Strawberry Shortcake

I booked a swimming pool yesterday. Not an AirBnB with a pool, but just the pool part of someone’s home. Sounds weird? Yeah, I thought so too but I wanted to throw a little get together for Ryann’s birthday and be safe about it so outdoors it is! And I figured a pool party would be nice. I found this site called Swimply and went out on a limb and booked a pool for a few hours. Was it kind of weird partying it up at some stranger’s backyard? Yes, yes it was. But the strawberry shortcake I made for dessert was great, so I think it was a win. 🙂

Ingredients:

• About 3 lbs. (a little over 1.25 kg) of strawberries, stemmed, and cut into half or quarters if they’re especially large
• 6 tablespoons granulated sugar, or a little less if you prefer
• 3 cups (375 grams) flour, plus extra for rolling out the dough
• 0.25 cup (50 grams) sugar
• 2 tablespoons baking powder (not to be confused with baking soda)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 0.75 cup (1.5 sticks, or 180 grams) cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 1 cup (240 ml.) buttermilk
• 2-3 tablespoons or demerara sugar for sprinkling (optional)
• 1.5 cups (360 ml) heavy cream, plus 2 tablespoon for brushing the shortcake
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1.5 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

• Combine strawberries and 6 tablespoons of sugar and store them in the fridge. If this seems like an insane amount of strawberries, then you are correct. I like my shortcake with an insane amount of strawberries and the one little girl in yesterday’s party begged to drink the juice that’s left in the container. I have to admit, she’s smart for doing so. It was probably the best part.

• Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or a fork until the mixture sort of comes together. You can also use a food processor if you have one. I have one but it’s stored away on a high shelf so often times I just get too lazy to bring it out. No matter because this recipe works just fine without it.
• Pour in the buttermilk and mix with a St. Jude spatula (the St. Jude one is optional but highly recommended) until everything is sort of combined. Some leftover dry spots or crumbs are fine.

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• Dump out the mixture, including any remaining crumbs, onto a floured works surface. With floured hands, pull the dough and crumbs until everything comes together. With a floured rolling pin, roll it out into a rectangle and then fold it in thirds like an envelope. Do this twice so that you create layers in your shortcake. However, aside from this folding, try not to work the dough too much. Just like pie dough, you want this shortcake to be as flaky as possible.

• Roll out into a rectangle or square that’s about 1-inch thick and cut with 3-inch round cutter. When I made these yesterday, I made the mistake of rolling them out too thin. Which means that I ended up with many more shortcakes but they were too thin. If I were to make these again, I will definitely do what I say and not what I did. If I were to keep them about 1-inch thick, I’m pretty sure I’ll end up with about 12 shortcakes. Yesterday I had about 16 or so. By the way, you can re-roll and cut leftover dough here. They should rise about the same height. And another note, when cutting the shortcake, do not twist your cutter. Cutting straight down ensures that your shortcakes will rise nicely in the oven.

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• Arrange the shortcakes on a parchment paper or silpat-lined baking sheet. Unlike cookies, you do want to make sure your shortcakes are touching because they help each other rise higher. Brush the tops with the 2 tablespoons of heavy cream and then sprinkle them with the demerara sugar if using.

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• Bake for 18 minutes until they are golden brown. Once you take them out of the oven, make sure to cool them properly before you assemble the shortcakes. If any of you have watched Nailed It, you know that hot cakes and frosting do not make the best bedfellows (why am I writing like a 19th century novelist? I don’t know. It’s Sunday night and I’m tired).

• Whip the heavy cream with 3 tablespoons of sugar and vanilla extract until soft medium peaks form. I don’t recommend stiff peaks because I think the flavors meld together better when the whip cream is a little softer than usual.
• Split the shortcake in half and pile on sweetened strawberries (drizzling some juices) on the bottom half. Spoon some whipped cream on top of the strawberries, and then top with a few more strawberries. (Remember, I did say this was going to be an insane amount of strawberries.) Then, place the top of the shortcake gently. Or roughly if that’s more your style. 😉