Wednesday, April 8, 2009

CLASSIC STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE (WHOLE WHEAT OF COURSE)

I traded in all my greens for strawberries at my CSA (we have so many in the garden) so I was inspired to make strawberry shortcake – YUM. There is an AMAZING restaurant in Durham, NC called the Magnolia Grill – if you’re ever within 30 miles of Durham, stay away from Duke but head straight for this place. It’s owned by chef Ben Barker (happens to be the son of one of my mom’s buddies) and his wife Karen. They both have cookbooks, and I love Karen’s, called “Sweet Stuff”. I mixed together two of her recipes to get this simple but soooo good one.

Strawberries – 1 – 2 pints
tablespoon sugar
Slice the berries, toss these together, cover and fridge til dessert-time.

2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/3 cup sugar plus a bit more later
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 stick butter, chilled, cut in pieces
1 egg
¼ cup buttermilk
¼ cup heavy cream plus
HOMEMADE WHIPPED CREAM

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a food processor. Pulse to cut in the chilled butter until the mixture resembles a course meal. Beat the egg, buttermilk and cream in a large bowl. Add the flour mixture and stir to form a moist but somewhat stiff dough. Turn out and gently knead the dough a few times on a lightly floured surface. (IKEA has really well priced pastry marble slabs.) Roll the dough out to about ¾ inch thick and cut into desired rounds (I use a juice glass). Reroll and cut again only once (you can make fun shapes with the extra bits). Place on baking sheet, brush the tops with cream and sprinkle sugar on top. Bake for 15 minutes.

Cut cakes in half. Place bottom half on a plate, top with strawberries and a small dollop of whipped cream. Place top half of cake on berries, then a couple of berries and more cream to finish. Eat immediately.

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