Strawberry Glaze

The end of May, beginning of June starts up the strawberry season. I love strawberries especially just picked out of the garden. We purchase local strawberries from several farms to use in our products. Some products we offer that feature strawberries are: Strawberry Bread, Strawberry Muffins, Farmers' Market Muffins, Strawberry Shortcake, Glory cupcakes, Strawberry cupcakes and Strawberry scones. We even offer a seasonal berry tart that uses not only local strawberries but other berries.

One thing I love making is a Strawberry glaze. This is a fast and easy way to fancy up a plain cheesecake, pound cake, or even cupcakes. Since Strawberry season is starting, I figured I would post the recipe I use for my glaze. It's delicious and very fast and easy to make. Enjoy!

Ingredients: 4 c strawberries, .5 c sugar, 4.5 tsp cornstarch, .25 c water, 1 TBSP butter, 2 tsp lemon juice

Instructions: (1) Dissolve the cornstarch in the quarter cup of water. (2) Crush enough strawberries to make 1 cup of pulp. (3) Add pulp, cornstarch mixture, and sugar to a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat until mixture boils and thickens and is clear. (4) Remove from heat and add butter and lemon juice and cool to room temperature.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

My grandmother always made a rhubarb pie or bread or muffins when the rhubarb in granddad's garden would sprout. One summer, prior to her fixin' the pie, us cousins tried some rhubarb. Needless to say it left a very nasty impression in our mouths. For the longest time, I would never eat anything that had rhubarb in it because of that memory associated with the taste. I decided to make some rhubarb pie one season when a customer asked for it at a market. I used grandma's recipe and even had a slice of pie later in the day. I'm still not a huge fan of rhubarb but at least I know I can stomach it if I had to.

The recipe listed below is the recipe given to me by my grandmother years ago. You will need a pie crust recipe (the flakier the better) or a store-bought pie crust. Pillsbury makes a non-frozen pie crust that you can purchase and my mother-in-law will sometimes use it when she isn't making it from scratch. I use my granddad Nestor's pie crust recipe. This is a very flaky and buttery recipe that he always used when making his pies. Sorry, not sharing this family secret with you.  Enjoy the pie!


Ingredients: 3/4 c  sugar, 1/3 c flour, 1 tsp  ground Cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground cloves, 1 lb. fresh rhubarb*, 1 pt. strawberries, 2 TBSPs butter


Instructions: (1)Preheat oven to 425F. Mix sugar, flour, cinnamon and cloves in a bowl. (2) Wash rhubarb and trim off ends. Cut rhubarb into 1" pieces. Wash and hull strawberries; cut in half. (3) Place rhubarb and strawberries in a large bowl and sprinkle with sugar mixture. Toss to mix. Let stand about 15 minutes then toss again. (4) Spoon rhubarb-strawberry mixture into a deep dish 9" pie pan or a baking dish that already has pie crust in it. Cut up butter into small cubes and place on top of mixture in the pan/dish.(5) Cover with another pie crust or make a fancy lattice top. Cook for 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown and juices bubble up.


*You want about 6 c of cut-up rhubarb. To prevent the edges of the crust from burning, you can line them with aluminum foil and remove it the last 10 minutes.

National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day

The Original: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie

Today is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. It's funny to think about how this traditional American snack was actually a mistake by Ruth Wakefield.  One day while at the Toll House Inn in Whitman, MA.,  Mrs. Wakefield decided to add pieces of a chocolate bar to her butter cookie dough. She thought that the chocolate would melt when the cookies baked but to her surprise, the chocolate held its shape. The cookie was a hit and the recipe was published in a Boston paper. Since the recipe was such a success, Nestle began selling bags of chocolate chips to bakers beginning in 1939.

My mom is the one who perfected the oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe back in the 1970s. This is the cookie recipe that started it all. We call our oatmeal chocolate chip cookie The Original. This cookie has been baked many times over way before we started the bakery in 2008. My sister and I would bake up batches of these cookies to give away as gifts, to sale for extra spending money, or just to enjoy with a glass of milk with friends.

From this original version, we came up with 15 other varieties. My favorites are the Holiday (oatmeal white chocolate cranberry), the Harvest (oatmeal blueberry, cranberry, cherry), the Southern Comfort (oatmeal chocolate chip pecans) and the Cinnamon Chip (oatmeal cinnamon).  Even though I have other favorites, I still enjoy an original right out of the oven with a glass of milk.

Since I really can't give you our cookie recipe since it is a secret, I'm posting a recipe from Williams-Sonoma's cookbook titled Cookies. The cookbook was first printed in 2002 by Weldon Owen Inc. and Williams-Sonoma Inc. I haven't made this recipe but a few of the others that I did make from this cookbook were delicious.

Celebrate National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day by whipping up a batch of cookies. Make some friends and share them or eat them all to yourself. Enjoy this sweet day.

