Strawberry Bars

Well I wasn't planning on posting any recipes for the next couple of days because I am having another procedure done this morning and I won't be cooking for at least a couple of days.  But I was doing my usual looking around on food blogs and I got a craving for something fruity which by the way this was at midnight.  And I started thinking about how it could be anywhere from 2-5 days before I cook again so I NEEDED to and WANTED to cook or bake something.  Well I came across a similar recipe awhile back but Lee wanted strawberries (I would've rather had peaches but then I would've been eating it all on my own) so I decided to go with the recipe I used! (Even though both this recipe and the one I considered on doing are both easily adjusted to using different fruits, or you could even use 2 kinds of fruits.)  But wow, this was awesome and Lee loved it just as much as I did, probably more!  The only thing that was bad was we had to go to the store at midnight because I had everything except strawberries, well I had some frozen strawberries but I wanted to use fresh!

 Strawberry Bars

1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
3 cups All-Purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter cut into cubes
1 egg
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice
5 cups frozen or fresh strawberries
4 tsp. cornstarch

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease a 9x13" pan.

Mix together 1 cup sugar, flour, baking powder, salt in a medium bowl.  Cube cold butter.  Add the butter to the dry mixture and blend with either two knives or a pastry cutter.  Stir in the egg.  Dough will not seem like dough, it will be crumbly and more like a dry mixture but that's the way it's suppose to look.  Push 2/3 of the dough into the prepared pan.

In another bowl place the strawberries with 1/2 cup sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and gently mix.  Pour on top of the dough in the prepared pan.  Sprinkle the remaining dough over the strawberries.

Bake 45min.-1hr, or until tops brown a little.  Wait till it cools then cut into bars.

Adapted from here.

Strawberry Cupcakes

I thought I would start with this recipe because Strawberry season is coming to an end before too long and this is one thing I’ve made that I have half way decent pictures! The first time I made these I was making what felt like to be a million mini cupcakes for my in laws anniversary party and these were by far my favorite cupcakes out of the 4 different kinds I made! If you leave the icing off it’s just like Strawberry Muffins. A couple of weeks after their anniversary party my nephew was having his 2nd birthday party and he doesn’t like sweets much so I suggested these to my sister and she loved the idea so I made regular cupcakes for his party!



Strawberry Cupcakes
Yield: about 18 cupcakes or about 48 mini cupcakes

Ingredients:


For the cupcakes:
2 ½ cups cake flour (both times I’ve made these all I’ve had was All-Purpose & they still tasted delicious)
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
½ cup unsalted butter
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk
¼ cup oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups chopped strawberries


For the frosting:
½ c. strawberries
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ¾ cups powdered sugar, sifted
½ tsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla


Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

Sift flour, salt and baking soda into a medium bowl. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time until combined. Add buttermilk, oil and vanilla and beat until combined. Add flour mixture and stir until just combined. Fold in chopped strawberries. Fill cupcake wells ¾ full with batter. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.

For the frosting, puree strawberries in food processor. Strain through a mesh sieve to remove seeds, and set aside. Beat the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Add lemon juice, vanilla and strawberry puree. Adjust the amount of puree to achieve your desired consistency. Frost cupcakes when completely cool.

Adapted from Annie's Eats