Ontario strawberries are showing off their luscious red sheens in stores this month. Forget those sad saps masquerading as the red welcome summer banner. For the rest of the year, I stick to frozen. Why bother with the tasteless variety? Waiting for fruit in season is always worth it.
What is your favourite strawberry recipe?
Around here, it’s a three-way race between fresh and creamy strawberry ice cream,
strawberry pavlova,
or strawberry shortcake.
For purists, it is not a cake providing the base for this classic treat. Try instead a biscuit or scone, split in half, plumped up with flavoured cream and juicy ripe berries.
Here’s my take on that classic. It is delicious served warm but at least one sweet tooth in this house assured me that leftovers soaked in the sweet berry syrup were “awesome” straight from the fridge the next day.
Strawberry Shortcake
What you need:
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3 pints fresh strawberries
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1/4 cup sugar
For biscuit:
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2 ¼ cup all purpose flour
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2 teaspoons baking powder
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¼ cup sugar
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¼ teaspoon salt
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½ cup butter (one stick), cold and cut into small chunks
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1 egg
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⅔ cup half and half cream
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1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
For topping:
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1 ½ cups whipping cream
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1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
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2 tablespoon icing sugar
1 or 2 cookie sheets with parchment or Silpat
What you do:
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Preheat oven to 425 F.
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Wash and hull berries. Slice and sprinkle with sugar. Leave aside to macerate while you make the biscuits.
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Combine flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl. Add butter pieces.
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Using your fingers or wire pastry blender, combine only until it comes together. As in any scone or biscuit, the secret is a light touch.
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Make a well in the centre. In a measuring cup, whisk the cream, egg, and vanilla lightly. Add to the biscuit batter in the centre of the well. Mix until just combined and moistened.
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Cover your hands with icing sugar and then form 8 large biscuits, dipping them each in the icing sugar before placing them on a cookie sheet.
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Space out your biscuits so they have room to grow in the oven. Bake for approximately 15 minutes. Check them as oven temp varies. You are looking for a golden brown when done.
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Cool on wire rack for 5 minutes. Good luck with that if you have hungry house guests.
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Add the vanilla to the whipping cream and begin to whip, adding the icing sugar bit by bit. You can do this ahead of time and leave in your fridge while the biscuits are baking if you are in a hurry.
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Slice the biscuits in half and place on plate. From here it’s your baby. You can fill it with berries with the whipping cream on side or fill it with whipping cream and berries and sit it on top of a pool of the berry juice. You can drizzle the juice all over the biscuits. You can…oh, just go ahead and eat it. Think of your grandmother while you do. She’s smiling at you from somewhere where strawberries are always in season and no one cares about the size of their hips.
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