Strawberry Season! (10)

Fresh strawberries, yum!

Hello gentle readers! I love the month of May. New growth, flowers, plants and birds everywhere. Farmer's markets open up. Tomatoes, asparagus, fresh herbs and lettuce and of course fresh strawberries become available. Strawberries are generally around all year, but they become more prevalent and affordable in May. Not to mention tastier! I was browsing strawberry recipes and found a Strawberry Spoon Cake recipe in the NYT Cooking App. It looked amazing, but I thought there has to be a sourdough version of the recipe and of course there is! https://amybakesbread.com/strawberry-sourdough-cake/

I tried this recipe and it was so good! My husband loves it and thinks it is like strawberry pie. I think it's like strawberry shortcake with the strawberries baked in! Either way it is a yummy and easy dessert to make. It lasts for a few days in the fridge and is great chilled as well as freshly baked. I like it with a dollop of whipped cream, but my husband likes it plain. I followed the recipe as written except I sprinkled the top before baking with sparkling sugar. Gave it a little crunch. I made sure to weigh my strawberries to make sure they covered the entire cake. I even cut a couple extra. This recipe is so easy since all you need to do with the strawberries is slice them in half (or quarters if they are very large). The recipe from NYT Cooking required a bit more effort. I'm all for easier!

Strawberry cake ready to put in the oven.

The recipe suggests a springform pan or round cake pan. I don't have a springform pan and the cake pan worked just fine. I do recommend the parchment paper in the bottom of the pan. I didn't do that the second time I made it and it did stick just a bit. Still tasted great though.

The recipe does suggest using discard that has been more recently fed, but I found that starter that wasn't fed within the last few days worked just as well as freshly fed starter.

Fresh out of the oven!

How about a slice? 😉

I am also a huge fan of fresh strawberry shortcake. There is no shortage of recipes for shortcake, but I think fresh biscuits make a great base for shortcake. This biscuit recipe is great for anytime, including a shortcake! https://buttermilkbysam.com/sourdough-biscuits/

You could make these a bit larger. When I am using these for breakfast biscuits I leave off the sugar sprinkle the recipe calls for, but if making for shortcake I would definitely add it. I have not made this version of shortcake yet, but plan to this summer.

Speaking of summer, some folks might think that sourdough baking is just for the cooler months. Not the case at all! I will discuss all the ways you can use sourdough in the summer. It will help ensure your starter stays healthy and your family enjoying the delicious results! More to come on that in my next post.

Until then, happy baking!

Bridget