But here, I stalk the market every Saturday in May hoping that this is the week when those photogenic strawberries will finally make their annual debut.

The trouble is, I have very little self-control when I secure, at last, these scarlet gems. The bulk discounts for buying more than one quart literally always get me, and I arrive at home suddenly doubting that I’ll be able to use up multiple quarts of berries before they wither and rot in my fridge.

This time, I was ready.

As you may have noticed, I tend to prefer using strawberries as whole as possible in my baked goods, which usually means they are freshly sliced and added to a cake with a smear of whipped cream. This cake still starts with berries that haven’t been pureed or cooked down, but after nearly an hour in the oven, they transform into dollops of jam and nestle into the cake beneath in the most delightful way.

I suspect, though I have not yet tested it, that this cake could be made with any number of berries. Perhaps even other baking fruits, like peaches or plums, would make delectable toppings. I’ll wager that as the summer wears on and the fruits appear in more abundance, I’ll be giving them a try. I won’t need much provocation to try this cake again.

I call this cake an anytime cake because it can just as easily be served for breakfast as it can for dessert. It would make a lovely brunch contribution but would also hold its own as the sweet finish of a decadent evening dinner party.

So as summer continues and the strawberries get even sweeter, please add this to your list of ways to use them up. It’s lovely just as it is out of the pan, but it really transcends to a higher level with a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream and a sprinkle of powdered sugar.

Welcome, summer!

Strawberry Anytime Cake
Adapted slightly from Smitten Kitchen

about 1 pound of strawberries, hulled and halved (you may have a few leftovers if you’re using a 9″ pan)
6 T unsalted butter at room temperature
7/8 c granulated sugar + 2 T granulated sugar (for sprinkling right before baking)
1/2 c whole milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp table salt

powdered sugar for sprinkling
1/2 c heavy cream, cold
2 tsp granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9″ springform pan or deep dish pie plate. You can also use a 10″ pan for a thinner cake with more strawberries across the top. Wash, hull, and halve the strawberries and set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer or in another large mixing bowl, beat butter and 7/8 c sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the whole milk, egg, vanilla just until combined. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture gradually just until smooth.

Spread the batter evenly in the pan and place the strawberries on the top, cut-side down, as close together as possible. There may be some overlapping. Sprinkle the remaining 2T of sugar evenly across the top of the berries.

Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 325°F. Bake for another 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out without any wet batter. If the top of the cake is not yet brown, change to the broiler for just a minute or two to allow the cake to brown a bit.

Let the cake cool for 10-15 minutes in the pan, then remove the ring of the springform pan and place the cake on a cutting board or serving plate. Beat the heavy cream in a standing mixer or other mixing bowl until soft peaks form. Add the 2 teaspoons of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

Just before serving, sprinkle cake with powdered sugar. Cut into wedges and serve with whipped cream.

A little over two months ago (gah, has it already been that long?) one of Brad’s friends from law school invited us over for a dinner with him and his wife, and we were asked to bring dessert. I had a busy week at work, so Brad volunteered to make our contribution. How kind of him to volunteer to prepare a dish to represent us at a dinner with his friends, yes?

*twitch* *baking-control-twitch*

It really was very nice of him. But you see I have this slight love of baking cakes, and the night before the dinner, I my control-freak-baking-nature took hold. I wanted to make something easy, tasty, and pretty, and I wanted to make it now.

This cake, you guys, is all of the above.

To be honest, I put this combo together the weekend before when testing a final batch of recipes for Scott & Crystal’s wedding cake. Enrobed in Swiss Meringue Buttercream, this chocolate cake with strawberries and whipped cream was a favorite and made it into the ceremony cake.

But it’s far too good to reserve only for wedding cake. This version is doable in less than 2 hours and doesn’t require the effort of icing the exterior. The cream and berries are icing enough, and it makes a stunning, seasonal dessert for dinner parties, summer barbecues, or birthdays.

It begins with my favorite, favorite recipe for chocolate cake. If you’ve been reading for a while (or browsing the recipe archives), you’ve seen it before in the Rich Dark Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Buttercream. It also played the principle role in the groom’s cake I made for Sierra & Sean last October.

I really can’t speak highly enough about this chocolate cake. It’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of: moist, stable, easy to make, dark and beautiful, and very chocolatey.

To make this a reasonably-sized dessert for a summer party, this recipe only makes two, eight-inch rounds. Since I like a thinner layer of cake, however, I sliced each layer in half. Once the cakes have cooled, storing them in the fridge for a hour or so makes this process a little easier as the cake will firm up a bit.

The “icing” for this cake is essentially whipped cream, but it has a small amount of gelatin mixed in. Though I was at first skeptical and sure that only pure whipped cream would be required, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by this addition. The small amount of gelatin helps the whipped cream hold it’s structure, and it gives it a lovely, fluffy consistency rather like Cool Whip.

And of course, the best part The strawberries! In my opinion, summer’s most photogenic berry. Strawberry season is almost over here in North Carolina, but many of you farther north still have several weeks of these blushing little gems just waiting to be sliced and spread across the surface of this cake.

While I would normally add just a bit of sugar to these berries to help them release their juices, this cake doesn’t need it. For one thing, I didn’t want red juices dripping down the sides of the cake. For another, the slightly tart bite of the berries is lovely against clouds of whipped cream and rich chocolate cake.

Putting this cake together, once everything is prepped, is quite simple. I used a similarly rustic approach for a strawberry shortcake I made last year, and I never get tired of how pretty it looks.

Layer by layer, this cake stacks up to be beautiful and delicious. You could easily swap out a different berry, too: it would be a dream with raspberries, or even a mixture of raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, or blueberries.

Put one together for your Fourth of July celebrations… it’s worth the effort!

