Fresh Berry Shortcakes
In my mind, a July 4th party dessert must meet a few requirements; easy to serve outdoors, include patriotic colors, and make guests smile. Strawberry shortcakes expanded to include blueberries meets those requirements. Set up with all the components for guests to assemble their own shortcake dessert is definitely smile inducing and eliminates slicing and serving. The strawberries, whipped cream, and blueberries includes all colors of old glory.
Another advantage of the deconstructed setup – guests can choose just a plate of berries. For those folks, I like to include a bowl of plain, unsweetened strawberries.
In my search for the best shortcake biscuit, I found that many of the recipes were quite similar in most respects. The biscuit starts out with a dry mixture of flour, baking powder, a small amount of sugar, and a pinch of salt. Cold butter is then cut-into the dry ingredients. The difference is in the next step, the liquid.
One recipe used half and half, one heavy cream, and one buttermilk (which required a little baking soda in the dry mix). As The Friday Baking Project is committed to finding the best, I tried them all. Yes, there were way too many biscuits in my home.
The biscuits with buttermilk had the best rise, and looked the best, but were a bit heavy. The heavy cream biscuits tasted very good, but spread out too much. The half and half biscuits, based on a recipe from an old Cooks’ Illustrated, didn’t have as much rise as I wanted but had very nice flavor and were the most tender.
It is in that recipe that I learned the clever technique for cutting in the butter. You freeze the stick of butter, and then grate it in using the large holes on a box grater. I found it easiest to place the grater on a flat surface, such as the lid of a rectangular takeout food container or a piece of parchment and hold the butter with a paper towel.
Suggested baking and serving plan:
- Day before: measure out and mix the dry ingredients for biscuits.
- Morning of: Finish and bake the biscuits. Wash the berries, and let dry.
- Just before party: Quarter the strawberries. Place mixing bowl and whip in refrigerator.
- Just before dessert: Add sugar and lemon juice to strawberries, let sit while setting up. Whip cream, place in serving bowl over another bowl filled with ice.
Lastly, if you can find strawberries in your local farmers market, grab a few pints as their sweetness and juiciness will shine in this July 4th dessert.
Recipe: Fresh Berry Shortcakes
| Yield: 6 shortcakes | # of Servings: 6 | Method: Biscuit |
Ingredients:
Shortcake Biscuits:
2 cup (9.3 oz / 263 g) pastry or all-purpose flour
1 tbl (.5 oz / 14 g) baking powder
¾ tsp salt
3 tbl (1.35 oz / 38 g) sugar
8 tbl (4 oz / 113 g) unsalted butter, frozen
1 large egg
½ cup + 1 tbl half and half
1 egg white
Demerara sugar, as needed
Berries:
3 pints fresh strawberries, room temperature
1 tbl fresh lemon juice
¼ cup + 1 tbl sugar (to taste)
2 pints fresh blueberries
Whipped cream:
1 ½ cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbl sugar
Special tools and equipment needed:
- Box grater
- Pastry blender
- 2 ¼â€ round biscuit cutter
- ¼ sheet pan or small cookie sheet
- Silpat or parchment liner
- Pastry brush
Pre-recipe preparations:
- Freeze butter
- Rinse strawberries and blueberries, thoroughly dry
- Pre-heat oven to 425 °F
Directions:
Shortcake biscuits:
- Thoroughly whisk together the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
- Using the large holes on the box grater, grate the butter1 . Add to the dry ingredients.
- Use the pastry blender for about 20 seconds to complete blending the butter into the dry ingredients.
- Add the egg to the half and half and whisk to combine.
- Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid. Mix together just until a dough starts to form. Add drops of additional half and half if necessary to moisten any dry parts of the dough.
- Knead lightly two times just enough to make a cohesive dough.
- Pat into ¾â€ thick rectangle, about 7 ½â€œ by 7â€. A perfect rectangle is not necessary.
- Using a 2 ¼â€ round cutter, cut six biscuits and place them on the silpat or parchment lined baking sheet.
- You can re-roll the dough (or mush it together) to make one or two additional biscuits, but they will not be as tender.
- Brush with lightly beaten egg white and sprinkle with the Demerara sugar.
- Bake for between 10 and 12 minutes, until tops are a light golden brown and the biscuit feels just firm to the touch.
- Remove from the pan and place on a cooling rack.
Fresh berries:
- Hull and quarter the cleaned strawberries. Gently toss with sugar and lemon juice. Depending on the sweetness of the strawberries, another tablespoon or two of sugar may be required.
- Allow the strawberries to sit for 20 minutes.
- In two decorative bowls, place strawberries with the accumulated juice and the blueberries.
Whipped cream:
- In a chilled bowl, whip the heavy cream with the vanilla and sugar just until soft peaks.
- Place in decorative bowl.
Assembling shortcakes:
- Using a small serrated knife, split the shortcake biscuit in two. Place the bottom half on a plate or bowl.
- Spoon strawberries along with some syrup onto the bottom. Sprinkle with blueberries.
- Add a good dollop of whipped cream.
- Cover with the biscuit top, add one or two strawberry quarters.
