Strawberry Shortcake Bars

A few months ago, I read about a recipe online. I don't remember what the recipe was now, but I do remember reading that it came from a cookbook that was about making classic foods from childhood-fruit roll ups, cheese-its, poptarts, and even peeps! I didn't need any more convincing; I had to have this cookbook.

Of course I had the best intentions, and the cookbook sat, well read but not really used, for several months. 

Over the past few weeks, we have gotten lots of strawberries in our weekly farm share and from our  weekly farmer's market. I've made strawberry rhubarb pie, strawberry banana bread, and strawberry freezer jam. I remembered this recipe and went to check to see if I had all the ingredients to make it, and lo, found I was out of strawberries. Good thing I was headed to the store this weekend.

I remember eating strawberry shortcake bars (and their close sibling, chocolate eclair bars) as a kid, and though I didn't have them often, I always had a soft spot for them. I haven't had any in years, so when I saw this recipe, I was intrigued. I really wanted to try them and see if they were actually as good as I remembered them. 

On a side note, I was curious about the same thing when Hostess declared bankruptcy last year. I went out and bought a few packages of cupcakes to split with my sister and a friend (cupcakes only because every store I went to was out of twinkies already). They were okay, but really not as good as I remembered them. As a kid, though, there were very few things I didn't eat, and fewer things I didn't like! I was hoping that these strawberry shortcake bars wouldn't fall into the same trap that the Hostess cupcakes kind of did.

Although this recipe isn't terribly difficult, it is time consuming and can be frustrating if things don't set properly. Part of my problem might have been cheap popsicle molds, and three out of four of them came out in pieces when it came time for me to assemble them. Adam and I made lemonade out of lemons with those, if you will, and put them in a bowl with vanilla ice cream and the crumbs on top and ate it with a spoon. It didn't have the same feeling as eating it off of a stick, but still pretty tasty. The ice cream overchurned, possibly due to me putting the whole vanilla mixture into the freezer to quick-freeze it instead of putting it all in the fridge for the day, but once it sat out for a bit, was melted enough to spread it over the bar. 

When I finally ate the one lonely bar that made it all the way through the process tonight, I was brought back. I think I needed a wooden popsicle stick to make the whole experience complete, but the plastic mold was a nice consolation prize. It was interesting to bite into the bar rather than eat it with a spoon. If I can master getting the molds out intact next time, I'd love to perfect the technique and make it look much prettier rather than do a rushed job to make sure things don't melt too quickly. 

This is most definitely a weekend project, but it's so worth it when they're done.

Strawberry Shortcake Bars (recipe from Classic Snacks Made From Scratch)

For strawberry ice cream:
1 16 oz. bag of frozen strawberries, thawed
1/2 c. whipping cream
2 Tbsp. light corn syrup
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. cornstarch

To make strawberry ice cream:
Place the first three ingredients into a blender or a food processor. Blend and pulse together until you have a thick puree. Add the sugar and cornstarch and blend together for another minute. The mixture will look very much like a strawberry smoothie at this point. Pour the mixture into six popsicle molds and freeze.

For vanilla ice cream:
1.5 c. whipping cream
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

To make vanilla ice cream:
Put the cream into a pot and bring it to a minimum simmer over medium low heat. It is ready when the cream is steaming with small bubbles along the side of the pan. Bring the pot off of the heat and mix in the sugar and vanilla until fully blended. Put the mixture into a bowl and cover it, then refrigerate for at least four hours or put it in the freezer for at least two hours. (I wanted instant gratification, so I froze it).

For cake crumbs:
1/4 c. all purpose flour
1/4 c. powdered milk
3 Tbsp. powdered freeze-dried strawberries
1 Tbsp. powdered sugar
1 tsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

To make cake crumbs:
Place a small bag of freeze-dried strawberries in a spice grinder or a food processor (I found my strawberries at Trader Joe's). Pulse until it becomes a powder, then transfer 3 Tbsp. to a bowl (you will have extra, save it for the next time you make these!). Whisk the flour, powdered milk, the now-powdered strawberries, the powdered sugar, and the cornstarch together until fully combined. Melt the butter, and cool down a little bit. Combine the butter and the dry ingredients together gently to make rough cake-like crumbs and clumps.

To put the bars together:
When the vanilla base is ready and chilled, put it in an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacture instructions (I froze mine for 25 minutes and found it overchurned slightly, so I had to let it re-melt a bit to make sure it would spread across the bars easily. Just keep checking it as it is in the maker).

Take the strawberry popsicles out of the molds (I put the molds in a bowl of warm water to try and loosen it) and place on a sheet tray with wax paper. Using a strong rubber spatula, spread the vanilla ice cream entirely over the strawberry layer. Sprinkle the cake crumbs along each side, covering the vanilla ice cream layer completely, and gently pressing the crumbs into the popsicle to make sure they stick. Place the bars on the sheet and let it refreeze for at least one hour.