Curiosity Mixed with Fruit Puree

I have one more week of school! My finals are next week and then afterward, I can enter baking mode like crazy! I'm so excited.  Sorry I couldn't post last week; I had an Organic Chemistry exam on Friday then a Histology practical on Monday. It was a terrible week for me.

This week, however, I found some time to bake.  We had a ton of fruit so I threw some strawberries and blackberries into the blender along with a cup of sugar. I liquefied the fruit and strained out the seeds, leaving me with about 2 1/2 cups of smooth and delicious fruit puree.

I actually had no idea what to do with it.  All I knew was I wanted to eat some. So I did. It all started with.. What if I did this? then.. Hmmm, how about this? and the next thing I knew, I had eaten this fruit puree in four different ways.

Fruit Puree Dessert #1: Throw it on Ice Cream

Sorry, no picture here. I was so excited to eat it that I forgot to take a picture!

Fruit Puree Dessert #2: Sugar Cookies with Jelly Centers

This is actually very simple.  First I thickened about 1 cup of fruit puree with 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch.  Then I cut out two cookies with the same cutter, cutting out the center of one of those cookies with a smaller cookie cutter. Baked them and ta-da! cute cookies!

This cookie was baked with a special someone in mind :)

Then I "glued" the cookies together with a bit of royal icing and decorated.

Last, I filled the centers with the cooled fruit.

I love that you can make all kinds of shapes.

Fruit Puree Dessert #3: Mini Pies

I had some leftover cookie dough so I lined a mini-cupcake pan with dough and poured a little bit of fruit in the center.  After they were done baking, I had mini-pies no larger than a strawberry.

The inside

It was really really good.

Fruit Puree Dessert #4:  Mini-Popsicles

After indulging in more calories than I needed, I figured I should freeze the rest of the fruit to keep it fresh. Then I remembered how much I loved to make my own popsicles when I was younger.

I found these tiny cups lying around the house.  

Since they were small enough, I used toothpicks for the popsicle stick.

I used a piece of aluminum foil to hold the stick in place while it was freezing overnight.

The next day, I ran the outside of the cup under cold water for a few seconds. It easily slid out in one perfect popsicle piece.

Even my little brother thought they were delicious.

And I hope you do too!