Chocolate dipped strawberries

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The first of the strawberries were picked at Waterberry Farm this week. It looks like we're going to have a great crop this year! I brought home a large bag of the "less than perfect" berries. They taste just fine but my Dad won't sell a berry that he feels isn't perfection. He takes it very seriously. I can't tell you how many strawberries I've had to look and help him decide weather it's okay to sell or not. By the way we have 6000 plants and yes I'm almost certain that he looks at every single berry! So these berries didn't make the cut but that's fine with me. Hubs and I ate as many as we wanted fresh and I dipped the rest into dark chocolate. After wrapping them in a robe of chocolate I rolled them in chocolate sprinkles or crushed toffee bits.
Chocolate dipped strawberries are a quick easy treat, but they look impressive. Roll the chocolate dipped berries into nuts or sprinkles and they look like something that came from a candy store. These strawberries certainly don't look less than perfect anymore!

Method

Melt 5-6 ounces of semi-sweet or white chocolate chocolate

Microwave directions for melting chocolate:
Place coarsely chopped chocolate in a microwave-safe container and microwave at MEDIUM (50 percent power) for 1 1/2 to 4 minutes, until the chocolate turns shiny.
Remove the container from the microwave and stir the chocolate until completely melted. Be careful not to overheat or the chocolate can burn.



Dip strawberries in the melted chocolate, lightly shaking the berry to remove any excess chocolate. Roll the dipped strawberries in chopped nuts, chocolate sprinkles, or toffee bits. Place on parchment paper and let chocolate set-up. The strawberries are best eaten within a few hours of dipping them in the chocolate but can be kept overnight if refrigerated.
Note: make sure your strawberries are completely dry when you dip them into the chocolate. Any water on the berries will ruin the chocolate.

Meyer Lemon Custard Cakes

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It's been gray and rainy for several days. The holidays are over and after all that baking I'm lacking motivation a bit. Hubs and I are trying to get in better shape. These are a few of the reasons I've been finding it difficult to blog right now. Don't worry there will still be plenty of baking going on, I'm just in a slight funk.
I got a bag of these gorgeous sunny Meyer lemons from my parents farm. They're so pretty they're begging to baked into something wonderful. I just got the latest Bon Appetit and in it is a recipe for Meyer lemon custard cakes. There small light and lemony, the perfect antidote to all those heavy holiday desserts.

Meyer Lemon Custard Cakes
source: Bon Appetit

3/4 cup plus 2 TBS sugar, divided
1/4 cup all purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 1/3 cups whole milk
2 large eggs, separated
1/3 cup fresh Meyer lemon juice or regular lemon juice
2 TBS finely grated Meyer lemon peel or regular lemon peel
1 8-ounce container chilled creme fraiche

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter eight 3/4-cup ramekins or custard cups. Whisk together 1/2 cup plus 2 TBS sugar, flour and pinch of salt in a medium bowl. Combine milk, egg yolks, lemon juice, and lemon peel in a large bowl; whisk until blended. In another bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat egg whites till stiff but not dry. Fold 1/4 of whites into custard. In two additions fold in the remaining egg whites in the custard. (the custard will be runny and I had lumps of egg whites when I made it)
Divide custard equally among the ramekins. Place ramekins in a large roasting pan. Pour enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of ramekins. Bake custards until golden brown and set on top (custard cakes will have a soft center), about 25-27 minutes. Cool slightly, and refrigerate custard cakes. Chill custard cakes until cold at least 4 hours, then cover and keep refrigerated.
Using electric mixer, beat creme fraiche in a medium bowl until softly whipped.
Run a knife around each custard cake to loosen. Invert each on a plate. Serve with whipped creme fraiche.

*Notes: I made this recipe according to the recipe except for the creme fraiche because I didn't have any on hand. I think I would use 1/2 cup lemon juice and 3 TBS grated lemon peel the next time I make these. The lemon flavor was very light and I like a little more tang. The custards definitely need to be made in advance so the flavors have a chance to meld.

Farmer's Table

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Here are a few photo's from Saturday night's Farmer's Table dinner held at our family farm. For more information about the dinner go here and read about the dinner on the farm blog.

