Strawberry Season
When local strawberries are ripe, it’s a brief opportunity to indulge in everything strawberry. I’ve had strawberries plain countless times. I’ve made strawberry shortcake (old fashioned, with biscuits, but not my usual buttermilk biscuit recipe), and strawberries and cream with genoise (this is such a difficult yet simple cake that I’m kind of obsessed with it).
I’m making one batch of no-cook strawberry syrup now, and I’m planning a few more strawberry endeavors.
Here is Strawberry Syrup 1:
I used local soft, ripe strawberries, an abundance of which is the reason I made this syrup.
1 cup strawberries, hulled and halved or quartered
1/2 cup sugar
Put strawberries and sugar in jar. Put the lid on and shake well. Refrigerate until you get a nice syrup. You can shake periodically while you wait for the syrup to develop. If you leave it for about a day, you can then just give it a shake for a minute or so and be done.
If you’re in a hurry, don’t refrigerate and shake often. If you have really ripe, soft, juicy strawberries, you’ll get something in 30-60 minutes.
Strain, probably twice to remove all solids
The key to this recipe, for me, is that it is based on fresh berries, berries potentially even just beyond ripe ones. It will work more quickly that way, and takes advantage of the way strawberries suddenly come in at once and then disappear. You can preserve that freshness for a while.
You could try this using commercial strawberries. You won’t get as much syrup and it’s kind of missing the point, but I’ll share some ideas anyway: You could add a pinch of salt and a bit of lemon or even cook your berries and sugar a bit if you have really firm berries. Cooking the berries will change the flavor the most. The syrup will quickly become jammy. I would not bother.
What I would do if I were really interested in this whole idea and had no access to the ideal fresh berries for the job is use frozen berries. If they’re good enough frozen berries, your syrup will taste like a strawberry field on a warm day.
That is definitely cheating, but I support you.
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