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Old-Fashioned Strawberry Shortcakes

Source of Recipe

From "The Red Truck Bakery Farmhouse Cookbook" by Brian Noyes


Recipe Introduction

"We were always excited about strawberry season in California, which meant picking our own berries for my mom's homemade strawberry shortcake that we enjoyed nearly every Saturday from April through July. She would make a heavy biscuit dough, with extra sugar and cream, as the base to soak up the juice of the berries. Inspired to make that dessert at the farmhouse, I played with my biscuit recipe, sweetening it up and replacing some of the buttermilk with cream just like my mom did. It stayed a little lighter than hers, but the juices soaking into the shortcake took me right back to her kitchen."

List of Ingredients

For the shortcakes:
â—¦ 2 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour, sifted, plus more as needed
â—¦ 2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
â—¦ ¾ teaspoon baking soda
â—¦ 2 teaspoons kosher salt
â—¦ 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
â—¦ 8 tablespoons (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into cubes, plus 4 tablespoons (½ stick), melted
â—¦ ¾ cup heavy cream
â—¦ 1 cup full-fat buttermilk
â—¦ Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

For the fruit:
â—¦ 2 quarts hulled strawberries
â—¦ ¾ cup granulated sugar

â—¦ 2 cups whipped cream, for serving


Recipe

Make the shortcakes: In a large bowl, use a fork to whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and granulated sugar. Add the butter to the flour mixture and use your fingers or a pastry cutter (do not use a mixer) to incorporate it, until the butter is broken down into pea-size pieces.

Whisk together the heavy cream and the buttermilk in a liquid measuring cup. Add the mixture to the dry ingredients all at once, and use a spatula or a plastic scraper to fold in the liquid mixture as quickly and as gently as possible. Flour your hands and reach into the bowl and under the dough, flipping it around to combine. The dough will be wet but manageable. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and, working lightly, use your hands to pat it into a rectangle about 1 inch tall. Lightly sprinkle flour across the top of the dough and pat it with your hands until the flour has been absorbed. Flour the bottom of the dough and your work surface. With the scraper, fold the dough in half lengthwise and repeat flouring it and patting it out with your hands. Repeat the process a total of four times. Pat the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch tall.

Preheat the oven to 400° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Dip a 3-inch biscuit cutter into flour and cut as many shortcakes as you can from the dough, pressing straight down with the cutter without twisting. Place the shortcakes on the baking sheet so they are nearly touching one another. Reshape the scraps as needed to form a total of eight shortcakes. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, rotating the baking sheet from front to back halfway through, until the tops are golden brown. Transfer the finished shortcakes to a wire rack, brush the tops with the melted butter, and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Let cool.

Meanwhile, prepare the fruit: Place 1 cup of the strawberries in a medium bowl and mash them with a fork or the back of a spoon. Cut the remaining berries in half (or quarters if they're large) and add them to the bowl along with the granulated sugar, mixing to coat them evenly. Let sit for 30 minutes to macerate and allow the syrupy juices to develop.

To assemble the shortcakes, use a fork to deeply poke around the equator of each shortcake, creating a top-and-bottom line of separation, and carefully pull them apart. Set one or two bottoms on each serving plate. Spoon the macerated strawberries and their juices evenly over all of the bottoms and replace the tops. Add a dollop of whipped cream to each plate and serve.

Serves 8