Strawberry Crumb Bars

If you visit often you already know that I get inspiration from many sources and for many reasons. I have many wonderful books on my shelves, I like to try some of the recipes from my favorite blogs, I enjoy the challenge of the Heavenly Bakers and the Daring Bakers, and sometimes friends graciously share. The recipe for this project came from one of my favorites blogs, so I won't be writting up this recipe today. Instead I am going to rave about it so much that you won't be able to contain yourself and you will seek it out at Technicolor Kitchen in English.

The reason for this project is that this week I have a partner in the kitchen. She is a very special helper. With old but loving hands. Hands that are going to turn 85 years old on Sunday. So this week we need a small variety of treats for my helper to snack on until her day- a special birthday celebration. But more on that next week.

Back to the baking project at hand. Strawberry Crumb Bars! This is one of those recipes that as soon as it cools and that as the first bite goes in your mouth you know, you just know that this is a keeper. And its versatility lends itself to so many possible variations.

The recipe is in three components. First is a cookie base that bakes up seperately. Sweet but not overy, tender but holds together. A perfect blend of ingredients.

As the base cools the filling can be prepared. This is where it gets exciting. The first time I made this I used a fresh home made blueberry jam. Oh yeah! The second time I made it with a dried plum and orange zest puree. Yum! The third time (pictured here) I used a home made strawberry jam....pure bliss!

The last component is a not too sweet crumb topping and then back in the oven. The finished product is addicting and light, and wonderful. I already know what I will use as a filling the next time I make it!

Let me know if you try it and what you use as a filling!

Strawberry Ice Cream & recipe

I can't imagine my life without ice cream, gelato or semi freddo. Yup, I could easily live on this creamy, sensual, smooth, cool concoction without even the slighest blip. It can be in a dish, on a stick, in a cone, soft or firm. I'd take it anyway, shape or form, for breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack!!!

There are many different ways to make ice cream. Some versions use egg yolks which really vamps up the creamy factor. The milk to cream ratio changes the consistancy as it is juggled around from recipe to recipe. And then we get to the multitude of flavors and additions.The combinations are endless!

A few years ago I was thrilled when I received an ice cream maker as a gift. (Of course the gift givers also gave me a list of flavors that they wanted first dibs on too!) So when I read this week's project with the Heavenly Bakers and saw that it called for ice cream- well now!. A perfect reason to whip up a batch of fresh strawberry ice cream!

The version I used for this project was adapted from "A Passion for Ice Cream" by Emily Luchetti.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup sugar

1/8 tsp kosher salt

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup milk

1/3 cup homemade (of course) strawberry preserves

Put the cream, milk, sugar, and salt in a heavy sauce pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occassionally, until the liquid is almost simmering. Cool over an ice bath to room temperature. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

Churn in a ice cream machine according to directions. In my case, the liquid is passed through a strainer directly into the freezer bowl of my machine. It is churned for 25 minutes. During the last 5 minutes the preserves are added to the partially frozen mixture.

Scoop the soft ice cream into a freezer container and place in the freezer overnight. Or it can be served immediately. Easy, right! It's like nothing you've tasted before!!! Now I better hide it in the freezer before the taste testers see it.

My favorite is nutella with chopped hazelnut. "J" loves strawberry (the reason it is hidden). What is you favorite combination?

Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Cake

This week with the Heavenly Bakers it was a Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Cake. A multiple component project, the cake not only has multiple types of chocolate (white being my personal favorite) but the filling contains my beloved fruit the strawberry! How could this be anything but delicious! The cake is a soft and moist white chocolate cake with a luscious light strawberry mousseline filling and a dark chocolate frosting. Oh my! This is just spot on for satisfying multiple levels of you inner most desires. Rose's directions have never disappointed me and is one of the many reasons this is one of my favorite books.

Multiple components allows me to prepare in steps as I attempt to do with any baking project I take on. It helps keep life in this house running smooth. I like smooth, oh yeah back to cake, sorry.

The cake batter as mentioned contains white chocolate (mmmmmm..), eggs, milk, vanilla, cake flour (this promises to have a fine crumb now), sugar leavenings and of course BUTTER! Yes, I found this batter came together with ease and baked up very nicely. Oh yeah, btw: I always lick the beaters since my little one is no longer little and I have no competition for it except when my mother in-law is visiting! As you can see I chose to make only a half batch, and you can see it still baked up very nicely. Good to know since you can't always cut a recipe in half successfully.

The instructions did not mention how thick the layers should be and this is where I took some liberty that later I would reget. I had already tasted the batter and was more than happy to test the cake tops that were cut off, so I knew this cake was superb. I then decided (bad move) to keep the layers at 1 inch. Please learn by my mistake and make them 1/2" to 3/4" max when you get to this point.

Next ups is the strawberry mousseline. I do not find that mousseline spreads well after refrigeration so I did not prepare it in advance. Again Rose's directions were easy to follow and fool proof. The ingredients are; butter, eggs, sugar, water, cream of tarter, strawberry butter (I used pureed strawberry preserves), and vanilla. The butter is beaten until smooth and set aside. A sugar syup is made and heated to 248 to 250 degrees. Meanwhile the egg whites are beaten to stiff peaks with cream of tarter and some of the sugar. Then the sugar syrup is slowly poured into the beaten egg white to make a meringue. This is put in the refrigerator to cool to 70 degrees. Now I have to mention this is the aspect of Rose's Heavenly Cakes recipe that I love the most. Temperature. Temperature of components can be the difference between success and failure. If the recipe mentions temperature, whether it be of the butter or chocolate or in this case the meringue then it must be and this time was important. So be careful don't skip ahead or try to rush! Back to the business at hand... The meringue is added to the butter in portions with caution and beaten until well blended (again not so much that it seperates). The strawberry butter or preserves is added and the filling is complete and set aside.

On to putting it all together: Rose tell us to sandwich each layer with the strawberry mousseline topped with some of thr strawberry butter/puree. However, I got a little carried away with the strawberry and with my layers so thick this caused some instability. This you will see in my final picture and do the "tisk, tisk" noises along with me.

The frosting was next up as the final step to this wonderful cake. I had some trouble here which was either my impatience or humidity. The ingredients were; two dark chocolates a 99% cacao and a 62% cacao. I had to substitute a semi-sweet chocolate. Also some butter, corn syrup and vanilla was on the list. It seemed pretty straight forward and came out smooth and shiney as promised. I poured the top while is was still fluid and waited the requiset 30 minutes for the sides. But as you can see I wound up warming the frosting again and pouring. A big mistake I know that now. However, it is what I did.

All that being said I must say this is one of the best tasting cakes I've tasted. It was light, fine and moist. The strawberry mousseline was flavorful, smooth and creamy. The chocolate frosting was definitely a contrast but balanced. Overall, very nice! I hope you give this a try and share your frosting escapades with me. Or maybe some suggestions for the next time I give it a go.