Chocolate Strawberry Cream Cake
Adapted from an earlier project and Sweetapolita

For the Cake
1 3/8 c all-purpose flour
1 1/3 c granulated sugar
1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1 3/8 tsp baking powder
1 3/8 tsp baking soda
1 3/8 tsp salt
1/3 c canola oil
5/8 c buttermilk
2 large eggs
1/2 c hot coffee
1 T vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Generously grease two eight-inch round pans with pan coating and set aside. For flatter layers, wrap the pans with damp strips of tea towel.

Sift all dry ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer or other large mixing bowl. Add all remaining ingredients and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes (use the paddle attachment if using a stand mixer). Scrape sides of bowl with a spatula and mix for 30 seconds more. Batter will be very fluid. Pour batter into the greased cake pans, using a kitchen scale to ensure you have the same quantity of batter in each pan.

Bake for 25-35 minutes on middle oven rack or until a toothpick comes clean. Remove pans to a cooling rack and let cool for 10 minutes or until sides of cakes have pulled away from the pans. Using another cooling rack placed on top of each cake pan, flip the racks and pans over and press on the bottoms of the pans to remove cakes. Let cake cool to room temperature.

For the Filling/Topping
1 pound fresh strawberries
1/8 c cold water
2 tsp gelatin
1 5/8 c whipping cream, very cold
3/4 c powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt

While the cake cools, wash strawberries and allow to dry slightly in a colander. Trim off the greens and slice the strawberries into a bowl and set aside.

Once the cake has cooled to room temperature, pour gelatin and water into a stainless steel bowl. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. Place 1/3 c of cream in a small pot over medium-low heat. Once cream comes to a simmer, pour slowly over the gelatin. Mix with a fork until gelatin has dissolved. Place the bowl in the fridge and allow to cool until the outside of the bowl is neutral in temperature. Stir the bowl often or the cream will begin to gel.

Using the whisk attachment of a standing mixer, beat the remaining cream, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt on high until soft peaks form, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Reduce to medium-speed and drizzle the gelatin mixture into mixer bowl. Return to high and beat until firm peaks form. Mixture will resemble Cool Whip.

Assembly
Once your strawberries are sliced and your whipped cream is prepared, slice each layer of chocolate cake into two using a good bread knife. I find it’s easiest to rotate the layer while you are slicing, making sure you keep the knife level as it slices around the cake.

Place one of your new, small layers onto a plate or serving platter. Spread one fourth of the whipped cream over the top of the cake layer to the edges, leaving the sides bare. Spread one fourth of the strawberries evenly over the whipped cream. Repeat the order for the next three layers.

Refrigerate until ready to serve.

The last three days, I think I’ve been on my first faux-cation. That’s right. A vacation that’s not real. It’s not like I’m actually even on vacation but just not going anywhere, which is a staycation. I’m not on one of those. I just emerged from one of the more intense periods of work I’ve ever experienced, culminating in a hugely successful film festival. It was fun in that mind-bending, 17-hour work day sort of way, ya know Rewarding, exhilarating, but exhausting. And since we wrapped up late on Sunday night, it has been nearly impossible to force myself to do ANY activity that remotely resembles work: putting dishes in the dishwasher, cooking at all (seriously, I feel like I’m at the beach, we’ve been eating at restaurants with patios to take advantage of the nice weather), grocery shopping, nothing. Each time I’ve tried to get something done, I drift into daydreams of real beach vacations, lazy days in the sun, and the slower pace that simply MUST be coming soon.

But I miss you guys. I miss testing recipes, playing with food, editing photos, and writing to you. So I finally got myself back on track, though admittedly, the “recipe” that follows is vacation-inspired, and possible even in a stress-triggered faux-cation.

I made some dang strawberry ice.

Why Because summer is coming, which brings lemonade. And strawberry lemonade is the best lemonade, and hiding strawberries in ice cubes seemed like fun! It’s an easy, splashy way to step up your beverage game at summer cookouts and spring brunches. And all you need to make it is ice, sugar, water, and your favorite ice cube tray.

Now I know what you’re thinking: why do I need to add sugar to strawberries that are going to be in an ice cube Aren’t they sweet enough already And the truth is yes, they probably are. But adding just a little bit of sugar to fresh-cut berries will allow their juices to release, providing a slurry of perfectly sweet strawberry juice in every ice cube. It will be the first thing to melt when added to your drink, giving an instant strawberry surge to your lemonade, sparkling water, or other favorite beverage.

The strawberries are divided into the cubes and then topped off with water (obviously). I froze mine overnight, but if you have small ice cube trays and a killer freezer, you might be able to get away with a shorter period of time.

And then, you have ice! Scarlet-studded gems of just a bit of sweet and just a lot of fruit. They will freeze solid, but may be a bit sticky (sugar doesn’t freeze) on the outsides. Admittedly, I think I was prepping the photo above just before Kevin Ware’s leg broke, and I got a bit distracted. Hence the puddles. So I promise they won’t melt immediately, but once they’re out of the tray, into the drinks they should go.

On vacations and faux-cations for all.

Strawberry Ice
Adapted unabashedly from Joy the Baker

1 pint fresh strawberries
2 T granulated sugar
water

Slice strawberries into small pieces and place in a small bowl. Sprinkle with sugar and stir gently with a spoon. Set aside in the fridge for 5-10 minutes to allow berries to release their juices. Spoon berries into an ice cube tray, evenly distributing them until used up, filling each cavity about 3/4 full. Add water to tray until each cavity is full. Freeze overnight.

Use cubes to chill lemonade, sparkling water, or any other strawberry-worthy cold beverage.

There are some foods that have always been magic to me. Tortillas, croissants, tortellini, cream puffs… those dreamy little bites that all seem borderline impossible for a person in a home kitchen to make. Incidentally, jam also mystified me. Perhaps it was really the canning part that seemed so out of reach, for until a couple years ago, I never canned my own.

