Strawberry sweet treats
| October 13, 2012 | Posted by Koalaborg under Food, recipes, Vegan, Vegan Mofo 2012 |
I’ve mentioned recently that we participate in a discount organic produce cooperative, and earlier this week an opportunity to buy organic strawberries came up. Who can resist this? My kids and I love strawberries, so I picked up forty pounds of strawberries. My fridge has been packed full with strawberries, and I am feverishly working to process them so none get wasted.
There have been plenty of bowls of strawberries as snacks around here – the simplest way to process the gems. But with forty pounds (actually forty-four since I had just picked up four pounds “on sale” at the local grocery store, and saw the notification for the discount bulk buy when I got home from the store – D’oh!) we obviously can’t work through this many berries, though we are making a heck of an effort!
First step – fire up the dehydrator! I have already done two batches. My Nesco has five trays, so I can get approximately four pounds sliced (at 1/2 inch) set up, and it takes -12 hours for a batch to dehydrate. This makes for quite a yummy snack – the sweetness of the berry is increased and I’d much rather Kyri nag me for dehydrated fruit than candy any day. She has actually already gone through the entire first batch! I set up a second batch this morning and she made a small dent this evening as soon as I pulled them off the racks. So we will be setting up several more pounds to dehydrate over the next couple of days.
- Dehydrated strawberries coming off the racks.
I store my dehydrated berries in mason jars. Four pounds (approximately) sliced at 1/2 inch end up filling half of a quart-sized mason jar.
I also wanted to make a chilled dessert with some of the strawberries. We don’t get vegan ice cream too often, mainly for the cost and the ease of making something comparable at home. So this afternoon I prepped a double batch of my Coconut Whipped Cream, and then mixed in four cups of crushed strawberries. This made a wonderful strawberry whipped cream dessert. I did freeze the whipped cream to make an ice cream, but this is somewhat difficult to scoop from the container, so after freezing, I moved it back to the fridge to keep as a somewhat softer dessert. Kyri LOVES this stuff!
This is my go-to whipped cream recipe. It’s so delicious and simple to make, I can’t imagine ever using a store-bought whipped cream again.
- I used four cups of sliced strawberries, and just “smooshed” them a bit with the hand mixer.
- After mixing in the pre-”smooshed” strawberries. I whipped a bit more with my hand mixer and then used a spatula to make sure the strawberries were evenly distributed before transferring to a tupperware.
- The final product – frozen strawberry whipped cream. A simple dessert with minimal ingredients.
I’ve made a small dent in the fridge now, and tomorrow I have quite the kitchen work day planned. I’ll be replenishing our Strawberry Jam supply. I’m thinking a double or triple batch. I have been debating whether to try using pectin this time around. My first batch I just used sugar, and while it came out great, it did take a bit longer to get to the gelling stage. I might go with pectin this time since I used it with my Blueberry Lime Jam and certainly saved me some time at the stove. I’ll be posting jam pictures later this weekend.
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