Strawberry season is upon us. Although store-bought strawberries are available nearly year round now, this is the time when some pick-your-own farms are open. Picking berries is one of my favorite late spring/early summer outings with the kids. I think it is a great opportunity to get them a little closer to the starting point of one of their food sources and to appreciate the work that goes into bringing food to market. Plus, it is just plain fun outdoor family time.
We typically pick several pounds of strawberries and freeze most of them - wash, hull, place on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper, flash freeze, then put in a bag and store in our deep freezer. However, we do save some fresh strawberries for making a couple special treats. As I was trying to decide what to make this year, I found myself contemplating coconut and lemon flavors in conjunction with the strawberries. I am not someone who generally invents my own recipes, so I began brainstorming about how I would like to combine these flavors and then searched online for recipes that might align with my ideas. I came up with two dishes that my husband and I have made over the past couple days - Strawberry Dutch Baby with Coconut Rum Strawberry Syrup and Coconut Lemon Scones with Strawberry Whipped Cream and Macerated Strawberries. Both of these have been successes, and I definitely want to make these again.
We typically pick several pounds of strawberries and freeze most of them - wash, hull, place on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper, flash freeze, then put in a bag and store in our deep freezer. However, we do save some fresh strawberries for making a couple special treats. As I was trying to decide what to make this year, I found myself contemplating coconut and lemon flavors in conjunction with the strawberries. I am not someone who generally invents my own recipes, so I began brainstorming about how I would like to combine these flavors and then searched online for recipes that might align with my ideas. I came up with two dishes that my husband and I have made over the past couple days - Strawberry Dutch Baby with Coconut Rum Strawberry Syrup and Coconut Lemon Scones with Strawberry Whipped Cream and Macerated Strawberries. Both of these have been successes, and I definitely want to make these again.
 | Strawberry Dutch Baby with Coconut Rum Syrup We had coconut rum in our cupboard, so I began searching for strawberry rum sauce recipes, planning to just use coconut rum instead. I don't enjoy drinking hard liquor, but I do like the flavor that it provides in cooking and baking. I came across a Strawberry Dutch Baby with Fresh Strawberry Rum Syrup recipe on The Cooking Photographer website. This sounded perfect to me - Dutch baby pancakes are easy to make and yummy - so we made the recipe as written with only one adaptation - using coconut rum in place of regular rum. We loved it...especially the rum syrup! The syrup is versatile and I can imagine using it on many things. We have already stirred it into our plain homemade yogurt for a tasty snack or dessert. |
| Coconut Lemon Scones with Strawberry Whipped Cream I wanted to try a twist on the classic strawberry shortcake that included coconuts and lemons. After doing some searching, I came upon a Coconut Lemon Scones Recipe at one of my favorite food blogs, Two Peas & Their Pod. Given that I have liked so many of the recipes from this site, I was confident I would enjoy this scone recipe as well. The kids enjoyed watching me make the scones, and cutting the round of dough into eight pieces was a nice opportunity to discuss fractions with them. (I find cooking, in general, to be a great time to incorporate math lessons). My plan was to top the scones with plain whipped cream and macerated strawberries (i.e. sliced strawberries sprinkled with a bit of sugar to draw the liquid out), but Hopper 1 said he wanted strawberry whipped cream. Since I like for the kids to feel involved in cooking (hoping that they will do more of it for me as the get older), I obliged. We simply pureed fresh strawberries and folded a bit into the homemade whipped cream. This Alton Brown whipped cream recipe is pretty similar how we make our own whipped cream. The resulting scones with strawberry whipped cream and macerated strawberries were a very nice twist on strawberry shortcake, and really satisfied my craving for a coconut/lemon/strawberry combination. (For a little more coconut flavor, my husband and I added a splash of coconut rum to the strawberries on the top of our servings...mmmmm, that coconut rum could become a dangerous thing.) |  |
