Strawberry Lemonade Meringue Cookies Made From Powdered Egg Whites

Strawberry Lemonade Meringues
Makes: 28 2-inch cookies

3 large egg whites (2 Tablespoons Egg White Powder, plus ¼ cup water)
1 package (3 ounces) Strawberry Jell-O
1/4 cup caster sugar (to make your own put regular granulated sugar in the blender or food processor until finely ground)
1/4 cup freeze dried strawberries
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

Zest from 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 200°F.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.

Grind freeze dried strawberries and sugar in a food processor until powdery. Set aside.

Place the egg white powder and water in a very clean large bowl and with an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat on medium until frothy.

While continuing to beat the eggs CAREFULLY and SLOWLY sprinkle in 1 tablespoon of the  the Jell-O, and strawberry mixture into the bowl at a time, until all of the strawberry mixture has been added.  Beat until the egg whites are stiff and shiny, about 5 minutes.   Add lemon juice by drizzling it town the side of the bowl.  Turn off mixer and fold in lemon zest until just combined.  Your meringue should now look like frosting. 

Drop meringue onto lined baking sheet by the spoon full or for a more festive look.  Scrape the meringue into a pastry bag fitted with a medium star tip and pipe the cookies onto the lined baking sheets.  Shape into a “Hershey’s kiss”. 

Bake the meringues until they are firm, about 2 hours. Turn off the oven and leave them in there overnight.

Strawberry Lemonade

This is my brother Eric.  He is a drink snob.  I’m serious he is very picky about his beverages particularly his lemonade.  A couple of years ago I found out about his desire for truly wonderful lemonade and his aversion to the sub-par varieties.  Since then I have started noticing how wonderful lemonade can be, and also sadly how horrible it can be. 

A few days ago we had our first warm spring day.  The sun was shining, the sky was blue and we were working outside in the yard.  After a couple of hours my kids were dying for a snack and I was dying for a drink.  My little girl asked for pink lemonade.  She was thinking of the country time mix, which I no longer buy.  I thought about it for a minute and this Strawberry Lemonade was born.    

I mix it up in the blender and serve it over ice.  For the strawberries I used the powder from the bottom of a can I had just finished. But if you don't have any you can crush some freeze dried strawberries.

Strawberry Lemonade

¾ c lemon juice (fresh is delicious but bottled is acceptable)

¾ cup Freeze Dried Strawberry Powder (ether from the bottom of the can or FD strawberries that have been crushed)

¾ cup sugar

2 quarts

Ice

Blend well.  Serve immediately.

Chocolate Dipped Freeze Dried Strawberries

Chocolate dipped freeze dried strawberries are a delicious are easy treat.  This is one of the easiest recipes ever.  

Chocolate Dipped Freeze Dried Strawberries

½ bag chocolate chips, the best quality you have 

15 Freeze Dried Whole Strawberries

1.  Melt chocolate chips in the microwave for 30 seconds. Stir. Repeat until the chocolate is melted.  It is important to only microwave 30 seconds at a time because chocolate chips retain their shape in once melted and it is difficult to tell if they are melted.  
2.  Carefully dip the freeze dried strawberries in the chocolate.  Place on waxed paper and allow drying.  

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

Happy Ice Cream Day!

Photo Source: TheCulinaryGeek

  

At our house we love to make homemade ice cream. We make it the old fashioned way using a hand crank ice cream freezer. The rule is that if you want to eat ice cream you have to help churn it.   

Every summer we try out a couple of new recipes.  We have a couple that we really like.  One is healthy, one is a family tradition and one is made from food storage ingredients. But don’t worry if you don’t tell anyone you made this decadent ice cream with ingredients you had on hand than they won’t know.

Recipe Notes:  We really like our ice cream to be smooth not chunky consequently we crush our freeze dried strawberries before adding them to the ice cream mix.  Measure the strawberries and then crush them.   If you want to make the ice cream mix ahead of time, just store it in the fridge until you are ready to freeze it. 

 

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 (5-ounce) can evaporated milk

2 tablespoons sugar

¼ cup THRIVE INSTANT milk (do not use regular nonfat powdered milk)

1 ½ cups water

1 cup freeze dried strawberries, crushed

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

Whisk all  ingredients in a 2-quart pitcher or large bowl until blended. Cover and chill 30 minutes.

