Strawberries

"Oh lush
summer,
ripe
apple
cart,
verdant
strawberry
mouth,
lips of wild plum,
roads
of tender
dust on dust,
midday
coppery red
drum."
- from "Ode to Summer" by Pablo Neruda

Nothing says the beginning of summer like strawberries.  I grew up in southwestern Ontario, and the strawberry crop always came just in time for my sister's mid-June birthday.  It was the first of the summer fruit - raspberries, blueberries, peaches - and we couldn't get enough of them.  We'd run out to the garden in our bare feet and come in with a bowlful of berries for dinner.  One or two of them might have been eaten along the way.

One of the great surprises of my adulthood was developing an intolerance to strawberries.  I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the huge quantity I ate as a child. So now fresh strawberries are off-limits.  But for some reason, I can eat them in any other format - if they've been frozen, made into jam or, like in these bars, cooked.

That's what makes this a perfect beginning-of-summer recipe for me. It's the best way I've found to take me back to the days when I was a child, and ate strawberries with joy.

"In the afternoon,
fire
rests,
air
makes clover
dance; it enters
the deserted factory:
a fresh star
rises
in
the cloudy
sky.
A summer night
sizzles
without
burning."
- from "Ode to Summer" by Pablo Neruda

Brown Butter Strawberry Streusel Bars

(from Une Gamine Dans La Cuisine)

For the crust and crumb topping

1 cup plus 5 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into chunks

3/4 cup sugar (first amount)

1/4 cup sugar (second amount)

pinch salt

2 egg yolks, slightly beaten

1/2 tsp almond extract

3 cups plus 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour

For the Strawberry filling

3 heaping cups of fresh strawberries, hulled and cut into chunks

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice

1 Tbsp corn starch

2 Tbsp red wine (you can replace with water, if you like)

Line a 9” x 13” pan with parchment paper.

To prepare the crust:

Brown the butter (see here for directions on browning butter).  Let cool to room temperature. 

In a large bowl, combine the cooled brown butter, 3/4 cup sugar and salt.  Stir until well-blended.  Add yolks and almond extract and whisk until smooth.  Stir in the flour until you have a stiff dough.

Transfer about 2 1/2 cups of the dough to the pan and press it evenly on the bottom.  Refrigerate the pan for about 40 minutes.

To prepare the topping:

Add the 1/4 cup of sugar to the remaining dough and, using your fingertips, work the sugar into the dough until it is crumbly and sandy.  Cover and set aside.

To prepare the filling:

In a large saucepan, combine the chunks of berries, sugar, lemon juice, corn starch and wine.  Stir to combine.  Bring to a gentle boil over medium-high heat.  Once it starts to boil, reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid turns into a thick syrup (about 8 – 10 minutes).  Remove the pan from the heat and let the mixture cool to room temperature.  (Note: it will continue to thicken as it cools.)  I allowed about 40 minutes for this.

To make the bars:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Remove the pan from the refrigerator and prick the crust several times with a fork.  (Note: Chilling and pricking the dough will keep it from puffing up too much in the oven.)

Bake the crust for about 15 minutes. 

Remove from oven and set aside.  Increase oven temperature to 350 degrees.  Spread the berry mixture over the partially-baked crust.  Sprinkle the remaining dough mixture over the berries and pat into place.

Bake 25 – 30 minutes, or until the crumb topping is light golden.  Cool for at least 3 hours before removing from pan.