Maggie Monday: Won’t Come Up Short With This Recipe

Maggie, author of the Pony Mama blog, brings us a true taste of home. Strawberry Shortcake is really open to many different styles and nothing brings me back to spending summers at my grandparents house than home-made strawberry shortcake. I learned to eat it in a bowl, with a about 1/2 cup of milk (covering maybe the bottom quarter) and just a sprinkle of sugar on the top. No whipped cream for me. Take a look at Maggie’s Strawberry Shortcake…

My birthday is June 1. The height of strawberry season. Lucky me, huh? Growing up I always asked my mom to make Strawberry Shortcake for my birthday. I love it soooooo much. My mom makes her shortcake in an 8×8 baking dish, and she uses the recipe on the Bisquick box. I love it. I still often make it that way when I just want a quick shortcake. Even when I use the Bisquick recipe I still roll out the dough and use a 2 ¾” biscuit cutter to make individual cakes. Then I brush the tops with melted butter or heavy cream, generously sprinkle with sugar and bake. Yummy.

But when I have more time, I use this recipe. The cakes are tender, fluffy, and they soak up the strawberry juice without getting all gummy and gooey. They hold up well to the berries. These are also delicious with fresh peaches , which are coming into season now. Summer desserts rock.

My daughter wants me to share that she prefers these shortcakes with fresh strawberry jam instead of berries. Good thing I made both today!

Strawberry Shortcake

What you need:

1 ½ cups flour

½ cup sugar, divided (I like to use superfine, but granulated is just fine)

2 tsp baking powder

2tsp fresh orange zest

5 Tbs butter, chilled and cut into small chunks

¾ cup heavy cream

1 tbs butter, softened

1 Tbs sugar

2 pints strawberries, sliced

1 tsp vanilla

Fresh whipped cream

What you do:

Preheat oven to 375Õ. I bake these on my pizza stone, but you can place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Place flour, ¼ cup of superfine sugar and baking powder in mixing bowl. Grab a whisk and “sift” this all together. I don’t use a sifter- just a whisk. Saves time. Using a pastry cutter, cut in the chilled butter and orange zest. Once this is well mixed- it will be crumbly- stir in the heavy cream. Knead the dough, then turn out on a floured surface. Pat dough into an even circle, about 1” thick. Cut 8 cakes. This will require you to cut a few, then re-knead and press out the dough again. Cover tops with the softened butter, sprinkle with sugar, then bake for about 20 minutes.

Mix berries ¼ cup of reserved sugar and vanilla. Let sit for about 20-30 minutes.  Too much long and the berries begin to soften. I don’t like them too limp. Cut cakes in half, spoon berries  and some whipped cream onto bottom half , place other half on top of berries, and spoon a little more whipped cream on there. Yum.