The Recipe Box: Strawberry Syrup and Spiced French Toast

Strawberry Syrup and
Spiced French Toast

From the recipe box of KimB

We had planted strawberries in our summer garden pots and while we got quite a few, they were small in size. As we only got a few each day, I just air dried them and saved them in a storage bag until I decided what to do with all these teeny weeny berries. After they were air dried they were even teenier and weenier and I thought I'd never find something useful to make with them.

Then I came upon the idea of making syrup out of them. You hardly ever see good quality flavored syrups offered in coffee shops these days and many don't even have “fake” maple flavored syrup either. So I set out to make some great syrup.

When you dry the strawberries you should peel off the leaves and stems. This will make it easier to work with later. I did not and so I had to rub off the dried leaves before I started to work with the berries. That isn't hard and Allen said it looked like I was shelling peas as I picked up each micro-berry and rubbed it with my fingers to break off the leaves and stems.

Dried strawberries do not rehydrate well so you can run them thru a grinder/food processor to powder them, but I left mine whole. If left whole they will not disintegrate when cooked but end up as pulp. I use the strawberry pulp/compote like jam on bread, biscuits or english muffins. The flavor will be intense!


Strawberry Syrup

A lot of dried strawberries (cleaned of leaves and stems) [1-2 cups of dried berries]
1 cup of water
1 cup of sugar

1. Boil the water and sugar.
2. Add the strawberries.
3. Cook on slow simmer for 10 – 30 min or until the syrup is the consistency your prefer.
The syrup will thicken by evaporation and the longer it cooks the more flavor the syrup will have. You can add extra water as needed.
4. Separate the pulp from the syrup using a strainer. You will have to “help” push the liquid out of the pulp. Place the syrup and pulp in containers and keep refrigerated.

Spiced French Toast

cinnamon
ginger
cardamon
cloves
nutmeg
2 eggs
dash of milk, soy milk or cream
2 slices of good quality bread
pat of butter
optional: powdered sugar

1. Cut the bread on diagonals.
2. Rough stir the spices, eggs and milk together.
3. Heat the butter in a good sized skillet until it starts to sizzle.
4. Deep dip the bread segments into the egg-spice mixture until well coated (might get a bit soggy) and fry them until the egg has cooked thoroughly and has a nice color.
5. Top with powered sugar, syrup, jam or apple sauce.

Serve immediately.

 

Strawberry Syrup and Spiced French Toast