Secret Recipe Club-Quick StrawberryShortcakes

This month I joined in with the Secret Recipe Club hosted by Amanda from Amanda's Cookin'. Each month you are assigned a blog, make something from the blog and post it on a certain day, like today. The secret? You don't tell until posting day.

So, who was my blogger, well that would be Wendy, from The Weekend Gourmet. One of the great things about a bloghop is that you are introduced to blogs that you may not know exists, I had no idea about Wendy and I am so glad I do now! Go check her out, she has alot of great looking stuff!

I decided to make her Shortcut Strawberry Shortcakes, and is exactly what they are. I did change a couple things, just to make it a little simpler..isn't that what "shortcut" means? To make it more simpler?

Wanna join in on the fun for next month? Just go here to sign up!

Shortcut Strawberry Shortcakes
By: Wendy, at The Weekend Gourmet

1 container of strawberries, sliced
Sugar
1 container of Grands biscuits
Cool Whip

At least one hour before serving, mix your strawberries and sugar together and put into the refrigerator. I sprinkled my strawberries with about a tablespoon of vanilla sugar.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and sprinkle the top of the biscuits with some more sugar, again I used vanilla sugar and bake the biscuits 8-10 minutes, or until done. Let cool slightly.

Split your biscuit, top with some of the strawberries and Cool Whip. There you have it! Easy Peasy!

Strawberry Turnovers

Spring has arrived here and the weather has been beautiful. We are having a blast just being outside and enjoying it. With that said, there hasn't been alot of activity in the kitchen. I have had this craving for a strawberry fried pied, but seeing how that really isn't the healthiest thing, I opted for this strawberry turnover. These turned out tasty and low sugar, which helps with the blood sugar levels. This recipe could be adapted to any fruit or filling of your liking.


Strawberry Turnovers
From: Cooking Light Desserts

1 lb strawberries, lightly chopped
1 Tbsp vanilla sugar, or regular sugar

4 (14x9 inch) sheets frozen phyllo dough, thawed
Butter-flavored cooking spray

1/4 cup sifted powdered sugar
1/2 tsp water
1/8 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine the strawberries and sugar into a bowl, and mix until combined.
Place 1 phyllo sheet on a damp towel (cover remaining dough to keep from drying out). Lightly coat with cooking spray. Place second phyllo sheet over first sheet, lightly coat with cooking spray. Cut stacked sheets lenghtwise into 3 equal strips (each about 4 1/2 inches wide).
Working with 1 strip at a time (cover remaining strips), place 2 Tbsp strawberry mixture at base of strip. Fold the corner over strawberry mixture to form a triangle. Continue folding triangle back and forth to end of strip. Place triangle, seam side down, on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Repeat with remaining 1 phyllo sheets and strawberry mixture. Coat triangles with cooking spray.

Bake at 400 degrees for 12 minutes or until golden. Remove from pan, and cool 5 minutes on a wire rack.

Combine powdered sugar, water, and vanilla, stirring until smooth. Drizzle sugar mixture evenly over turnovers.

Strawberries and Cream Cookies

These cookies are from A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman. This is probably my second or third recipe that I have made from it. My cookies don't really look the ones in the book and some of the reason is because my dried strawberries were more brownish, and not bright red. I looked everywhere for dried strawberries and happened to come across them at Ingles, and they were $5 per bag, and mind you, that bag was not very big.

The recipe says to roll the dough out to 1/2 and cut out into 2 inch rounds. I used the cookie cutter, but don't think that it would make a difference, as they did spread. These cookies turned into thin and crispy, but still chewy in the middle. I think next time, I won't roll them out, I will just use my little cookie scoop and see how they turn out. This cookie is basically a shortbread dough with the dried strawberries and white chocolate for the cream. I give these cookies a thumbs up!

Strawberries and Cream Cookies
By: Marcy Goldman

3/4 cup sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp whipping cream
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup minced white chocolate
3/4 cup dried strawberries, coarsely chopped

You can order dried strawberries online from nutsonline.com, if you can't find them near you.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Stack two baking sheets together and line top with parchment paper.

In a mixer bowl, combine sugar and butter on low speed until well blended. Then add flour, vanilla, cream, and salt and blend well. When almost blended into a dough, add white chocolate and dried strawberries, mixing by hand to incorporate and make a firm dough.

Knead dough gently on a lightly floured work surface about 1 minute to make dough more firm and get it to hold together. Flatten dough into a disk, wrap well, and refrigerate 30 minutes.

Roll out gently about 1/2 inch thick and cut into small round cookies, about 2 inches in diameter.

Place on prepared baking sheets. Place in oven and immediately reduce oven temp to 300 degrees. Bake until lightly browned around edges, about 15-20 minutes.

Lightened Strawberry Muffins

These muffins are surprisingly really good, to be low fat. I have to admit that I will almost never turn down a muffin. There is just something about them, that I can't pass up. This recipe originally called for blueberries, but I used strawberries instead. This just proved that you could use any fruit that you would like with these. I am thinking that next batch will be made with blackberries. The one thing that I liked about these muffins were that instead of butter, you used 1/3 less fat cream cheese. I am sure that using fat free would work the same and could probably use the Splenda sugar blend to lower the calories some more. But, I am good with these being 223 calories. Oh, and the kids loved them too!

