Fancy Strawberries

I should have posted this weeks ago. This is the dessert that I did for Mother's Day, and I was pleased with how it came out. It's not complicated, but it tastes good and I like simplicity when it come to my desserts. The lemon and mint infusion in the syrup gives this a hint of sophistication, and the handmade whipped cream is a nice homey touch. Overall, it's something that can be made ahead of time and stuck in the fridge until you need it, at which point it's impressive. My kind of dessert.

Fancy Strawberries

1 lb fresh strawberries
1 1/4 cup sugar
Zest from 1 lemon
Zest from 1 small lime
4 fresh mint leaves (No, extract won't do. It's got to be fresh mint on this one, but pretty much any kind of mint will work.)
1 1/2 cup heavy whipped cream

Start by making a simple syrup: combine 1 cup of the sugar and 1 cup of water in a saucepan over medium-high heat, and stir it until all the sugar has gone into solution. Turn the heat down to medium, then add the zest from both the lemon and the lime, and the mint leaves. Let these infuse for 5 minutes or so, and then run the whole thing through a strainer covered with cheese cloth to get out the mint leaves and zest scraps. The syrup should be clear (DO NOT let it caramelize. If it caramelizes, you've got your heat way too high), and you should taste both the citrus and the mint if you sample it.

Wash your strawberries, and slice them horizontally into 1/4 inch circles, discarding the leafy tops. Dump your sliced strawberries into your syrup, and sit it in the fridge to chill out until you are ready to serve it.

When you're ready to serve, add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar to the 1 and 1/2 cups heavy cream in a large mixing bowl. Taste this mixture. It should taste pleasantly sweet, like cool whip in liquid form, except better. If you like your whipped cream sweeter, add more sugar. This is a to-taste thing, there's no science to making whipped cream. When the mix of cream and sugar tastes right to you, use a whip to beat it into fluffy peaks. This should take about 3-5 minutes of rapid whipping. It's really not that difficult, I'm not sure why so many people seem intimidated of making their own whipped cream.

Serve the strawberries by spooning them into bowls, and drizzling syrup over them. Spoon some whipped cream on top, and drizzle a little syrup over that too. Serve immediately.

Servings: I have no idea. 8-10, probably.