While things are looking up and weather is warmer, we’re still finding ourselves having to be creative with entertaining ourselves.
We took a family trip to Reesor Pick Your Own Strawberry Farm this week… good times were had. It was soo nice to get outside and enjoy our beautiful city. The Farm is about 45 minutes from downtown Toronto, rather quaint. The big plus for us was that you can make reservations and so don’t have to wait in line on the day of to get in.
As soon as you walk in through the entrance, you can smell the lovely scent of juicy, ripe strawberries. We each received a basket of our own and off we went.
Once we got home… we washed some of our picks and tasted them… mmm. There’s nothing quite like the sweetness of fresh farm to table strawberries you pick yourself!
We have a LOT air strawberries to get through… we washed and froze about a half. They will be amazing in breakfast smoothies for months to come. The rest, we will be trying out new and favourite recipes like this delicious Fresh Strawberry Blondie.
Ingredients
blondies
- 1 cup (2 sticks or 228 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup (164 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup (55 grams) fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 2 1/4 cups (306 grams) all purpose flour (use the fluff/scoop/level method for measuring)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup (127 grams) diced fresh strawberries
glaze
- 1 cup (112 grams) unsifted weight powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 Tbsp strawberry puree you'll need about 2 large strawberries, instructions below
- lemon juice about 1 Tbsp, or just enough to thin the glaze to a spreadable consistency
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 350F
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Line a 9 inch square baking pan with parchment paper with long edges. This will help you lift out the blondies for easy glazing and slicing later.
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Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg.
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When the egg is fully incorporated, beat in the lemon juice. The lemon juice will probably not completely incorporate at this point, that's ok.
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Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt, and add to the wet ingredients, mixing until no more dry flour is present.
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Gently fold in the diced strawberries. Spread the mixture into your pan and spread out as evenly as possible. The dough is thick, so take your time.
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Bake for 30-35 minutes, just until starting to turn golden around the edges and the center is set. A toothpick inserted in the center will be moist but not wet. Don't over-bake these, or they will dry out. Let cool on a rack.
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Trim the strawberries for the glaze and puree in a small food processor. Strain the puree through a small strainer to get 1 Tbsp of puree. Whisk together the sugar, puree, and lemon juice until no lumps remain. If your glaze is too thin, add a touch more sugar. If it's too thick, add more lemon juice.
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Spread the glaze over the cooled blondies. Let the glaze set before slicing.