I’ve learned, however, that jam is actually quite simple to make, and it doesn’t necessarily require large batches and canning. It seems you can boil together almost any fruit and have jam in a matter of minutes, ready to serve warm or to store in the fridge for many days.

This treat is a celebration of quick jam, a blend of two early harbingers of spring: strawberry and rhubarb.

While bundled stalks of rhubarb have graced the tables of the farmers market since early February, strawberries have only recently returned to the scene. Last week, a few pints of these precious red fruits have appeared between towers of broccoli and leafy greens, and just like every year, I could hardly wait to get my hands on some.

Last year, I triumphed in making a strawberry rhubarb pie (though not without a disastrous first attempt), but I wanted to try something quick, something easy, and something delightfully simple this year to celebrate the return of this masterful pair. A baguette and block of goat cheese seemed like the perfect vehicle for a gently cooked blend of the fruits.

These little toasts would be welcome at numerous occasions. A quick breakfast, a lengthy brunch, or even dessert are excellent venues. The barely sweetened jam is nicely balanced by the creamy goat cheese and a crisp bite of bread.

In a way, I can hardly believe I’m posting this as a recipe. But sometimes it is the simplest combinations of food that are the most satisfying. And a delicious way to welcome in the spring

Strawberry Rhubarb & Goat Cheese Toasts
Adapted generously from Rock Recipes

2 c chopped strawberries
1 1/2 chopped rhubarb
1/2 c sugar
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 baguette, thinly sliced
1 T unsalted butter
4-5 oz goat cheese

Combine strawberries, rhubarb, and sugar in a medium pot over medium-high heat. Stir often and boil gently for 10-15 minutes. To test set, spoon a few drops of jam onto a plate and place in the freezer for a few minutes. Quick jam should be runny but not fluid. Stir in the balsamic vinegar and cook for a minute more, then remove from the heat and set aside.

Preheat oven to 250°F. Thinly slice baguette at an angle, each slice a quarter of an inch. Spread slices out on a cookie sheet. Melt the butter and brush it lightly over each slice of baguette. Bake for 5-6 minutes or until crust is lightly browned.

Serve warm toasts with goat cheese and a spoonful of quick jam.

The various food blogs and aggregates I browse are alight with red, white, and blue this week. And it’s no surprise! What better way to celebrate America’s Independence Day than with some desserts that feature fresh fruit that coordinates so well with Old Glory You probably already have your plans in place for whatever festivities await you today, but if you don’t, get out your baking gear and try this one.

These little desserts are based on a recipe out of the Joy the Baker Cookbook. I’ve mentioned before that the blog of the same name is one of my favorites to follow, and I was thrilled to finally get my hands on her cookbook. I find it inspiring that someone who is not classically trained in culinary technique, photography, or writing has created such a mind-blowingly successful blog and now has a published book to show for it.

It’s the first of many recipes in the book I’m eager to try.

I’ve never made a tart before, but a happy stroke of fate found the cookbook in my hands and a pack of miniature tart pans on sale at the same time. With removable bottoms, these fancy little pans allow for a cute and classy presentation of an already pretty dessert.

The tart crusts are surprisingly easy to make… no rolling of pie dough required! They do need an hour-long chill in the freezer so they don’t get all puffy in the oven. But that will give you plenty of time to prepare the rest of the tart filling and topping.

Chocolate ganache, which plays a starring role in this dessert, is also really easy. Dangerously easy. Some good dark chocolate, some cream, and a bit of butter create a smooth and creamy ganache that spreads like magic.

And the toppings, of course, come together with hardly any effort at all. The whipped cream can be done by hand in several minutes, or if you have a mixer, several seconds. The berries hardly need any help at all at this time of year.

And before you know it, you’ll have a pretty little treat to bring to your Fourth of July gathering. The spicy crust and rich chocolate are complimented nicely by the cool, fresh berries and cream.

Happy Independence Day!

Chocolate Ganache Berry Tartelettes
Adapted from Joy the Baker Cookbook

Makes 4, 4-inch tartelettes

For the Crusts
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/2 c unsalted butter, cold and cubed
1 large egg yolk, beaten

In a large, wide bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and ginger. Add butter cubes and work into the flower using your fingers. Work butter into the dry mixture until a consistency of very coarse meal is achieved. Using a fork, add the beaten egg yolk and combine well. Mixture will appear to be quite dry and crumbly.

Spoon the mixture into 4 miniature tart pans with removable bottoms. Using your fingertips, press mixture into the bottom and sides of the pan evenly all the way around. Remove any excess dough from the top to form a flush, horizontal edge around the rim of the pan. Place pans in the freezer for at least an hour. Chilling the dough will help to prevent the crusts from puffing up. While crusts chill, prepare ganache below.

After ganache is prepared and crusts have chilled, preheat oven to 350 F. Cut four squares of aluminum foil, each one large enough to lay on top of a tart pan, and grease one side of each square with butter. Remove tart pans from freezer and cover with aluminum squares, buttered side down. Bake covered pans for 18 minutes. Remove aluminum squares and bake for another 12 minutes or until crusts are golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

For the Ganache Filling
6 oz dark chocolate, roughly chopped
Scant 1 c heavy cream
3 T unsalted butter, at room temperature and cubed

Chop chocolate and place in a medium bowl. Heat cream in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat until it comes to a simmer. Pour half of the cream slowly over the chocolate pieces and allow to sit for 1-2 minutes. Gently whisk chocolate and cream mixture until combined, starting at the center of the bowl and moving out. Continuing to whisk, add remaining cream and mix until combined. Add butter cubes and stir with a spatula until all butter has melted. Ganache should be smooth and shiny. Set aside at room temperature.

