Slide over strawberry jams and jellies to make a little room for the candied strawberries. I have recently been serving hot buttermilk biscuits with chive butter, white pimento cheese and strawberry jam. The first few weeks of serving this, I made a very traditional strawberry jam in pot with sugar and lemon. You bring everything to a boil, scoop off the foam, check that the syrup is set using a cold plate. And you will always fret over if it will or won’t ever set up.
You’ll never find me in a greater state of jealousy than come late June when I receive a phone call from my father telling me that he has just returned from a day of strawberry picking with our family down in Alabama. Oh, how I always wish I was there - quickly followed by my asking what all are they going to make with 13 quarts of strawberries. I am so determined to not miss that day this year.
A bit of wild strawberry gossip for you - the most loyal strawberry enthusiast in history was most likely Madame Tallien - who added strawberry juice to her bath water to keep her skin soft and satiny. Every time she took a bath, twenty-two pounds of strawberries were crushed for it.
The best of the strawberries, by far, were always and continue to be the wild ones. Farmers have been trying to cultivate strawberries for a very long time, and while the berries have certainly gotten bigger and sturdier for packaging and distribution - they haven’t necessarily gotten any better.
While I loved everything about my biscuit combination - I felt there was room for improvement with the strawberry jam. The strawberry flavor was just not as intense as I wanted it to be. I thought about it all last week -while rolling out raviolis, while walking the dogs, while writing the menu - and then it dawned on me: candy the berries in the oven. For one, it can’t be easier. I mean, this is the most basic and foolproof way to make jam - compote - whatever you want to call it. And two, slow roasting the berries would guarantee a more concentrated flavor. And also, I have a little hack with parchment paper. I’ll explain it in the recipe.
Ya’ll - the candied strawberries were far better than the stovetop jam version! The flavor was much more intense, the process was so much easier and the color - well, it was everything I imagined a candied strawberry would be. And I have even better news - you can start with frozen berries. In fact, I don’t recommend you to waste perfectly ripe, just picked strawberries on a recipe like this. So in between now and berry season, maybe candy some strawberries. They are the next best thing to perfectly ripe ones.
Serve these candied strawberries with buttered toast, biscuits, waffles, chocolate cake, yogurt, ice cream (candied strawberries, vanilla bean ice cream and olive oil would surely impress anyone!!!). Eat them by the spoonful right out of the jar. Until you can get your hands in a strawberry patch this Summer, I think you’ll find yourself making these over and over again.
Recipe below - tag me when you make this one. I want to see all things candied!