Strawberry Walnut Muffins

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I've mentioned before that my parents have a farm. Waterberry Farm is a hydroponics farm and we grow all kinds of produce, but mainly strawberries. The strawberries are grown in a hydoponics stacker system using all organic methods. We've got about 6000 berry plants in this year, and we will be picking our first ripe berry any day now. I froze several bags of strawberries last season and I wanted to use them up before the fresh strawberries were ready. We eat A LOT of strawberries. Lucky, I know! With an abundance of strawberries around, I'm always looking for new recipes. I came across a recipe for a strawberry quick bread on Megans Cooking that looked interesting, and I could use my frozen strawberries. In Megan's post she also made a strawberry butter to go with the quick bread. It looked really tasty as well, but I opted to make just the bread. Although it's more like a coffee cake than a bread, in my opinion. Anyway, instead of baking the batter in two loaf pans, I made half the batter into muffins and just one loaf. It made good muffins with a nice texture, although if I make this again, I'll cut back on the cinnamon in the recipe. To me it overpowered the taste of the strawberries somewhat. I think I'd also puree the berries to give more strawberry flavor through out the bread.

Ingredients:

3 cups All-purpose flour

2 cups Sugar

3 teaspoons Cinnamon

1 teaspoon Baking soda

1 teaspoon Salt

1 1/4 cup Vegetable oil

4 Eggs

1 1/4 pound Fresh strawberries; sliced -OR - Unsweetened frozen berries, thawed, drained and coarsely chopped1/2 cup Walnuts, coarsely chopped2 (8-1/2 x 4-1/2-inch) loaf pans

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour the two loaf pans. Mix the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the oil, eggs, strawberries, and walnuts. Beat until the dry ingredients are just moist. Pour into the prepared loaf pans and bake for 1 hour. The breads are done when they start to come away from the sides of the pan and an inserted wooden pick comes out clean.

For the muffins I cooked them 25-30 minutes.

Fall pies continued...

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I know I waxed eloquent in my last post about pumpkin pie and its fall significance and all around pumpkin perfection. All of which I stand by wholeheartedly, however, there is another pie which also evokes much of the same feelings for me. Many of my childhood memories of fall revolve around pecans. Growing up on a farm with 60-80 pecan trees, picking up pecans became a central part of fall. It's how we kids earned money for Christmas shopping and things like summer camp. I'm not saying we were always happy about it, there was plenty of grumbling, whining etc... But looking back there was a lot of laughing and good times as well. Needless to say we ate LOTS of pecans. Many in the form of pecan pie.
After marrying and moving away I really missed those fresh, organic pecans that were so plentiful on our farm. Buying pecans from the grocery store was always a disappointment. They can be anywhere from a year to two years old before you buy them. Those dried out nuts are nothing like the plump nuts we picked up, cracked out, and ate.
Hubs and I moved back near my family a couple years ago and since that time the pecan crop has been nearly non-existent. No nuts at all, so unfair! This year however things have amazingly turned around. In spite of a terrible drought though out whole southeastern US, this years pecan crop has been unbelievable. So many nuts in fact that many of the pecan trees have lost large limbs from the weight of the nuts. All the nuts on the farm are organically grown, picked up and hand shelled on the premises. For more info or to order pecans check out the farm blog http://waterberryfarm.blogspot.com/.
Hubs is not much a dessert person, he could take it or leave it. Unbelievable, I know! However pecan pie is one of the few desserts he doesn't ever pass up. Especially Bourbon Pecan Pie, a family recipe I've been making for years.

Southern Bourbon Pecan Pie

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 1/2 cup pecans

1 cup sugar* see note

1 cup Karo Syrup (light corn syrup)

4 eggs

Pinch of salt

1 teaspoon good quality vanilla

2 TBL Bourbon (I use Jim Beam)

One 9" unbaked pie shell

Method

Preheat oven to 350

Melt butter in large skillet. I skim away any foam from the cream in the butter that rises to the top. Then toss the nuts into the butter and cook 1-2 minutes until nuts are coated with the butter and warmed. Remove from heat and cool slightly. In another large bowl, whisk together sugar, syrup, and salt. Whisk in eggs one at a time and stir in vanilla and bourbon. Stir in the butter/pecan mixture and pour into prepared unbaked pie shell and bake for 35-45 minutes until the center of the pie is set .

*You can use 1/2 a cup of brown sugar and 1/2 a cup of regular sugar for a more dense, rich pie

** Also great with cinnamon whipped cream from the last post:)