For the Toppings
1 c fresh strawberries, hulled and halved
1 c fresh blackberries
1/2 c heavy cream, very cold
1 1/2 T powdered sugar, sifted

After crusts have been removed from the oven and are cooling, wash and prepare berries. If you are using large blackberries, carefully cut them in half. Set berries aside.

In a medium bowl, combine very cold heavy cream and powdered sugar. Whisk or beat vigorously until cream forms soft peaks. It is helpful to place the entire bowl in the fridge for a few minutes during this process to cool the cream, which will help it whip up faster.

Assembly
Carefully remove crusts from tart pans and remove the bottom, as well. By this point, ganache should be thick but spreadable. Spoon a large dollop of ganache into each crust and spread evenly. Top each tartelette generously with berries, keeping one berry of each type set aside. Dollop whipped cream onto each tartlette. Add a strawberry and a blackberry to the top of the cream on each to make ’em pretty.

Tart is best served immediately, but can also be stored in the refrigerator for several days. If storing, remove from the fridge for 30 minutes prior to serving.

Before I say anything else: Happy Mother’s Day!

Since moving away for college eight years ago (eek), I haven’t been able to spend Mother’s Day with my mom. I think I’ve lucked out for Father’s Day a couple of times as June was more conducive to cross-country travel, but Mom has had to settle for phone calls and packages.

This is a special Mother’s Day, too. My mom is retiring this year after decades of work in elementary libraries and classrooms, teaching young Coloradoans (myself included) to read, to write, and to appreciate books. I have many fond memories over the years of going to the library with my mom for work and for fun, of stapling long strips of playful bulletin board borders to the edges of her displays, of ogling over the annual book fair catalogs and knowing that if there was one place she would buy us anything we asked for, it was books. Her fervor for the written word has, no doubt, cultivated my own passion for books and penchant for writing. She’s the #1 fan of this little food blog and tenders her support through comments, encouragement, and little e-mails alerting me to typos (which, by the way, I welcome from ANYONE who spots one – I want to squash typos out like bugs). So thanks Mom! For everything. I wish I could spend today with you!

But since I can’t, how about blog-worthy pie?

This pie has a little backstory. Until this spring, I’d never made a pie crust from scratch, and I’d never made a fruit pie at all. But there is something about pie. Some old-school, down-home, re-assuring something that I couldn’t resist any longer. Ironically, my mom was never really a baker of pies (she tended toward cakes and cookies for her desserts), so I’ve always been somewhat intimidated by pie. Which sounds ridiculous, really.

Anyway, once strawberries started to make their grand entrance this spring, I decided I wanted to tackle this culinary mountain so that I could no longer awkwardly change the subject when someone asked about my favorite pie to bake. It seemed an obvious choice to start with a true classic: strawberry rhubarb pie.

Strawberries, I’ve worked with before in a variety of contexts. But rhubarb was a new ingredient for me. It hardly looks like a fruit at all. Long, green, stiff stalks that look more like celery or a sturdy cousin of Swiss chard, it hardly looks like something I’d want to bake into a dessert. It’s tangy and extremely tart on its own, and apparently, the leaves are somewhat toxic to humans. The more you know.

But strawberries and rhubarb have been historically coupled together: the overly sweet strawberry plays nicely with the tart rhubarb, and where strawberries are soft, rhubarb retains a firmer texture despite a long stay in the oven.

But the filling wasn’t my true concern. I was actually more nervous about tackling homemade pie dough. So many recipes to choose from! So many “miracle” tricks! They couldn’t all be the answer, could they Empowered by my recent success with a lovely quiche crust, I decided to try an all-butter crust.

(For added Mother’s-Day coolness, that is my grandmother’s pastry cutter. It has literally been used to make pie doughs for DECADES. Best to stick with what works, right?)

I followed an excellent tutorial with tips about making and rolling pie crust (from the lovely Deb at Smitten Kitchen – who else?), and find that pie dough was not nearly as intimidating as I was building it up to be. Keeping the butter COLD was key, and making sure the dough chilled for a couple of hours turned these frighteningly sticky patties of dough into perfect pie crusts a couple hours later.

With my bottom crust in place it was time for the filling.

You might be wondering why my ruby red strawberries and fresh sliced rhubarb are marred by unappealing little bits of white stuff. I take this opportunity to showcase the not-so-photogenic secret to making this pie miraculous: instant tapioca

A cautionary tale… you see, this is not the first strawberry rhubarb pie I have made this season. In fact, I made one just two weeks earlier than this batch of photos, but the result was far from perfect. In a brazen show of culinary naivety, I decided that I need not heed the warnings that this filling would be a soupy mess if I used cornstarch alone to try to thicken the juicy fruit. I didn’t have any tapioca on hand didn’t feel like running to the store, and used the cornstarch anyway.  I pulled from the oven what appeared to be the perfect pie.

Right?? Perfectly golden crust, no juicy explosions, bright red fruit peeking through the lattices. But then I sliced into it…

Like water through a broken damn, the juice and fruit that made up my pie filling flowed out of the crust as soon as a slice was sloppily removed from the pie plate. To make matters worse, the bottom crust hadn’t cooked all the way, so instead of matching the golden crispy crust on top, it was a stretchy mass of gummy flour and butter. I was heartbroken! How could I have gone so wrong?

Two things: one, I discovered that in fact, my oven cooks about 10 degrees shy of what it says on the meter. Important. No wonder everything I’ve cooked since the new oven got installed has taken longer than expected. Two, use the tapioca. I’ve since learned that instant tapioca seems to be a rather commonly-used ingredient for fruit pies. And for damn good reason.

Back to the second pie:

Even after my disastrous first pie, I was still, still, nervous about these little white bits. What if they didn’t go away Would my filling be gritty But it was too late to go back at this point, and I was determined to see if the tapioca was all it was cracked up to be. I topped off the pie with some latticed pie dough (shockingly easy, I’ll show you how in the recipe below), plopped it in the oven, and hoped for the best.

