Although strawberries scream "summer" to most people, to me they carry a lot of BSE: Big Spring Energy. That's because growing up in the South, the first strawberries of the year hit markets in early March. And while those early-season berries weren't as sweet as those that came at the start of summer, I always loved them more. Their slightly sulphuric, sour flavor made them ideal for baking since it helped to cook them down with sugar so as to make them as candy-like as their late-season siblings.
The early-spring strawberries are now in Southern California, along with all the mania that manifests when everyone returns to a specific fruit at the perfect time of year to eat it. I mostly refuse to eat strawberries throughout the rest of the year, waiting for those first berries of spring to kick off the season that lasts until the last super sweet berries leave in the summer. And right now, all I want to do is bake things with these new berries.
My current baking project is a cold pie that incorporates the cooked-down strawberries into a "Black Forest" flavor profile, a request from my partner. Instead of using cherries, which I often find need a lot of help to coax that enticing "red" flavor from within, early-season strawberries have the robust, tangy flavor I want — when cooked and condensed, the acidity balances all the sugar and allows for an exponentially greater berry-full flavor.
