Monday, July 11, 2011

Strawberry Shortcake


So it’s official.
I am strawberry crazy at the moment.
You may have noticed more than a few strawberry related blogs this month. Good news! There will be more! I still have to post my Rhubarb Strawberry Crisp pics and recipe (UPDATE: See HERE for recipe), and then there is this recipe: Strawberry Marshmallows that I am dying to try. (Doesn’t it look sooo deliciously strawberry-y?) I’m a little nervous about the whole boiled sugar thing – my experiences thus far have been fairly unsuccessful – but, the only way to learn is to try so.... maybe I will do that....maybe...or at least try and figure out how to make MY marshmallow recipe (which does not involve boiling things) into strawberry marshmallows.
But, we are here today to discuss Strawberry Shortcake. Delicious, creamy, sweet, Strawberry Shortcake. (Insert drooling noises here) Once again I have chosen a recipe that is widely open to interpretation. Strawberry Shortcake can be made with angel food cake, pound cake, sponge cake, or biscuits. I’m sure there are other choices as well. I make mine on biscuits because I like the texture.


Strawberry Shortcake

Ingredients
Biscuits
2 cups flour
3 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
Pinch salt
½ cup butter, cold
¾ cup buttermilk
Extra milk and sugar

Filling
1 lb strawberries, finely chopped
2 Tbsp sugar

Topping
2 cups whipping cream
3 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Directions
Preheat oven to 425. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Place chopped strawberries in a bowl and sprinkle with 2 Tbsp sugar. Let sit while preparing biscuits.
In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut in cold butter using pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Using a fork, gently stir in buttermilk. Dump bowl on floured surface and lightly knead until dough comes together. (The less you can handle the dough the better.) Roll out to 1 inch thickness. Using round biscuit or cookie cutter, cut out biscuits. Place ½ inch apart on prepared cookie sheet.


 Dip a pastry brush (or your fingers) in a little bit of milk and brush tops of biscuits. Sprinkle with sugar.
Bake approximately 20 minutes, tops should be a light, golden brown. Let cool on cookie sheets for 5 mins before removing to wire cooling racks to finish cooling.


In a large bowl, whip whipping cream with 3 Tbsp sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form.
To serve: Cut biscuit in half horizontally. 


Spoon a dollop of whipped cream onto bottom of biscuit. Top with a generous spoonful of strawberries. Spoon another dollop of whipped cream on top. Place biscuit top on the whipped cream.


You could get fancy and drizzle with chocolate or, if you want to spend a little more time, make a thick strawberry sauce (Boil your strawberries and sugar over medium high heat, stirring constantly, until thickened – about 5 –8 minutes. Then let cool. Substitute this for the “plain” strawberries in the
shortcake)

Note - You may notice there is some peaches in there with the strawberries.... I updated the photos from when I first made this many moons ago and used both fruit this time. You can, of course, just use strawberries!! 

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