Pour milk mixture into freezer container of a 1-quart electric ice-cream maker, and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. (Instructions and times will vary.)

Remove container with ice cream from ice-cream maker, and enjoy.  Or if you prefer a harder ice cream then freeze for 1 hour.

Elise's Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Frosting

A little while ago I was making a cake for a friends birthday and my 4 year old daughter was helping.  I asked her what kind of cake she wanted to make and she said "Pink".  I think we have maybe read the book Pinkalicious too many times.  I decided that pink meant strawberry.  I didn't have any fresh strawberries but I did have freeze dried. Even better I had some strawberry powder I had been saving from the end of a can.  I added it to my favorite white cake mix (thanks to I am a baker)  It turned my white cake into an excellent strawberry cake.  The flavor was clear, strong, and definitely strawberry.  As the cake was baking I thought this would be awesome if I had some great strawberry frosting.  I hate the strawberry frosting you buy in the tub it is so fake tasting.  I tried my favorite frosting recipe (thanks Ann for sharing it with me) and adding some more of the freeze dried strawberry powder.  It made an awesome frosting.  

I took the "Pink" cake my daughter helped me make to a celebrate a friends birthday.  It was gobbled up and I had a ton of people asking for the recipe. 

By the way this cake is named after my friend I made the cake for not my daughter who choose it.

Elise's Strawberry Cake:

I love the cake mix recipe developed by I am a Baker. This recipe is based loosely on her great recipe. Please go check out her original post.

Dry Ingredients:

2 3/4 cup flour

1 3/4 cups SUPER fine sugar (you can buy this or make it)

2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

½ cup freeze dried Strawberry Powder *see note below

Wet Ingredients:

¾ cup butter, softened

5 egg whites

1 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla

½ teaspoon almond extract

Sift together all dry ingredients. Cream butter, add dry ingredients. Add eggs one at a time until incorporated. Add milk, vanilla,and almond extract, mix well.

Fills 2 8 inch round cake pans or 1 9 by 13 rectangular pan. Spray well with cooking spray.

Bake 325 for 20 to 30 minutes. Test doneness before removing from oven. Cool completely before frosting.

Strawberry  Butter Cream Frosting

½ cup butter or margarine, softened

¼ cup shortening

3 cups powdered sugar

2 Tbsp. corn syrup

2 tsp. milk
20 drops red food coloring

½ cup freeze dried strawberry powder * see note

Mix butter and shortening together with hand mixer until creamy. Gradually add powdered sugar, food coloring and strawberry powder. Beat until smooth. Add corn syrup and milk. Beat until smooth.

* Note:  When you use a can of freeze dried fruit there is often some powder at the end.  This is amazing stuff.  It is instant intense flavor that you can add to anything.  I love to add it to frosting.  I find that adding about ½ cup of the powder is perfect in this recipe.  If you don’t have any powder from the bottom of the can you can crush some freeze dried strawberries in the food processor, blender, or put it is a zip lock and hit it with your rolling pin until crushed to fine powder.  I also find that the  flavor develops a little as you let this frosting sit.

Shout Outs: Freeze Dried Strawberries

 Today's Shout outs are recipes that feature Freeze Dried Strawberries.  I have just discovered that freeze dried strawberries are only a penny more a serving then fresh, and I am excited! okay maybe make that obsessed!   I love to use them when I am baking, they add a punch of intense strawberry flavor with out adding the moisture you get with fresh or frozen berries.    It turns out I am not the only one to figure out that freeze dried strawberries are great for baking.  Check out the best of what I found. 



1.  Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Meringue Roses from U Try It

2.  Strawberry and Cream Melting Moments (Shortbread) from No Recipes

3.  Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cookies from Baking Bites

4.  Double Berry Truffles from About.com Candy

5.  Powdered Strawberry and Vanilla bean Macarons from Tartelette

Price Comparison: freeze dried strawberries compareed to fresh strawberries

How does the price of freeze dried strawberries compare to fresh strawberries?


The average cost of fresh strawberries per serving in the US is $0.57.  The cost of freeze dried strawberries per serving is $0.58.  (the cost per serving for frozen strawberries from the grocery store is $0.53 which is cheaper still but honestly I don't like frozen strawberries so I'm not going to buy them even if they are cheaper, but in case you like them now you know). *see source below.

For my money the extra penny per serving is definitely worth the convenience of having strawberries that last 25 years on your shelf unopened,  1 year on the self once opened, have a great strong strawberry taste and are already washed, and sliced and that I don't have to throw away because they went moldy. 


