Berry Fun
My top three “picks” for using fresh strawberries: pie, jam and a frozen dessert!
There is nothing quite like the sweet taste of fresh strawberries and the hunt for the best berries on a beautiful summer evening is equally as delightful. I am grateful I had the chance to go picking last week when I visited my parents up north.
I owe my love of picking strawberries to my dad. He would make an outing each year, probably in anticipation of my mom’s strawberry pie or my sister-in-law Mindy’s homemade jam. He hasn’t been able to pick the past couple of years due to his ongoing battle with pancreatic cancer so I had really hoped to take him this year. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t in the cards for him to join me but thankfully this did not dampen his appetite for strawberries. I took a solo trip to a nearby patch and got just enough berries to make his favorite treats, Strawberry Pie with a Super Simple Pie Crust and Strawberry Jam, as well as one of my all-time favorite desserts: Strawberry Frozen Dessert.
After cleaning the fresh berries, my mom and I knew pie was the priority and made her recipe for a Super Simple Pie Crust that is a cookie-like, buttery crust and the perfect base for a strawberry pie. Next up, we used a product called Junket Danish Dessert to make the velvety, smooth filling to hug all those fresh strawberries. You can read more about this filling and get the recipe for the pie crust here.
We also have some berries to my sister-in-law Mindy who makes the best Strawberry Jam that my parents savor to the last drop each year. Mindy uses a recipe she swears by that appears right on the package of SURE.JELL fruit pectin. It’s basically 5 cups of prepped berries, 1 box of SURE.JELL, 1/2 tsp of butter (to reduce foaming) and 7 cups of sugar. (NOTE: follow the instructions precisely and measure ingredients to the exact amounts for the best results or you may be forced to try and make Sun Jam which I experienced a few years back and chronicled on Instagram here.)
Last, but not least, one of my top picks for fresh strawberries is a Frozen Strawberry Dessert that my grandma used to make. It includes an easy-to-make crumb crust topped with a whipped-up layer of creamy, strawberry goodness and topped with more crumbs. This would be a great dessert for the hot, steamy days we are currently experiencing in the Twin Cities. Thankfully, I have some “sitting pretty” in my freezer right now. 😉
