Strawberries, at their peak of ripeness, are naturally juicy. They are a perfect match for some thick whipped cream or buttery pound cake.

Macerated strawberries are another way to serve the ruby-red fruits from the farmers’ market. It sounds like it might be complicated to prepare macerated berries. It’s not.

As a matter of fact, it requires one simple step anyone can do.

Follow the instructions from yesterday’s post to clean and store your strawberries. Slice off the tops. (Go back a few posts to read about what to do with those strawberry tops.)

Macerated berries are fruit that has absorbed the flavors of a liquid the berries have been marinated in for some time.

In this recipe from Martha Stewart the berries are macerated in their own juices. http://www.marthastewart.com/340218/macerated-strawberries

Granulated sugar gets mixed with strawberries in a bowl. The sugar breaks down the texture of the fruit and causes the natural juices to be drawn out.

The strawberries are then left to sort of reabsorb their own juices making a type of strawberry juice liquid to soften the berries.

If serving the macerated strawberries with pound cake pour some of the strawberry juice on top and let it soak into the cake.

Serve the macerated strawberries and garnish with some fresh mint leaves. You can serve with a dollop of yogurt or a scoop of ice cream.

If you can spoon sugar on top of some berries and stir together you can make macerated strawberries. Simple and summer strawberry flavor ready in your kitchen in very little time.

See you tomorrow for a riff on this recipe.