Out it came! The top wasn’t quite as perfect-looking as the previous pie due to some small juice explosions, but this was probably due to the fact that my oven was actually at the proper temperature this time. The bottom crust looked like was the right color to be done (I checked this time). I waited a few hours to let the pie cool, and then I nervously made a slice to see if the consistency of the filling had improved.

Look at that! It was completely different! The gritty white particles had disappeared and created a perfectly gelled filling. I was floored. I’ll never doubt tapioca again.

So hooray! Following a dismal failure in the kitchen, I redeemed myself with a pie that was not only pretty to look at, but was also really good to eat. Maybe, one of these years, I can make one at Mother’s Day and share more than a picture of it with my mom. And maybe you can too!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
Adapted slightly from Smitten Kitchen

For the Crust
2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 T sugar
1 tsp salt
2 sticks (or 1 cup) unsalted butter, COLD and cut into 1/2″ cubes
1/2 c + 1 T very cold water

In a wide bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt. Add cubes of butter and combine with flour mixture using a pastry cutter or a fork. Be sure to incorporate all of the flour and work the mixture until it has the appearance of a very coarse meal. It’s okay if some butter pieces are still larger, about the size of a pea… it’s important to not work it too much.

Add 1/2 of the water and glue the mixture together using a rubber spatula. Once the mixture is mostly combined, work it into a single clump using your hands. You may need to add a bit more water – be careful not to add too much or the dough will be too moist. Dough will be slightly sticky, and will appear to be too sticky to roll out. Divide the dough into two equal clumps and place each clump on a piece of plastic wrap. Fold the plastic wrap over on top of each clump and press into a round disc, about an inch thick. Then, wrap the plastic wrap around each disc.

Chill dough discs in the refrigerator for at least two hours.

For the Filling
3 1/2 c rhubarb, chopped into pieces about 1/2″ thick
3 1/2 c strawberries, sliced into large pieces or halved
1/2 c white sugar
1/4 c dark brown sugar
1 T lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c instant tapioca (I found Minute brand in the baking aisle)

While your dough chills, prepare your fruits. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and stir gently to avoid crushing the strawberries too much. Set aside.

For the Assembly
1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten, and mixed with 1 tsp water

Once your dough has chilled for at least two hours and your filling ingredients have been combined, preheat oven to 400 °F. Get out your pie plate and set it near the area where you will be rolling out your dough. Generously flour a clean surface and a rolling pin. Remove one disc of dough from the refrigerator and remove the plastic wrap, then place it on the floured surface, sprinkling more flour on top of the dough. Roll out the dough, flipping every couple of rolls and re-flouring under the dough, until you have a circle about 14″ in diameter, or, enough to line the bottom of the pie plate with at least an inch of dough hanging over the sides. Carefully slide the dough into the pie plate. If you like, you can gently fold the dough into quarters to transfer it to the plate and then unfold it. Press the dough into the plate so that it is flush with the entirety of the inside of the plate.

Add the filling to the bottom crust and spread out evenly.

Repeat the rolling process with the second dough disc. If you’re planning to put a full lid on your pie, make several slices in the center of the rolled out circle to ensure ventilation and place the crust over the pie. If you are using lattices, slice the dough into strips about an inch wide. Lay the strips across the pie in one direction,  leaving about 1/2″ between the strips. When you have applied enough strips in one direction, lift every other strip and fold it back over itself at the center of the pie. Place a strip going the opposite direction at that line, then fold the strips you lifted back down across the pie. Now, lift the opposite set of strips and fold them back over themselves, adding another strip next to the first and continuing to leave a 1/2″ gap. Continue until half of the top is complete, then repeat the process on the other half.

Trim all dough, both from the bottom crusts and the lattices on the top, until about 3/4″ remains as an overhang. Then, tuck all overhang under the bottom crust so that nothing overhangs. You now should have a thick rim of dough around the top of your pie plate. To crimp the edges, hold your thumb and index finger about 1/2″ apart on the outside of the rim and press your opposite index finger into the gap between them on the inside of the rim. Repeat by moving your fingers so your thumb is now in the recess where the index finger of the same hand just was until you have crimped the entire rim.

Using a pastry brush, gently brush the egg yolk & water mixture over the entire top crusts. Place pie in the oven on a center rack and bake at 400 °F for 20 minutes. Then, reduce heat to 350 °F and bake for an additional 30-35 minutes. Pie is done when top AND bottom crusts are golden brown (this is where a glass pie plate comes in especially handy) and filling is bubbling.

Remove pie to a cooling rack and allow to cool for several hours, or even overnight.

Pie can be served warm or cool and should keep on the counter for 3-4 days.

Spring (though it’s actually starting to feel more like summer here in NC) has officially begun. It seems like the trees were, just moments ago, blossoming in delicate flowers and poking little green buds into the cool air, but they are suddenly enrobed in lush, green leaves still blinking in their new-found sunshine. The daffodils and tulips have come and gone, and the light lingers a few moments more every evening.

But just in case there was any doubt:

The berries have arrived.

Glistening, ruby-red, and more photogenic than any berry I know, strawberries are the first fruit of the season to reach the farmers market in Durham. They’re the first float of the summer produce parade; it’s definitely cause for celebration.

And what better way to celebrate than with a classic, fresh, and simple strawberry shortcake?

Okay, okay, I know you might be skeptical about my use of the word “simple” when discussing a six-layer cake, but I promise, it’s really rather easy AND is so totally worth it once you have your first bite.

The cake itself is a “chiffon” cake. I’ve never really known what that meant, but now I feel inspired to make them again and again. This cake is spongy, similar to angel food cake, but richer in flavor and with a smaller crumb.

