2 cup if your berries are very juicy)

1 pinch salt

directions: 

1. Heat oven to 375F. To prepare topping, combine flour, baking powder, sugars, zest, and pecans, then add melted butter, stirring until you have both small and big clumps. Refrigerate for later. 

2. For the filling, toss rhubarb, strawberries, lemon juice, sugar, corn starch, and salt in a 9-inch deep dish pie pan.

3. Coat the filling entirely with the topping and place your pie pan on a foil lined baking sheet. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until the topping is beginning to look golden brown and the filling beginning to bubble. 

 Natural Strawberry Cake

adapted from www.jasonandshawnda.com

yields one 2-layer cake

ingredients: 

24 ounces fresh strawberries, hulled

2 teaspoons sugar

1/4 cup milk (i use 2%), room temperature

6 large egg whites, room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour (sift first, then measure it out)

1 3/4 cups sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

directions:

1. Place strawberries and 2 teaspoons sugar in blender/food processor and puree well. Set aside. 

2. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter entire inside of two 8-inch pans then line the bottom with parchment paper. Coat parchment with butter, as well, then flour the insides and set pans aside. 

3. Using a fork and small bowl, combine 1 cup of the strawberry puree with the milk, egg whites, and vanilla, stirring until blended. 

4. In large bowl, mix sifted flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt with a mixer on low speed. Add butter, mixing until just combined. It should look crumbly.

5. Add liquid mixture to the dry and beat at medium speed for 30 seconds, until evenly combined. Stop mixer and scrape sides of the bowl, stirring all together by hand for another 30 seconds. Pour batter evenly into prepared pans. 

6. Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans for about 10 minutes, then invert onto wire racks to cool completely. Once totally cooled, ice** with your favorite frosting (or mine, provided below :).

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

enough to ice one 2-layer cake

ingredients:

1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted (add up to 2 c. more if you prefer a sweeter frosting)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup pureed strawberries (use some of what's left from above mix)

directions:

1. On low speed, combine butter and cream cheese, beating until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.

2. Pour in strawberry puree and vanilla, mixing until well combined.

2. Gradually stir in powdered sugar, then beat with mixer until incorporated, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed. Add more sugar if frosting seems too runny. 

3. Ice your cake!**

**Cake-icing tip: One way to ice a cake to keep from having icing all over the plate is to cut up several thick strips of parchment (or wax paper) and set them on the plate before you put the cooled cake on it. As you ice, the parchment will catch the frosting that would be getting on the plate. And then, when you're done, just slowly pull the paper pieces out from each side of the cake and you will have a clean plate beneath! Easy as that. The picture above shows the cake before I took the paper off. 

Your Bran Muffin

       It's chilly and overcast this morning and kind of nice to be lazying around inside. I have a marvelous few days off work right now and am trying to sort through my mental list of all I'd love to fit in this free time before work again. This begins to be trouble for me as I somehow manage to create a list of things impossible to accomplish in even a month's time, much less 4 days. Knowing this of myself, I woke this morning determined to chill. I will enjoy this day and its passing moments as opposed to racing the clock to fit in everything I'd like to. Not everything has to be done today, I remember my grandpa impressing on me once. So much to learn...
      Well, once awake and after the morning play with puppy, first things came first: I was hungry and something needed to be done about breakfast. Presently tired of the uber-sweet confections I've been indulging in lately, and needing a bit of fiber in my life, my mind arrived at this bran muffin. Have you had a great bran muffin before? There are some bad ones out there for sure. And then there are these. You really will love them. Five reasons: One, they're quick and easy to make. Only about 20-30 minutes total for prep and baking. And, I tried to whittle it down to dirtying only two bowls. Two, they're good for you: high in fiber (~5g); some good protein if you add nuts; and the ground flax seeds aid in digestion and lowering bad cholesterol, as well. Three, they're delicious, especially straight out of the oven with a bit of butter and honey drizzle on top. Four, they're versatile as can be, one of my favorite things about them and why this is titled your bran muffin. If you want them plain, leave 'em plain. Nuts? Toast some and toss 'em in. Dried fruit? Totally. Need your chocolate fix in the morning? Absolutely, yes. You can satisfy friends and family alike by simply splitting up your batter and adding desired ingredients to each bit. And five, the batter can be covered with saran and kept in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks, so you can mix up the batter and enjoy a few muffins now-and-then for the next month. Genius. Ok, enough blabbing. I already had 2. Go make some! Just make sure you have a bathroom somewhere nearby (What? I'm a nurse. I can say these things.). And enjoy this day.

