Recipe. You Won't Want To Miss This!

Real Strawberry Shortcake

This is a mouth watering (ly) delicious recipe that my husband requests for special occasions, and as often as I will make it.  It is really great.  Truth be told, the shortcake biscuits have a lot of steps, but they are really special and not hard, and not that fussy.  If you aren't into the baking part, you can follow this recipe with purchased breakfast biscuits or scones from your favorite bakery.  It will be excellent as well, and the other steps are a snap.  

Strawberries

1 ½ quarts of fresh local strawberries, cleaned and hulled, leaving small ones whole and cutting larger strawberries in half

1½ tbsp. granulated sugar

Shortcake Biscuits

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. baking soda

1 ½ tbsp. sugar

½  tsp. salt

5 tbsp. unsalted butter

1 ½ cups cream (I’ve used heavy cream, half and half, half cream and half milk, and whole milk, all with good results with varying “richness.”  My preference is half cream, half milk. If using a mixture of cream/milk reduce liquid amount to 1 ¼ cup; milk only reduce amount to 1 cup.)

Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 tsp. confectioner’s sugar

1 tsp. of vanilla

Sprinkle prepared strawberries with sugar and place in covered bowl or container in the refrigerator for a minimum of 30 minutes, allowing juices to develop.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Sift dry ingredients together in bowl.

Transfer dry ingredients to bowl of food processor and add butter in “pats.”  Pulse together until mixture looks like crumbles—about the size of peas or a little smaller.

Return mixture to mixing bowl, and add milk, mixing with a fork or spoon, and stopping between quarters so that you can control/adjust the amount of liquid accordingly .  Add just enough liquid for the dough to form a ball.  Then stop! 

Place ball on floured counter and knead just slightly.  Pat down into a rectangle, approximately 1 inch thick.

At this point, you can cover with a clean, light dish towel and let it rest for up to 30 minutes; if you let it rest, press down to 1 inch again before dividing into individual biscuits.  I have cut the dough into squares at this point and placed on an ungreased baking sheet ready to go into the preheated oven, without the resting period.  If using a glass or cookie cutter, don’t “twist” as it pinches the edges which prevents the biscuits from rising fully.

Bake for approximately 10-12 minutes (convection);  15 minutes conventional.  Check toward the end of baking and remove as you see the tops turning golden brown. Place aside to cool.

Add heavy cream, vanilla and confectioner’s sugar to bowl of food processor.  If your food processor has mixers, use them;  it also works well with regular blade.  Turn on and as you see the cream thicken, begin to pulse, as it’s easy to let it pass cream and turn to butter.  A hand mixer is also convenient.

Place one cooled (but can be warm) biscuit on each serving plate.  Slice in half horizontally and spoon a generous serving of berries with some liquid on each.

Top with a dollop of whipped cream and serve.

Serves 6-8.