We start by separating eggs. The yolks will give this cake a definite cake-y texture (as opposed to angel food which, frankly, usually reminds me of eating a well-flavored cotton ball). The whites, on the other hand, make for a batter unlike any I’ve ever worked with before.

I haven’t spent a lot of time making meringues or even really using egg whites in their cloud-like form, but now that I’ve opened that can of worms in the last few months, I find myself utterly fascinated. This stuff is downright FOAM, people. Foam I say. I found myself reminded me of those elementary school days when we ridiculously “cleaned” our desks with shaving cream.

The whites, which are combined gently with the other ingredients, create a batter than is not even pourable, it must be spread. Like the shaving cream. I was tempted to scrap the whole dessert project and smear cake batter across the counter tops.

I didn’t, but seriously, most fun cake batter I’ve ever made.

I followed through with the original plan for dessert and voila!, out came springy, bouncy, tender layers of cake.

My layers weren’t perfect, weren’t even level, but that’s okay: it all evens out in the end. Plus it gave the final project a kind of folksy, put-together charm.

Next! While my little cakes cooled, the berries and whipped cream were on their way.

I chose to slightly sweeten my berries so their natural juices would release and soak ever so slightly into the cake. You could also try this without sweetening the berries, but I find just a little bit of sugar enhances the flavor without turning the whole mess into candy.

On the other hand, I tend to prefer my whipped cream a little on the un-sweet side. A little sugar, yes, but not so much that you lose the flavor of the cream. Mmmmmm I want more just thinking about it.

Be advised: if you try this recipe, you will not have as much whipped cream as you see in this picture. I um, slightly over-estimated how much I would need by, well, about double. The proportions below should give you enough for the layers of your cake without cups and cups (yes I really overshot it) of extra whipped cream.

Then up, up, up! To the moon with this cake! To Mars! Or at least to six layers. I confess, it did get a little precarious, but fortunately, the whipped cream makes an excellent glue.

Not to mention an excellent dessert.

Welcome back, strawberries! I am SO happy you’re here.

Supertall Strawberry Shortcake
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Note: The original recipe was designed for two 9″ round cake pans, which would ultimately yield four layers. My batter might have fit into two 6″ pans, but I didn’t want to risk them overflowing. Plus, I like the ratio of cake-to-berry-to-cream with the thickness I got.

For the Cake
1 c + 2 T cake flour
1/2 c + 2 T sugar
1/2 T baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 c + 2 T cold water
1/4 c vegetable oil
2-3 drops lemon extract
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 large egg yolks (or 3 medium egg yolks)
4 large egg whites
2 T sugar (additional)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Use pan coating to grease the bottom and corners of three 6″ round cake pans and set aside. Preheat oven to 325°F.

Sift together cake flour, the first measure of sugar (1/2 c + 2T), baking powder, and salt into a large bowl.

In the bowl of a standing mixer (or another large bowl), beat the egg yolks, water, oil, lemon extract, and vanilla extract for 1-2 minutes or until thoroughly combined. Pour yolk mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until smooth. Clean out the mixer bowl and wipe dry with a towel. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form, then add remaining 2 T sugar. Continue to beat on high until peaks are stiff.

Using a rubber spatula, fold about 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter until no more egg white are visible. Then, add remaining egg whites and fold just until egg whites are combined and are no longer visibly separate.

Scrape batter into cake pans and spread evenly. Bake for 30 minutes or until top is springy and a toothpick poked in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Let cakes cool in their pans on a cooling rack for 15 minutes or so, then, running a knife around the edges first, flip the pans over to release the cakes. Place in the fridge to cool.

For the Strawberries
12-14 oz strawberries, washed, hulled, and halved
2 T sugar

Sprinkle sugar over strawberries and stir gently to dissolve sugar. Allow berries to rest for 10-15 minutes so that juices begin to release.

For the Whipped Cream
1 c heavy cream, very cold
2 T confectioner’s (powdered) sugar
1/2 vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a standing mixer, which has preferably been in the fridge for a few minutes to make it nice and cold. Beat until stiff peaks form.

Assembly
Once cake layers have cooled, carefully slice each layer in half using a good bread knife or layer slicer. Cake will be very spongy, so slice slowly. Place one layer flat-side down on a serving plate or cake stand. Place berries flat side down over the cake, with the tips of the berries barely sticking out over the edge. Spread a layer of whipped cream over the berries, just enough to fill in the gaps between berries but without spreading down the sides. Whipped cream layer should cover the berries just enough so that the tops carry a thin layer. Add the next layer of cake, strawberries, and cream and continue. Once the top layer of cake is applied, spread the top with a generous coat of whipped cream. Top with a heap of berries and refrigerate until serving.

Serve either by slicing vertically (which is precarious), or by lifting each layer of cake onto a plate.

The berries have been picked, sliced, sugared, and cooked. Each jar has announced with a satisfying little pop! of the lid that it is sealed and ready to be stored until it is opened, its contents slathered onto someone’s breakfast. Maybe mine, maybe yours.

The final step in my eight-flavor experiment in strawberry jam (who knew there was so much variety?) was definitely the most relaxing: the tasting! Sampling each variety was hugely important, you see. I mean, how else could I tell you which ones worked and which ones didn’t Trust me, there was no other reason to open so many jars of jam at one time.

I made a date of it. Made some biscuits, sat on the balcony, even grabbed a notepad to record my initial reactions to each jar. It was fancy. I may or may not have pretended I was a snooty judge on a Food Network show.

There weren’t any losers, but I definitely had some favorites. Here’s how the cookie crumbled:

Strawberry Preserves, light on the sugar
Winner, All-Around Favorite!
Thinner in consistency than the others, the slices of berries hold their shape and swim in a smooth red syrup. This is not the best choice for a PB&J, but this week, I’ve mixed it into Greek-style yogurt and drizzled it over vanilla ice cream, and the next time I make waffles, it’s going right on top. Totally awesome.