Strawberry Muffins

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 (8oz) package 1/3 less fat cream cheese, at room temp

1 cup plus 1 Tbsp sugar

1/2 cup (1%) low fat milk

1/2 refrigerated liquid egg substitute

1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen berries of your choice

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Coat 12 muffin cups with cooking spray (I got 16 muffins). Combine flour, baking powder and salt; reserve. In separate bowl, on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese and 1 cup sugar until blended, 1 minute. On low speed, beat in milk and egg substitute. Add flour mixture; beat until just moistened. Fold in berries. Divide among muffin cups. Sprinkle with remaining 1 Tbsp sugar. Bake 15-17 minutes or until toothpick inserted into centers come out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Transfer from pan to rack; cool or serve warm.

Strawberry Cupcakes

Sprinkles Strawberry Cupcake recipe?! You have got to be kidding me! YUM!
All Things Cupcake posted this recipe that was shared on the Martha Stewart Show. I will definitly make these again. They are made with pureed fresh strawberries, so you get that real strawberry flavor, and then topped with a strawberry buttercream.

Go and check out All Things Cupcake for the cupcake recipe and below is the buttercream recipe that I used.

1 stick butter, room temp
3 Tbsp strawberry puree--you can use more, but this is all that I had left from the cupcakes
1 tsp of vanilla
about a 2 pound bag powdered sugar
milk

Cream the butter and strawberry puree together until combined. Add the vanilla and mix. Gradually add the powdered sugar, and add enough milk to get the consistency that you want.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Jam

I ran across the jam/jelly exchange hosted by Molly at Batter-splattered and thought that this would be so much fun to participate in. I have only made jam a few times, but this has to be my favorite so far. It is a little thicker than normal jam, but still tastes great. Who doesn't like chocolate covered strawberries? Now I can enjoy them on a biscuit! White chocolate raspberry is next on my list of jams to create.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Jam

2 lbs strawberries, sliced
4 1/2 Cups sugar
2 Tbsp vinegar
pinch of salt
3 oz. of bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Combine all of the ingredients, EXCEPT the chocolate in a large pot. Bring to a rolling boil on medium-high heat, stirring frequently for about 15-20 minutes, or until you reach 220 F on a candy thermometer. Once you reach this temp, remove from heat and add the chocolate. Stir until all the chocolate has melted and is combined. Transfer to jelly jars and top with the lids. The heat from the jam should make the tops seal. Also, you don't need to skim off the foam, once you add the chocolate and get that all mixed in, the foam dissolves back into the jam.

Strawberry Blossom Tart

This weekend was my cousin's fiance's "thunderstorm" and for those of you like me, that had never heard of such a thing...it is a shower for the groom. As always, I was in charge of a dessert..so, as I was looking through one of my Chocolatier magazine, I found this recipe and thought that it sounded great and light for an outside event, and how can you go wrong with a White Chocolate pastry cream and strawberries, when it is almost 100 degrees. It was a ton of fun to make and looked very pretty...although, I am not sure if I liked the taste of it or not. It is kind of iffy.. Here is the recipe and if anyone else out there tries it, I would love to hear from you and what you thought about it.

Strawberry Blossom Tart

Pate Sablee:
1/2 C (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1/4 C granulated sugar
1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 large egg yolk
2 Tbsp ice-cold water

White Chocolate Pastry Cream
1/2 C granulated sugar
3 Tbsp cornstarch
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
2 C milk
3 oz. high-quality white chocolate, chopped

Assembly:
1/3 C raspberry preserves
2 pints fresh strawberries, washed, hulled and quartered
Powdered sugar for dusting

1. Make pate sablee: Put butter and sugar in bowl of food processor and pulse until combined. Add flour and pulse several times, until butter is in pea-sized pieces. Add yolk and water and pulse until dough is combined, but still crumbly. Transfer dough to work surface and shape into disc. Wrap disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

2. Make pastry cream: In medium bowl, combine sugar and cornstarch. Whisk in eggs and egg yolks until smooth.
In a large saucepan, heat milk over medium-high heat until bubbles begin to form around edge of pan. Whisk about 1/3 of milk over yolk mixture until well blended. Pour in remaining hot milk, then return entire mixture to saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Let mixture boil for 1 minute while continuing to whisk. remove pan from heat and add white chocolate. Whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Transfer pastry cream to bowl and let cool for 10 minutes.
Place plastic wrap directly on surface of cream and refrigerate until ready to use.

3. Line tart pan: Remove dough from refrigerator and let softened 15-20 minutes, until pliable. Place dough in center of tart pan with removable bottom and press dough into bottom and up sides of pan, covering it completely and removing excess dough from edges. Chill dough in pan for at least 1 hour.
Preheat oven for 425 degrees. Line the pan with parchment paper and fill with pie weights, beans or rice. Place pan in center of oven and bake for 7 minutes. Remove pan from oven and reduce oven temp to 350 degrees. Remove parchment paper and weights from crust and bake for an additional 8-12 minutes, until it is just beginning to turn light golden brown around the edges. Cool completely and remove tart from pan.

4. Assemble the tart: Brush bottom and sides of the tart crust with raspberry preserves. Fill with the white chocolate pastry cream and top with the strawberries, pointed end up. Lightly dust with powdered sugar before serving.

**I cheated a little with the crust part :) ...and it turned out fine. I didn't have any pie weights, so I docked the bottom of the crust with holes, and baked it on 350 for about 15 minutes. It turned out the same that it would have if I used the weights, it didn't puff at all.

Happy Baking!!