I bought some strawberries today and planned on cooking those down with sugar and placing in those little shortcake cups with Cool Whip. I also just picked some blueberries from my neighbor's bushes. Can I cook the blueberries with the strawberries and sugar for a 'red, white and blue' effect...or will the blueberries burst open and turn everything purple? And...does this even sound like it would taste good? I don't eat fruit so I am no judge of what it would be like. Just want to have some other alternatives for the grown-ups tomorrow, rather than the kids' cookies and brownies! Thanks!
I dont think they'd mix well, especially since blueberries are known to stain. Do you need to cook them, can you just slice the strawberries and mix with sugar in a bowl ... let that sit over night or a couple hours .. and add the blueberries at the last minute? Both would keep their separate colors that way. Or, just a suggestion ... you could do a layer-thing. Shortcake cup .. layer of strawberries ... spoonful of coolwhip ... then some blueberries on top. Any mix of the above would be yummy ... it's a good combination, so you're on the right track with what you're doing.
Normally for strawberry shortcake, the berries aren't cooked first? You can just cut them up and add sugar, let sit for awhille and the juice will come out. But if u want to cook them, I think it would be ok to cook the 2 together. Have u checked online for a recipe - I like www.allrecipes.com we are on vaca in Tenn and went to a restaurant last night and they had THE BEST strawberry and blueberry cake last night, with a cream cheese icing..... OMG! it was to die for!
I can see what you are trying to do and think it is interesting. Neither one will take that long to cook if that is your choice, but I think I would dissolve the sugar first so that it is almost a wet syrup and then add the berries in for a "quick" minute. If I were to try it I would probably quarter the strawberries and leave the blue berries whole; possibly adding the blue berries first. Don't stir so the blue berries break. The more I think about this the more I am liking it.
If you have a clear glass bowl or trifle bowl or can borrow one, you could do a layer of your cake that you were gonna use, a law of strawberries (mixed w/ a little sugar and allowed to sit for at least 1/2 hour), a layer of cool whip, a layer of blueberries and maybe some crushed pecans, then repeat. It is VERY pretty and you see the colors perfectly.
Thanks for all the suggestions...haven't decided WHAT to do yet because they all sound great! I only knew about cooking the strawberries with the sugar because a friend had me do it for her once to put over slices of pound cake; but, it sounds like I don't need to cook them at all! It's been a busy morning...I have made 2 gallons of lemonade, cooked my brownies and am working on red, white and blue pinwheel cookies. As soon as those are done, I think I will just put sugar in with the fruit and leave in the fridge until tonight. Then...it's on to the 'flag' and 'star' shaped cookies! Everyone have a great 4th of July!!
I have a berry question too. I made a blueberry pie last night for the first time in my life. I followed the directions from a recipe I found online. It called for 5 Tablespoons of cornstarch to thicken it up. Well, it's as runny as can be! I let it sit overnight just in case. What am I doing wrong? I used a 4 1/2 cups of fresh blueberries, a cup of sugar, the cornstarch, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, a little cinnamon. I baked for 50 minutes at 375. The pie crust looks and tastes great. The filling tastes really good... It's just that it's more like a blueberry soup than pie! :lol:
Afraid I can't help ya there, have never tried a *berry pie. I've heard the cornstarch is supposed to work .
Never ever cook strawberries for strawberry shortcake! Only rinse them off with cold water and cut up.
I thought the cornstarch would work too! I'm going to keep trying this summer until fresh blueberries get too expensive. :mrgreen:
Was the filling bubbling when you took the pie out of the oven? Corn starch has to come to a full boil to reach its full thickening potential, so when the time is up if the filling is not bubbling, you need to cook it a little longer.
OH yeah ... I remember my Mom tried that a few times with blackberries, trying to get the right consistency ... blackberry cobbler was always my Dad's favorite. I did a google search on 'blueberry pie' +runny ... quite a few good answers ... but overall, people do seem to like tapioca as a thickener for berries (and there's something called 'tapioca starch' that works well as opposed to regular tapioca ... the pearl tapioca that you make the tapioca pudding out of? .. which I didnt know!)
Are you stating this from experience, or are you stuck in a narrow view of what to do with strawberries?
Well, Ima...I forgot to cut the strawberries and put the sugar on them early in the day. So, while I was cooking the hot dogs, I decided to try your way. I let the sugar and a little water melt together and put in the strawberries in for a minute and then added the blueberries. It didn't take them long to start to bust open so I took it off the heat. It LOOKED delicious and my friends seemed to enjoy it, in fact they took it home with them since I don't eat the stuff, anyway!
I don't remember now if it was bubbling when I took it out of the oven. I don't think it was. We ate it for dessert last night and it ended up being fine. Once I cut a full slice I could see it wasn't as runny as I thought. I will wait for it to bubble next time though! Thanks KDS
