Adventures in toddler foods: Strawberry compote

Strawberry compote is essentially a strawberry sauce commonly used as a filling or topping for  cheesecakes and other yummy desserts. Some brands of yogurt even have a separate compartment with a fruit compote that can be mixed in just before you consume it, such as the Muller Corner brand.



Muller Corner yogurt

Since my daughter first began eating yogurt at 7 months, I have tried as much as possible to always give her plain yogurt with fresh fruit or homemade fruit purees mixed in, to avoid all the unnecessary added sugars, artificial colors and additives in commercially flavored yogurt. I experimented my "home flavored yogurts" with many different fruits such as apples, pears, banana, blueberries, peaches even papaya but for some reason I was hesitant to try strawberries. I introduced raw strawberries to her after she turned a year old and she loved them but I never tried cooking them and mixing them into her yogurt. I fell into a comfortable routine of alternating, pear puree, apple sauce or fresh crushed blueberries as those seemed to be her predictable favorites.One afternoon I realized I had ran out of all my regular 'go to' fruits for her yogurt but had lots of strawberries in the fridge. I had two options, I could either go all the way to store to buy some apples, pears or blueberries, or I could make the best of the strawberries I had. It seemed like as good a time as any to give it a shot.

I started by washing and cutting up the strawberries, now in hindsight I realize I probably should have chopped them up much smaller, to avoid having big chunks of fruit in the compote. I then placed them in the pan and added a tiny sprinkle of sugar.

I usually don't add any sugar to my fruit purees but decided to add a tiny bit because I worried that the strawberry compote might be too sharp and sour for her. I don't think the little sugar I added made much of a difference and next time I won't add any. At first the strawberries in the pan just sizzled for a while but with time the juice from the fruit stared oozing out and I began to see the compote starting to form.

Once I realized that the chunks were a bit large I used my potato masher to smash them a bit whilst still in the pan over a low heat. I must admit it smelt so good I just wanted to chill it and pour it over cheesecake.

 If I was making this for a cake filling or dessert topping I would have added vanilla for extra flavor but I didn't do that in this case.

I chose not to put it in the blender because I wanted to  keep the chunky texture, so I just allowed i to cool down and then poured it into jars to be later mixed in with her yogurt. she truly loved it! I later used some of it in a smoothie for her with pineapple and frozen banana and it was honestly scrumptious!!

I am not sure why I waited so long to try this, it was by far a lot easier and faster than some of the other fruit I cook up for her. I will definitely make more of this for her yogurt as well as for my desserts.