Your Bran Muffin

gathered from several recipes over the past few years

yields 20-24 muffins

ingredients:

3 cups unprocessed wheat bran, like this one, divided

1 cup boiling water

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 large eggs at room temperature, beaten

2 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup flax seed meal

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups buttermilk

*optional add-ins to total 2-4 cups:

1 cup nuts, toasted

1 cup dried or fresh fruit (i love a blueberry bran muffin)

2 mashed/chopped ripe bananas

1 cup mini chocolate chips

the zest of an orange is a nice addition, too, especially with dried cranberries

directions: 

1. Grease muffin pan and set aside. 

2. In small bowl, combine 1 cup of the bran with 1 cup boiling water. Stir and set aside for 5 minutes. 

3. In large bowl, cream butter and sugar, mixing in vanilla at the end. 

4. Add moist bran to butter-sugar mix in the large bowl. Now use that now empty small bowl to beat your eggs (if you haven't already) and add them to the large bowl.

5. Pour all remaining ingredients into large bowl, then stir together until well combined. 

6. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour before baking for best marriage of ingredients (though you can bake immediately, as well. they just won't be quite as great. i find they're best when the batter's left in the fridge overnight.). Batter will keep refrigerated in sealed container for up to 4 weeks. Bake for 15-18 minutes in 400F oven. Let cool for 5 minutes then enjoy!

Zested Sugar Cookies

      Happy Cinco de Mayo, friends. I had a thought to post something related--something yummy like guacamole tacos or pineapple salsa--but time passed and I ended up working and eating out and sleeping in and visiting friends and not having much time to create any mexican fare this week. I do, though, have a wonderful little cookie to tell you about! So, for starters, I've never been really big on sugar cookies. More often than not they seem hard and dry and lacking in much flavor. However, I came across this recipe the other day and, seeing it included lemon zest, knew (in my obsession with all things lemon) that I must try them. I was delighted to find them not hard, dry, and tasteless, but, rather, moist and chewy and graced with the loveliest hint of lemon (not enough of the flavor to name them "lemon cookies," but enough to notice it's there.). I decided to throw in a wee bit of almond extract, as well, which ended up being the perfect partner to the lemon. I also realized, after the fact, that you really could zest an orange or lime just the same for a different twist of flavor. This is one reason I decided to call them zested sugar cookies...didn't want to fend anyone off with a lemon limitation when, in fact, you have other options! I haven't tried the others yet but imagine they would be lovely, as well. So, let me know what you think! 

       *A hint: Something I realized in baking these is that, unlike most cookies that you want to take out when you just begin to see the edges browning, you actually have cooked these too long when you start seeing the edges brown. This makes it a little tough to time them. So, since ovens differ, I recommend baking until at least a minute below the recommended time and then lifting a cookie with a spatula to see if the bottom is browned yet. Once the bottom is a bit browned, they should be ready to come out and cool on the sheet. The cookies that I let brown on the edges ended up less moist than the others.

Zested Sugar Cookies

yields maybe 15 large cookies

adapted ever-so-slighty from www.biggirlssmallkitchen.com

ingredients:

2 1/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

zest of 1 lemon (orange or lime)

1 egg, room temperature

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/4 cup coarse sugar (or plain, if you don't have coarse or would rather not have that crunch on top)

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

2. In large bowl, cream together butter, 1 cup regular sugar, and zest until combined. Blend in egg and almond extract until incorporated.

3. In smaller bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt, then gradually add to butter mixture until just combined. Don't overmix! I have to use my rubber spatula after about 10-15 seconds of mixing in order to scrape the sides of the bowl and press the loose dry mixture into the rest. Once mixed, let chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes. This helps it set up and makes the dough easier to form.

4. Form dough into balls (a heaping 1/4 cup size) and dip half the unbaked cookie into the course sugar. Set the sugar-coated cookies around 4 inches apart (they spread!) on a parchment-lined baking sheet sugar-side up. Press the cookies down with your palm to half their height. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the bottoms are lightly browned. Let cool on baking sheet.