Balsamic Glazed Strawberries over Vanilla Ice Cream

I do love an easy dessert that tastes great!  And if I can salvage something I might otherwise not use, even the better…..

I love strawberries, especially this time of year when you can get them good and fresh and they really taste like strawberries.  I’ll still get the ones during the rest of the year, but they just aren’t the same.

A few years ago, my uncle had retired and they moved to run a U-pick-um farm outside of Ashville NC.  Well, the whole family went up there and we had a ton of kids with us.  It had been raining that week, so people had not come out to pick the strawberries and there were so many on the bushes that we all got out to pick them.  Many of them were a bit overripe.  They were about to throw a bunch of those away when I suggested that they let me try my recipe on them.  I made the balsamic glaze and cooked up the strawberries and the adults knew the kids were not going to like this – however, I think the kids ended up eating most of it and the adults got just a little bit!
(For another great blog post on strawberries, please see my friend Maria Springer’s post – click here.)

This is a GREAT recipe for less than perfect strawberries – whether they are underripe or overripe, it will work fine.  In fact, it works best with overripe strawberries as you tend to get more strawberry juice out of them.

Another interesting variation you can use – last year while we were in Portland, I had the opportunity to try a balsamic vinegar made with honey – this doesn’t need any additional sugar or simmering – I brought a bottle home with me and it works great in this recipe.  (If you would like to try this – I have a link to it on the store.)

Well – enough of that and on to the recipe.  As I mentioned, this is a very simple recipe.  You start by getting the strawberries ready.

Next, you make the balsamic glaze.  Put the balsamic vinegar and brown sugar in a small saucepan and simmer until it reduces in half and gets syrupy.

Now, you start the strawberries in another pan.  Cook them until their juices start coming out.  Once you have some good strawberry juice and the berries have softened just a bit, add the glaze.

From here, you dish out the ice cream and spoon the strawberries and sauce over it.  Eat it quickly because the hot topping will melt the ice cream pretty quickly (especially if you use homemade vanilla bean ice cream – my favorite recipe is the one from Williams-Sonoma, haven’t found one that’s any better – I use it all the time).   And one of these days, I’ll have to get something other than white dishes for taking pictures!

Recipe:
1/4 Cup Balsamic Vinegar (Don’t use the good stuff here – I like the Kirkland brand from Costco for basic Balsamic Vinegar – just make sure whatever you use doesn’t list caramel flavor or something like that on the ingredient list!)
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries (Or about a pound)
Vanilla Ice Cream

Combine balsamic vinegar and brown sugar in small saucepan.  Bring to light simmer and reduce by half.

In a second saucepan, begin to heat strawberries.  As strawberries begin to release juice, add balsamic glaze.  Cook until soft.  Serve over vanilla ice cream.