Strawberry Shortcakes

I have been positively remiss with my posting.  And I have no good excuse.  I will try to make it up to you, and I begin with these:

I got strawberries in my weekly produce delivery (yay!).  I love strawberries.  The amount of strawberries was too small to do much with so I decided on strawberry shortcakes.  Plus, biscuits and whipped cream as so easy to make, I was able to whip them up in the middle of a hectic Saturday no problem.

I also get to use my pastry blender, one of my favorite kitchen gadgets.  We wouldn't want the butter to melt before baking else our biscuits might not be nice and fluffy.  The recipe calls for 2 cups of both all-purpose and cake flour.  I used only all-purpose flour.  One of the primary differences between these flours is the amount of protein, which turns to gluten.  Gluten is good for yeast breads but not as good in lighter pastries.  Bread flour has the most protein.

If at all possible, I just knead the dough in the bowl.  It saves time and cleaning.  This doesn't work for kneading intensive recipes like bread but for biscuits you only want to knead them about 10 times anyway.

I brushed the tops with cream and sprinkled some turbino sugar on top.  Turbino sugar is raw sugar and comes in slightly bigger, very pretty crystals.  I was proud that I actually remembered to brush the tops, sometimes I get so excited about finally baking I forget to.

I use a water glass to cut out the biscuits.  This is a trick I learned from my mom.  I don't actually own any cookie cutters, which is a bit odd considering my proclivity for kitchen gadgets.  I will have to look into that.

 Once the biscuits are cooked, the assembly is very easy.

You can't tell in this picture, but my biscuits got pretty brown on the bottom so you should probably set the timer a little low and keep your eye on them.

Whipped cream and fresh strawberries, does it get any better than that?!?

Yum!

Strawberry Shortcakes

BISCUITS

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups cake flour

1/2 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling

2 tablespoons baking powder

Pinch (1/16 teaspoon) salt

1/2 cup cold butter (1 stick), cut into chunks

1 cup well-shaken buttermilk

1/2 cup cream, plus more for brushing

Strawberries, sliced

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

1. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in bowl.

2. Blend in butter with a pastry blender until the dough forms coarse balls.

3. Stir in buttermilk and cream until just mixed.

4. Knead lightly until the dough forms a ball. Cover and chill for 30 minutes.

5. Roll-out to 1/2 inch and cut into 3-inch circles.

6. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 15-18 minutes.

7. Whip cream, sugar and vanilla until stiff.

8. Top biscuits with whipped cream and strawberries.

From Epicurious

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