Buttermilk Cream Strawberry Cupcakes Recipe

We hit on the idea to create buttermilk cream strawberry cupcakes or call them tartlets, while we´ve got very sweet dried strawberries and an addictive mulberry fruit wine.
The buttermilk cream cupcakes are easy to make, for the flan base, we used crumbled ladyfingers (Savoiardi) and butter. For the strawberry topping, honestly we´ve spent a bit of time. We cooked the dried strawberries with canned peaches in water for a while and than added the tasty mullberry fruit wine.
It needed a few hours and a whole bottle of that fruit wine
(just half of the bottle has been used for the topping,
the other half has disappeared…),
the result was just… a delight. You can use also other fruits, dried or fresh,
like Mango, Peach, Apricot, Passionfruit, Kiwi, Pineapple, etc.
and You don´t have to use a fruit wine, a fruit juice will do it as well.
As mold we used stainless steel dessert rings.

Buttermilk Cream Strawberry Cupcakes

Recipe: Buttermilk Cream Strawberry Cupcakes
Ingredients for 4 cupcakes:
Flan base:
100 g ladyfingers (Savoiardi)
100 g unsalted butter
Buttermilk cream:
500 ml buttermilk
200 ml heavy cream
180 – 200 g sugar
6 – 7 gelatin leaves
1 vanilla pod
Strawberry peach topping:
50 g dried strawberries
150 – 200 ml water
350 ml fruit wine (mullberry or strawberry) or strawberry juice
3 tablespoons canned peaches (diced)
2 gelatin leaves

Preparation:
Put the ladyfingers in a freezer bag and smash them with a kitchen roll, until You´ll get fine crumbs. Heat the butter in a small pan and mix the ladyfinger crumbles with the butter. Put the dessert rings on a plate, fill in the crumble-butter mix and press it with Your fingers. Put them in the fridge to harden for about an hour. In the meantime heat half of the heavy cream (100 ml) and sugar in a small pot. Cut the vanilla pod lengthwise and scrap out the black pulp. Add vanilla pods and pulp to the cream and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Soak the gelatin leaves in cold water for 5 – 10 minutes, Remove the heavy cream from the oven and remove the vanilla pod. Wring the gelatine and stir it in the heavy cream. Fill the mixture in a bowl and add the buttermilk.
Let it cool down.

Whip the cream and fold it gently in.
Fill the buttermilk-cream in the dessert rings, leaving enough space for the strawberry topping.
Let the tartlets harden in the fridge for about 2 – 3 hours.
Meanwhile let the dried strawberries soak in warm water for about 1 hour,
than put them with the soaking water in a small pot and bring them to the boil.
Simmer for about 1/2 – 1 hour, then add the peaches,
refill the liquid with fruit wine or fruit juice
and reduce several times, at the end You should have about 200 ml liquid left.
Soak the gelatin leaves in cold water for 5 – 10 minutes.
Blend the strawberry-peach mix with a hand mixer
and remove from the oven. Wring the gelatine and stir it in.
Let it cool down and pour it over the cupcakes.
Let it harden in the fridge for about 1 – 2 hours.
Now the Buttermilk Cream Strawberry Cupcakes are ready to serve.
We garnished our tartlets with dried strawberries and perilla (Perilla frutescens) sprouts.