Ingredients:  1 1/3 c (220g) flour, .5 tsp  baking powder, .5 tsp baking soda, .5 tsp sea salt, .5 c (125g) unsalted butter (room temperature), .5 c sugar, .5 c light brown sugar (firmly packed), 1 egg, 1 tsp pure vanilla, 1 c (185g) chocolate chips

Instructions:  (1) Preheat oven to 350F (180C) and line baking sheets with parchment paper. (2) Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. (3) Cream butter until fluffy and add in sugars and continue to beat until mixture isn't gritty when rubbed between a finger and thumb. (4) Add egg and vanilla and beat on low until blended. Scrap down the sides occasionally. (5) Add flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until just blended. Add in chocolate chips until blended. (6) Scoop out cookies with a tablespoon or with dampened hands, shape into 1 inch (2.5cm) balls and drop onto baking sheets. Space cookies a few inches (5 cm) apart. Bake until golden brown around the edges, about 12 minutes. Cool briefly on wire racks. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

* I use air-bake cookie sheets and an ice cream scoop to make the cookies uniform in shape.
* Feel free to use different types of chips in your cookies.

Raspberry Shortbread

When I hear the word shortbread, I think of men in kilts, bagpipes, and Walkers Shortbread. Shortbread is a classic Scottish dessert that consists of three basic ingredients: flour, sugar, and butter. (Butter, my favorite!) This dessert resulted from medieval biscuit bread, which was a twice-baked, enriched bread roll dusted with sugar and spices and hardened into a hard, dry, sweetened biscuit called a rusk. Shortbread can be found in as a large circle, individual rounds, or cut as fingers.

Either way you slice it, shortbread is delicious. We are trying out a few recipes for shortbread and since I'm enjoying way too much shortbread, I figured I would do a recipe on the subject. This recipe actually comes from Epicurious.com. It's not the recipe we use, but it is still a tasty treat and is fairly easy to make. The only time consuming factor is the freezing of the dough for a few hours or overnight. If you have to make and eat these all in one day, make the dough in the morning and bake in the afternoon/evening. I just made the dough and left if overnight and baked a tray of these the next day. Enjoy.



Ingredients:  1 lb. butter, room temperature, 4 egg yolks, 4 c flour, 2 c sugar, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp sea salt, 1 c raspberry jam, room temperature,  1/2 c powdered sugar

Instructions: (1) Cream butter in a mixer then add egg yolks and mix well. (2) In a medium bowl, add sugar, flour, baking powder, sea salt and whisk. (3) Add sugar mixture to butter mixture and mix until incorporated. (4) Turn dough out onto a floured surface and form 2 balls. Place each ball in plastic wrap and freeze for 2 hours or overnight. (5) Preheat oven to 350F. Take one roll of dough out of the oven and grate it by hand or with a grating disk in a food processor. Evenly cover a 9x13" baking pan or a 10" tart pan with the shreds of dough. (6) Spread jam, using the back of a spoon, to within 1/2-inch of the edge all the way around. Grate other ball of dough over the entire surface of jam. (7) Bake for 30-40 minutes until lightly brown. Sprinkle with powdered sugar as soon as they come out of the oven and cool on a wire rack. Cut into squares with a serrated knife.

*I use homemade raspberry jam from raspberries we grow in our garden. I particularly like the jam with seeds. The grating of the shortbread doesn't have to be a fine grate, coarse works best. I sprinkle a little more than a dusting of powdered sugar on the finished project. I think that comes from eating beignets when I lived in Louisiana.

Blueberry Muffins with Sugar Mace Topping

The farmer's market season official kicks of this weekend here along the South Shore with the opening day market for Hingham. Come June, more markets in the Plymouth and Bristol counties will be open for business. We're looking forward to this upcoming season and in celebration for the season, I decided to use up some of our last season blueberries to make room for more fresh, seasonal berries. The topping isn't a traditional sugar, crumb, or streusel. It's a mace topping, an ingredient that I usually use when making things with ginger to give it an extra bite! Enjoy this recipe.

Ingredients: 1 2/3 c flour, .5 c yellow cornmeal, 2 tsp baking powder, .5 tsp baking soda, .5 tsp ground mace, .25 tsp sea salt, 2/3 c brown sugar (packed), 2 eggs, 1 c milk, 1/3 c butter (melted), 1 c blueberries, 2 TBSP granulated sugar, .25 tsp ground mace

Instructions: (1) Preheat oven to 400F and prep a 12-c or 6-c muffin pan with liners or cooking spray. (2) In a large bowl, whisk flour, cornmeal, baking powder and soda, mace and sea salt. (3) In a medium bowl, whisk sugar, eggs, milk, and butter until well blended. (4) Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir until just blended. Fold in blueberries. Divide batter amongst prepared muffin cups evenly. (5) In a small bowl, mix sugar and mace and sprinkle over muffin tops. Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes or until tops are golden brown and toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pan for a few minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

*Sometimes when huckleberries are in season, I'll substitute huckleberries for the blueberries. They are a little smaller and less sweet than the blueberries. Also, wild blueberries also work.
*I always use unsalted butter and let the eggs come to room temperature before using them in any recipe.
*If you are feeling really indulgent, you can make a maple butter to spread on the muffins. Use .5 c of unsalted butter at room temperature and 3 TBSP of pure maple syrup. Cream the butter and syrup together until combined.