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From Edible Seattle May/June 2010
There is nothing more “old-fashioned” than this golden brown rustic drop biscuit layered with berries and whipped cream. The biscuit absorbs just enough strawberry juice but doesn’t get soggy. The final assembly makes all the difference between a merely good shortcake and a luscious, memorable one. Keep a camera handy. You’ll want to take a picture.
Serves 6 | Start to finish: 1.5 hours, including macerating time
The biscuits
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon Rumford baking powder (no aluminum phosphate)*
½ teaspoon salt
4 ounces (one stick) butter, chilled
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons cream
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a baking sheet.
Stir all the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Chop the stick of butter into small cubes, and work the cubes into the dry ingredients with your fingertips, until the mixture resembles rough meal. Stir in the milk until the soft dough starts to pull away from the bowl.
Spoon the dough in six equal portions onto the baking sheet. Brush the tops lightly with cream. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool completely on a wire rack.
*The aluminum phosphate used in most baking powders leaves a bitter, metallic aftertaste.
The berries
While the biscuits are cooling, prepare the berries. Any local ripe strawberry will make a good shortcake but for the reddest, sweetest berries, look for Shuksan or Hood varieties that have been picked the very same day. One of the key components to a great strawberry shortcake is the juice. The redder the berry, the redder the juice. The hulling and tearing methods here are useless if you’re substituting imported or underripe berries.
3 pints of ripe, local June-bearing strawberries
1-4 tablespoons of sugar
Before hulling the berries, rinse by immersing quickly in a large bowl of water. Remove immediately with strainer. Then hull the rinsed berries by twisting and pulling stem off rather than by cutting off top of berry with knife. Set aside six small, whole berries to use for garnishing.
Prepare one third of your berries by slicing and cutting large, irregular chunks into a bowl; cut any small whole berries in half vertically. Add a tablespoon or two of sugar and let berries macerate for at least one hour.
10-15 minutes before you’re ready to eat the shortcakes, tear 1/3 of the berries. Hold a small handful of berries in one hand, place your other hand on top, and gently apply pressure while twisting over a bowl; this motion pulls the fruit apart into soft pieces without actually crushing their structure. Add a small amount of sugar to taste.
Slice and add the remaining 1/3 of your fresh berries as described above (cut facets on the fresh berries will reflect light from your shortcake and bring a bright tang with every other bite).
In a large bowl, gently combine the macerated berries, crushed berries and sliced berries, adding extra sugar to taste.
Whipped cream
2 cups heavy cream, chilled
2 tablespoons sugar or to taste
Using an electric mixer or wire whisk, whip the cream with sugar until it forms soft but slightly firm peaks.
Final Assembly
Slice a biscuit in half. Place the bottom half on a plate. Top with a moderate pile of berries, a little extra juice and a big spoonful of whipping cream. Cover with the top half of the biscuit. Then add another layer of berries and cream, in slightly smaller quantities that the first layer.
For the final touch, drizzle a tablespoon of juice over the whipped cream and top with a small whole strawberry.
*Vegetarian
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