Strawberries and Cream

Wow... I just went to Whole Foods to get some ingredients for the secret birthday cake I'm making Elliott: Angel Food Cake with Strawberries and Raspberries. That's it at the right.

The strawberries are to-die-for. So much better than any off-season ones you might find. If someone had only had the off-season ones, they'd think the ones I bought today were a different fruit altogether! I eat a lot of frozen fruit because it's cheaper (so I can eat more fruits in general) than fresh and can easily be incorporated into Greek yogurt or cottage cheese, two common staples in my fridge. Not to mention that the general consensus these days is that frozen fruit is usually more nutritious than fresh. Go figure. Anyway -- whatever they say about frozen being better, I mean, it's all still in the spectrum of fruit, so buy the fresh stuff when it's in season.

My recipe for whole-wheat angel food will show up here eventually, but I can share the cream that's going on top of this cake right now. It's smooth and creamy and slightly lighter than the consistency of yogurt, so it's kind of between a custard and whipped cream. It's much better for you than any sort of traditional sour cream or cream cheese-based fruit dip. Fresh fruit would go amazing with it. You could even add some fresh chopped mint, some cinnamon, or any flavoring you like. Here's the basic recipe.

Yogurt-Cream Topping

1 cup plain, non-fat Greek yogurt
2 tablespoons sugar (sugar is always a taste thing -- some like it sweet, some not. Basic rule? Taste it.)
between 1/4 and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup (or less) whipping cream (the liquid stuff) *see the NOTE

1. Combine yogurt and sugar.
2. Taste for sweetness.
3. Add vanilla extract and stir to combine.
4. Whip the whipping cream to medium peaks with a whisk. Try to prevent over-whipping.

*NOTE: So, this is the luxurious part of this recipe. You could use Cool-Whip, but I have a strong preference against it because it uses partially hydrogenated oil. Although the nutrition label says "0" under trans fat, that means it is less than 0.5 grams per serving, and the serving size is very small, about 2 tablespoons if I remember correctly.

Small amounts of trans fat can be devastating. The estimation is that 1 gram of trans fat = 10 grams of saturated fat in terms of the effect it has on your health. I'd rather have some of the real stuff (whipping cream), which is nutritionally-speaking better for you, even if it has more calories. If you don't want to use whipping cream, you could pour some liquid half-and-half (they even have fat-free varieties) into the yogurt instead of using the whipping cream. This would cut the thickness of the yogurt. You could even use those cans of whipping cream -- they often come in light varieties. That usually means more artificial ingredients, however. Choose whatever is in-line with your own "culinary point of view."

5. Add the whipped cream to the yogurt-mix and stir until just combined. You don't want to release all of the air from the whipped cream.
6. Keep chilled until serving time.