Strawberry Shortcake

A few weeks ago, while foodgawking, I happened across a gorgeous picture of a strawberry shortcake. Being that Spring is in the air and many people are beginning to showcase strawberry desserts, there have actually been several strawberry shortcakes on foodgawker, but this one stood out to me. So much so that I have actually had a browser instance open since finding it with the link open. And every time I log in, I look at the recipe and drool a little. Not literally, but it wouldn't be a far stretch.

Today I decided to just go for it and make it. For no other reason than I didn't want to wait any longer.

To check out the recipe, and understand why I couldn't wait to try it, take a look here.

The first thing I did was make the biscuits. These came together so easily - there are only seven ingredients, and one of them is a whole stick of butter. Yum. And awesome, because it is one that little miss can totally, well, for the most part, do. Aside from her normal measuring, whisking and mixing duties, she got to do some of her favorite baking tasks - rolling and cutting. The dough is rolled a little thicker than, say, cookie dough, so we didn't use cookie cutters to cut our circles. Much to little miss's delight, we used a drinking glass. I should have floured the rim of the glass between each cut, because there were a few that didn't want to pop out, but it worked really well. And yes, those were our craft projects for the day in the background, so little miss was pretty busy today!

Anyway, the recipe says to cook these for 10-12 minutes, so I set the timer for 10 minutes and kept my eye on them. After 10 minutes, they weren't quite golden on top, so I set the timer for another minute. Little miss loved letting me know every time the timer beeped. Which was good, because I had to keep doing that a few times. They probably wound up baking for 14 minutes total, but when they came out, they looked (and smelled) beautiful. So good, in fact, that we barely waited for them to cool all the way to sample one... I didn't even make us wait until our regular snack time!

Anyway, since I wanted to serve these as dessert from dinner, I actually waited to complete the rest of the process, so we played, ran some errands, did some more crafts... then, once our meatloaf went into the oven, we sliced up about a pound of strawberries, sprinkled them with sugar and a splash of lemon juice and let them sit. And put the whish attatchment for my KitchenAid mixer into the freezer. I would have put the bowl in there, too, but there is no way I could make it fit. Once dinner was done, I was ready to whip the cream and assemble the shortcakes.

These were delicious. The only negative was that I used too much lemon juice on the strawberries, but that was totally me, nothing to do with the recipe. I will definitely be making these again, especially once strawberry season really starts. And I'll probably make them with peaches in peach season and blueberries during blueberry season... Yeah, they're that good.

Strawberry Shortcake

(from Miri Leigh)

For the strawberries and whipped cream:

2 pints fresh strawberries, washed, hulled and sliced lengthwise

2/3 cup granulated sugar (divided)

Juice of one lemon

1 cup heavy cream

Combine the sliced strawberries, 1/3 cup granulated sugar and lemon juice in a bowl. Toss gently and set aside.

Meanwhile, in a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or with a handheld mixer), beat the remaining 1/3 cup of sugar with the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Cover and refrigerate while you prepare the biscuits.

For the shortcake biscuits:

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick (8 tablespoons) cold, unsalted butter, cut into chunks.=

3/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Whisk the dry ingredients in a medium bowl until thoroughly combined. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or two knives (or even your fingertips) until the butter is the size of small peas. Add the cream and incorporate using a wooden spoon until the dough is thoroughly moistened. Be careful not to overwork the dough. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll it into a 1/2 inch thick disk using a floured rolling pin. Cut the dough into three-inch rounds using a cookie cutter, drinking glass, biscuit cutter or empty tin can, gently re-rolling dough as necessary. (you should wind up with 6-8 biscuits) Transfer the rounds to a cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown.

Allow to cool

To assemble the shortcakes:

Cut each cooled biscuit in half horizontally. Place the bottom half on a plate and spoon the strawberries and whipped cream over it. Place the top half of the biscuit on top of the berries and whipped cream. If desired, garnish with additional whipped cream and strawberries.

Serve immediately.

Enjoy!