Strawberry Creams with...

Vanilla Shortbread...This is a re-working of this recipe that I first tried over the Easter Holiday...the original was very popular, and has been requested again since then, but the Small Ones aren't too keen on Rhubarb, so I decided with it being the start of Early Strawberry Season I would make it with beautiful fresh strawberries instead...and i have entered this recipe into June's Challenge at Have the Cake...

I kept to the original recipe, just substituted 450g strawberries for the rhubarb...even decided to roast the strawberries in the same way that you roast the rhubarb...the smells coming from the oven were to die for...After roasting them, I strained the juices into a bowl, and then the berries got blitzed with my stick blender,...the puree was the most amazing colour!! Totally natural, no food colouring needed this time! The puree needs to be strained to get rid of the pips...I added a couple of tablespoons of the saved roasting syrup to the puree, stirred and then left it to go cold...Once your puree is cold, you can get on with boiling the cream and 90g caster sugar...simmer for 3 minutes, remove from heat, stir in the juice of 2 lemons and finally the fruit puree...stir, pour into your serving dishes and chill...for a good 4 hours or even overnight if possible...and that's it, Strawberry Creams...I served mine (after some debate and discussions with friends and family) with some Vanilla Shortbread, again using the original recipe from before, but instead of adding the orange zest, I added 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract in it's place...everything else was done in the exact same way...

So how did it turn out? The flavour was fantastic, but the texture not so...don't get me wrong, it was a gorgeous, smooth, silky, creamy dessert, but it didn't set too well...I have no idea if it was just to do with the fact that the strawberry puree was slightly thinner than the rhubarb, or if other factors were at play? Maybe those 2 extra tablespoons of juice I added were the culprits? Who knows...unless I make it again without them...any way, it was great, but more of a very thick yogurty texture...so I got to thinking, and decided to try something with the remaining one...the Small Ones found it rather rich, so shared one...I decanted it into a tub with a lid and froze it!! I did the whole, freeze for an hour, take out and churn...just like this Mascarpone Ice-Cream I made a while back...and guess what it was amazing!!! What a great strawberry ice-cream...Unfortunately, by the time we had all tried it, it had gone, and no pictures taken!!! Ooops! But take my word, it was really tasty, full of "strawberry-ness" and I'm pretty sure I will have another go at it...both as an ice-cream and as a chilled cream...