yay for strawberry season! while i haven’t gone to pick my own yet, i really can’t wait! there’s a “pick your own….” farm really close to my parent’s house where i grew up. i remember driving down the street and seeing all of the strawberry pickers out the window. my dad and my sister (only one sister at the time, sorry lynz!) made up a song that we used to sing whenever we’d go by:

“butts and elbows, knees and toes, KNEES AND TOES! butts and elbows, knees and toes, KNEES AND TOOOOOOES!” (to the tune of head and shoulders, knees and toes.)

anyhow, it brings back good memories, and there’s nothing better than biting into a hot strawberry straight off the vine. since strawberries are pretty cheap right now, i decided to make these, just because they looked pretty interesting and i was curious.

the dough was awesome. so pretty.

and the recipe:

strawberry shortcake cookies a la martha stewart

makes about 3 dozen

ingredients:

• 12 ounces strawberries, hulled and cut into 1/4-inch dice (2 cups)
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 3 ounces (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• Sanding sugar, for sprinkling

directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine strawberries, lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons granulated sugar. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and remaining 7 tablespoons granulated sugar in a large bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter, or rub in with your fingers, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in cream until dough starts to come together, then stir in strawberry mixture.

2. Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop or a tablespoon, drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment, spacing evenly apart. Sprinkle with sanding sugar, and bake until golden brown, 24 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool. Cookies are best served immediately, but can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 day.

these were really good right out of the oven. today they’re a bit more biscuit like than cookie like, but still really fresh and delicious. i might have baked them a bit more if i had to do it over to try to get them a little crispier on the outside.

definitely worth trying for strawberry season!

i’m finally getting to putting up the rhubarb post! this past week was way busier than i thought it would be, so i made the simplest rhubarb recipe there is, knowing that there will be plenty more rhubarb supply in the next month.

this recipe is so easy. cut up the stalks to about 1/2 an inch pieces.

add a cup of sugar and let the rhubarb sit with the sugar until some liquid forms, about 10 minutes. bring the rhubarb and sugar to a boil, then simmer for about 10-15 minutes.

i added some vanilla extract, because i love vanilla. i also added some ginger, because i had some. you can probably add a bunch of different things to change the flavor a bit. have this over vanilla ice cream. it’s good stuff.

i’m still planning to make a bunch of the other delicious rhubarb recipes i posted here a while back as soon as i go back upstate to restock my supply!

my grandma’s favorite dessert is lemon meringue pie, so for mother’s day i decided to give it a twist and make lemon meringue cupcakes.

lucky for me, i have a wonderful sister who torched the tops for me. actually, she burned them with a lighter, because there’s no kitchen torch at mom’s house. the girl has some patience! she also beat egg whites for me since there’s also no kitchenaid at mom’s house. gotta love her!

we baked some lemon cupcakes using buttermilk and lemon zest, which is my favorite way to do it.

then spread some lemon curd on top of each cupcake. i had some that i’d already made, which sped up the cupcake making process quite a bit!

if you’re at my mom’s house, you’d use a plastic ziplock back with a hole cut in it to dollop some frosting on these babies. if you’re in your own well stocked kitchen, you’d make them nice and pretty using a big star tip.

they’d probably be great just like this if you don’t want to go through the torching process, but i think the bit of burn makes them meringue.

so then you get your sister to individually light your cupcakes on fire. if you’re lucky like me, she may even think it’s a fun job. if you’re not so lucky, you can throw them under the broiler for about a minute, that will do the trick! just keep a close eye…i may have possibly one day set them on fire.

no matter what your method, they’ll be so pretty and even more tasty. recipe below!

recipe from martha!

makes about 24 cupcakes

ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• finely grated zest of 3 lemons (about 3 tablespoons), plus 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• Lemon Curd
• Seven-Minute Frosting

directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is until incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in zest and vanilla. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk and lemon juice, and beating until just combined after each.

3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

4. To finish, spread 1 tablespoon lemon curd onto middle of each cupcake. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a large open-star tip (Ateco #828 or Wilton #8B) with frosting. Pipe frosting onto each cupcake, swirling tip slightly and releasing as you pull up to form a peak. Hold a small kitchen torch 3 to 4 inches from surface of frosting, and wave it back and forth until frosting is lightly browned all over. Serve immediately.

what i mean is key lime pie. i couldn’t find any key limes at my local store, so i used regular. still came out good! i’ll try making it again when i can actually find key limes.

we went out to dinner on friday night to a cubana social in williamsburg with the bff and her hubby. the dinner was awesome, and so was the key lime pie they had on the menu for dessert. dave (my hubs) never requests anything for me to make, but after dessert he said…”you should make THAT”. so i did.

key lime pie (a la martha) i switched martha’s steps 3 and 4…it seemed to make more sense in my head this way.

ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 5 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed key (or regular if you can’t find key) lime juice
• 1 tablespoon grated key lime zest, plus more for garnish
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, chilled
• grated persian (persian? really martha? again, regular) lime zest, for garnish

directions:

1. heat oven to 375 degrees. combine graham cracker crumbs, butter, and 3 tablespoons sugar in a medium bowl; mix well. press into a 9-inch pie plate, and bake until lightly browned, about 12 minutes. remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack until completely cooled.

2. lower oven to 325 degrees. in a medium bowl, gently whisk together condensed milk, egg yolks, key lime juice, and zest. Pour into the prepared, cooled crust.

3. return pie to oven and bake 15 to 17 minutes, until the center is set but still quivers when the pan is nudged. let cool completely on a wire rack.

4. shortly before serving, combine cream and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk on medium speed until soft peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes. spoon over cooled pie. serve immediately.

can i just say graham cracker crust is the best kind of crust there is. seriously. love. the pie part of it wasn’t so bad either. this is a great spring dessert, cool and creamy. make it for your mom sunday! it would go great with those mint julips and big hats!

if there was a flavor for spring, this would be it.

these cupcakes are so light and fluffy, almost like lemon angel food cake. the frosting is amazing, definitely my go to frosting. it’s a vanilla bean frosting that i added home made strawberry jam to. amazing flavor combo.

lemon cupcakes

adapted from mybakingaddiction.com

makes 24 cupcakes

• 2 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 4 large egg whites
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• lemon zest from two lemons
• 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2  teaspoon pure lemon extract

getting ready: center a rack in the oven to 350 degrees F. prepare cupcake tins by using liners or spray with non-stick cooking spray.

sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl. put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. add the butter and, working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. beat in the extracts, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. add the rest of the milk and eggs, beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.

finally, give the batter a good 2-minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated. Place the batter into the cupcake tins.

bake for 18-22 minutes, or until the cupcakes are well risen and springy to the touch.

strawberry vanilla bean frosting

adapted from butter lane cupcakes

makes enough for 1 batch of cupcakes

• 1 lb of butter
• 4 oz cream cheese
• 7 cups confectioners sugar (i usually end up using less)
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 splash of vanilla extract
• home made strawberry jam, to taste (substitute anything here that you want the frosting to be flavored with. i’ve used peanut butter, other flavors of jam and nutella of course!)

cream together butter and cream cheese. scrape and add one vanilla bean. add sugar a bit at a time, mixing until incorporated. add a splash of vanilla extract. mix in the jam or any other type of flavor!

it’s the perfect spring cupcake.