Strawberry Preserves, regular sugar
I couldn’t discern much difference between this and the version with less sugar, so I might as well just make the one with less sugar.

Strawberry Jam, standard recipe
Classic. Awesome. This has a nice jam consistency complete with little chunks of berries, which I love.

Strawberry Balsamic Jam
Since I like Balsamic Strawberries so much, I figured I’d try the flavor combination in a jam. While it doesn’t taste like I expected it to, it does add some depth and complexity to the jam. It’s a keeper.

Strawberry Vanilla Jam
Winner, Most Surprisingly Awesome!
This seriously tastes like strawberry ice cream. Even though there is no increase in sugar, the vanilla seems to emphasize the lighter, sweeter side of the strawberries. It’s delightful, and very dessert-y.

Strawberry Vanilla Balsamic Jam
I know. Fancy business. This is actually made with a vanilla-infused balsamic vinegar, and produces a lovely, darker flavor, though with a slightly brighter quality than the Strawberry Balsamic.

Strawberry Jam, honey instead of sugar
Most Disappointing…
I had really high hopes for this one. White sugar doesn’t exactly grow in North Carolina, but there are many local apiaries. I may try this one again with raw honey (I didn’t have any available on jam day) but this particular batch is not my favorite. The flavor of the honey seems to overpower the berries and leaves just a hint of bitterness in your mouth. Maybe it will grow on me It needs some work.

Overall, I’m happy with the results. I’m excited that I have jam to share with friends. And my family.

And you!

I’m really happy you’re here reading this blog and giving feedback, so I’ll be randomly selecting three (3) of you to win a jar of the strawberry jam that most appeals to you. Sound good I hope so!

How to Win Some Jam CLOSED
1. Leave a comment on this post answering this question: Which recipes or types of food would you like to see on 30 Pounds of Apples
OR
2. Like-a-dee-like 30 Pounds of Apples on Facebook.
OR
3. Do both, and enter twice!

Enter before midnight on Friday, May 20, or you’ll turn into a pumpkin and you’ll have no jam. Winners will be announced on Saturday, May 21.

And for those of you who wanna make some jam of your own, the recipes and variations are below. Make some. Then find a biscuit!

Seven-Minute Strawberry Preserves
Adapted from Meta Given’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking
Makes about 2 pints

4 c sliced or halved strawberries (no soft spots)
2 c + 1/3 c white sugar
3 T lemon juice

Wash, hull and slice berries to the shape you want. Pour into a bowl. Sprinkle 1/3 c sugar over berries and add lemon juice. Stir. Let mixture stand in refrigerator overnight. When you are ready to make the preserves, prepare a 3-4 quart saucepan on the stove. Add 2 c sugar and stir gently. Stop stirring and heat until boiling. Boil for seven minutes. Shake pan or stir occasionally while cooking. Prepare sterilized jars and lids on a towel near the stove. Once cooking is complete, remove from heat and stir until foam relaxes and you can see the dark jam below. Pour into hot sterilized jars and lid immediately. Set aside. Once lids have popped inward, they are sealed. Let jars cool completely and then store in a cool, dry place.

Strawberry Jam
From my Grandma Emma
Makes a little more than 2 pints

4 c sliced strawberries
4 c white sugar
1/4 c lemon juice

Sterilize jars and lids. I like to keep in the dishwasher on the drying cycle to keep them warm while making the jam. Around 3 minutes from the end time, pull them out and place them on a towel on the counter near the stove with your lids ready.

Wash and slice strawberries and dump them into a large sauce pan (at least a 4 quart pan). Mash berries slightly with a potato masher. Add sugar & lemon juice. Turn on stove to medium-high and stir constantly. Once jam comes to a rolling boil, start timer for 7-8 minutes, and continue to stir constantly.

Remove from heat and continue stirring until foam collapses and has mostly dissipated. Stir quickly so the jam stays really hot. Pour into jars, leave 1/4-1/2 inches of room at the top of the jar. If you have a canning funnel, use it to reduce splatter. If you don’t have one, don’t worry about it, just use caution when pouring, it’s HOT. As soon as jam is poured, place fresh flat lid on jar and add metal ring to tighten. Set aside and let rest. Seals will “pop” inward within 20-30 minutes.

Let jars sit overnight, then label and store!

Variations (based on original Strawberry Jam recipe)

For Strawberry Balsamic Jam, reduce lemon juice to 1 T and add 3 T balsamic vinegar.
For Strawberry Vanilla Jam, reduce lemon juice to 2 T and 2 T vanilla. Boil for one additional minute.
For Strawberry Vanilla Balsamic Jam, reduce lemon juice to 1 T and add 3 T of vanilla balsamic vinegar.
For Strawberry Jam with Honey, substitute honey for white sugar (and let me know it turns out!)

Soooooo, twenty-0ne pounds of strawberries. Now what?

I wish you could have seen the faces of other customers entering the strawberry field as I was attempting to tote these boxes out. Most of them looked at me with a bizarre look of pity. Like I’d gone off the deep end. And/or had a serious strawberry addiction.

In case you’re just now tuning in, I spent the early hours of sunshine last Saturday picking strawberries to transform into jam, and after arriving home with my loot, it was time to start preserving.

Freezing Fresh Berries

While most would agree that berries are best when eaten fresh & ripe, they also freeze really well. In my stubborn attempt to avoid purchasing produce when it is incredibly out of season, freezing berries opens up many possibilities to enjoy fruit when it’s snowy (or, in my current location, semi-cold and gray). Berries can be frozen in a syrup or juice, but I prefer to freeze them whole.