Disclaimer:  The math to figure out the comparison is a little bit tricky. First of all grocery store prices vary from store to store and change depending on the season.  I have done some research and ended up using the pricing numbers that the USDA publishes.  This is the average over the entire US. I did do some math to figure out per serving costs so if there are any errors it is absolutely my fault.  (if you want to do your own math, good for you)  The other tricky part is that freeze dried strawberries have all the water removed and therefore you can not compare weight (which is what you would normally do to compare quantities)  The best comparison I could come up with is cost per serving and even this is not ideal.

Form	Average retail price	Cost per serving
Fresh Strawberries	$2.28 per pound (yield 2 cups of sliced strawberries)	$0.57 per serving
Frozen Strawberries	$2.12 per pound	$0.53 per serving
THRIVE Freeze Dried	$23.39 per Number 10 Can  (Gallon)  44 servings or 11.25 cups $0.58 per serving	$0.58 per serving

Source: http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/FruitVegetableCosts/fruit.htm
Source: http://www.shelfreliance.com

Tropical Fruit Nachoes

Do you watch the BBC TV show Doctor Who?  We love it.  Every Saturday night we watch it and eat nachos.  We affectionately call it "Nacho Who."  A little while ago I ran across the idea of having fruit nachos, and I thought this would be a great addition to "Nacho Who"  When I told my husband I was making fruit nachos he was not all that excited but when he tasted them he really liked them.  

The Nachos have four layers, 

1.  Chips--crisped tortillas

2.  Tropical Fruit Salsa--this is made from rehydrating freeze dried fruit, draining it and adding a little sugar and lime juice.  You can use what ever freeze dried fruit you want.  I find it works best to use fruit that takes about the same time to rehydrate, and is a little bit sturdy.  I like any of the berries, mangoes, apricots, pineapple.  I do not like bananas, and mandarin oranges, they are too delicate. 

3.  Coconut Whipped Cream-this is made from the amazing instant powdered milk, coconut extract, and powdered sugar.  Make sure you water is COLD.  If you don’t have coconut extract it is great if you use vanilla.

4.  Toasted Coconut.  I love toasted coconut.  I learned how to toast coconut from this post.  

Tropical Fruit Nachos with Coconut Whipped Cream

 Tropical Fruit Salsa

3 cups mixed freeze dried fruit (strawberries, mangoes, apricots),

2 Tablespoons Lime juice

2 table spoons sugar

Place fruit in a medium sized bowl.  Cover with warm water. Let sit until rehydrated, about 4 minutes, depending on what fruit you have chosen.  Drain fruit, pouring off excess water.  Add lime juice and sugar, stir to combine. 

Chips

Flour Tortillas

Water

Using a pizza cutter, cut tortillas into quarters.  Heat electric griddle to 350 degrees.  Run each tortilla section under running water to moisten. Place on griddle. Cooke until crisp, flip over and cook until crisp.  About 3 minutes per side.  

Coconut Whipped Cream

1 t coconut extract

1⁄2 c thrive powdered sugar

1⁄2 c thrive instant milk, prepared and chilled

1⁄2 c ice water

Combine ice water and powdered milk in bowl and beat for 10 minutes. Add powdered sugar and extract, continue to beat until thoroughly blended. Chill.

*This works best in a stand mixer with whip beaters. If mixture begins to fall, beat again.

Notes:  MUST use THRIVE instant powdered milk and not the standard dry milk variety.

To assemble the Nachos

Layer chips on serving dish.  Add salsa and whipped cream.  Sprinkle with toasted coconut.  Serve immediately.

Strawberry Bread

A couple of months ago I was at Costco and tried som AMAZING bread they were sampling. The bread was swirled with strawberries, but they were not soggy and wet. The bread was served toasted with butter. Wow, so I go to buy some and it is over $5.00 a loaf. I put it down and think "I could make that." And it turns out it is not that hard. All you need is some bread dough and some freeze dried strawberries. 

Make bread dough, after diving dough into loaf size pieces. Roll out with a rolling pin until ¼ inch thick.  Sprinkle Dough with Freeze Dried Strawberries (I use about 2 cups, but what ever),

  and roll up. (like you are making cinnamon rolls or a jelly roll). Place tuck in seam. Place seam down in bread pan. Bake .