What You Need

cookie sheets (make sure they fit in your freezer… trust me on this one and test the space with an empty sheet before you start)
parchment paper
freezer
berries (if you don’t have those, you’re doing the wrooooong project)

It’s pretty straight forward. Sort through your berries and find the beauty queens. Freezing berries with soft spots isn’t the best idea, so find the nicest, firmest, most beautiful berries in the bunch. Wash them, pop off their tops and if you can, pop out the hull (the white firm spot right beneath the green leaves). Arrange them on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper so that they aren’t touching. Then freeze ’em!

I froze one sheet for about three hours and another tray for twenty-four, so I’ll keep you posted about any difference between them when I actually use them on some dreary winter day in the future. Why did I not just freeze them in their container and skip the teetering tray of berries step This way, I will be able to pull out exactly the number of berries I want rather than one giant clump of them fused together. Just planning ahead. For smoothies. Who needs ice when you have frozen strawberries?

Anyway. Moving on.

Canning Jam

Maybe it was just me and my very amateur experience in canning, but the longest part of this process was the preparation. Before any boiling jam could be bottled, there were berries to wash and slice, batches of preserves to sugar overnight, jars to purchase and sanitize, surfaces to cover. It’s a big project.

Once I had everything prepared, though, the batches actually moved rather quickly. It’s really just the same process over and over again until you run out of berries. Or sugar. Or jars. Or stamina. Whichever comes first.

Take a break halfway through and eat something salty for lunch. Your house will smell like it’s filled with strawberries. It is.

The biggest temptation to resist was to try and double the batches. See how innocent and small this batch looks in the pan when it first goes on the stove?

And then how HUGE it get once it begins to boil I’m thankful every minute I trusted my grandma’s recipe and left the proportions as they were. Unless you have a much larger pot than this (I think mine is four quarts), I suggest starting small to see how much it increases in size.

And so, after preparing and cooking as many berries I could stand, I stepped back to admire the results.

Ta da!

…Ta da?

Oh man…

My kitchen was pink. My shoes made that “fffwich!” noise on the floor as they became progressively more sticky. There was jam in my hair. Strawberry tops everywhere. The stove needs cleaned. The floor needs mopped. I need another shelf in my pantry.

But I have jam. Eight different varieties in thirty-seven jars. So stay tuned for the epic conclusion, Strawberry Jam Part III: Recipes + Results, to discover how they turned out. And maybe you can taste some for yourself. :)

Also:
I’m sooo not an expert on canning, and though I started this post with the intention of outlining every step, I honestly feel a bit uncomfortable going into immense detail about the rights and wrongs of home food preservation. Why I’ve only been canning jam for a couple of summers, and I haven’t yet ventured into any pickles, salsas, or other preserves. So until I get some more experience under my belt, I’m gonna leave it to the experts. These are some of the best resources out there for learning to can. I also learned much of my technique from my grandma, but she’s not linkable. Silly.

Strawberry jam: the first recipe in food preservation cookbooks, the poster child for all things homemade, and glistening ruby red in quilted glass jars and wrapped with a ribbon of twine.

And you can make it with tools you probably have in your kitchen already.

Now, baskets of still-earthy vegetables from the farmer’s market seem to provide the standard imagery for the local food movement, but my goal is to eat as locally as possible all year long, which involves learning how to preserve food when it is plentiful to get through months when it is not. And while jam is not the most necessary of foods, it is a great starting point if you want to learn to can. Which I do.

I’m sure you can tell where this is going: I made some jam! Okay; I made a lot of jam. So let’s rewind from this spoonful of crimson goodness, and I’ll tell you all about it.

Pick-Your-Own Strawberries

A key ingredient of strawberry jam, as you might imagine, is a hefty amount of fresh strawberries. You can go about procuring these berries however you want, but I chose to find a local farm where I could pick them myself.

The premise of a pick-your-own farm, or a “u-pick”, as they are commonly called, is simple: a grower plants their crop, then instead of harvesting it and selling it in turquoise paper baskets, they invite customers to the farm to pick it themselves at a much lower price. While most pick-your-owns also offer some pre-picked goods for sale at the farm stand, the labor burden is significantly reduced since the majority of harvesting is done by the customers themselves. They get free labor, you get a good price on berries, it’s a pretty sweet deal.

Unless you are living in the heart of a very large and very urban city, there’s a pretty good chance you can find a pick-your-own farm surprisingly close by. Waller Family Farm, my farm of choice for this particular excursion, is only a few miles away from my apartment, just outside of the Durham city limits. As a kid I couldn’t really imagine that urban and rural landscapes could co-exist so closely, so this kind of proximity still amazes and delights me.

There are not many occasions for which I’ll set a 7:30am alarm on a Saturday, but spending a couple of hours in a humid field is one of them. Going early beats the heat, the crowds and the bugs, and since I’ve made the afternoon mistake in the past, I arrived at the farm with a few other early birds to pick the first berries of the day.

Waller Family Farm grows Chandler strawberries, a variety known for producing large, firm berries that ripen to a brilliant red. They are gorgeous, juicy and delicious.

For anyone out there who might grumble about paying $4 for a quart of fresh-picked strawberries at the farmer’s market, I encourage you to take a couple of hours picking some yourself. Even an early, post-rain morning quickly became hot and humid, and by the time I had filled my boxes (which took about 2 hours), my back and knees were quite sore. But the extra effort of picking these berries yourself makes them even sweeter.

All twenty-one pounds of them.

Have you ever been to a pick-your-own farm Wanna try one Pickyourown.org is a great resource for learning about farms all over the country that will let you venture into their fields to pick your own strawberries, blueberries, apples, pumpkins, peas… you get the idea. Take some friends, your kids, or just yourself, and become a little more connected to your food and the land it comes from. It’s totally worth your time.

Coming next: Strawberry Jam, Part II: Preserving