Shortcake For Strawberries

It's that time of the year again...Strawberry Shortcake time, one of my favorite desserts.

Keep this shortcake recipe handy somewhere in your kitchen for it is one of the easiest and most delightful ways to serve fruit from now until the end of summer.  Peaches, blueberries and apricots are a great substitute for the strawberries.  It's the perfect dessert for the night after a visit to the farmer's market.

This recipe comes from Dorie Greenspan's book Baking From My Home To Yours, a must have for bakers.

Yield: 10 Servings


Ingredients

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 Tbsp. baking powder

¾ tsp. salt

6 Tbsp. sugar

1 ½ sticks (12 Tbsp.) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 ½ cups cold heavy cream

Directions

Center a rack in the oven, and preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Add the butter and, using your fingers, toss to coat with flour. Quickly, working with your fingertips, pinch and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is pebbly. Some pieces of butter will be about the size of peas, while other will be more like flakes of oatmeal.

Pour the cream over the dry ingredients, and toss and gently turn the ingredients with a fork until you’ve got a very soft dough. You’ll probably still have some flour at the bottom of the bowl, so reach in and use your hand to mix and gently knead the dough until it’s evenly blended. But don’t get overzealous: it’s better to have a few dry spots than an overworked dough. The dough should be soft and sticky.

Cut the dough into 10 roughly equal portions (each will be about 1/3 cup), and put 5 or 6 of them on the baking sheet, leaving about 3 inches of space between them. Pat each portion down until it’s about 1 inch high. [The shortcakes can be made to this point, wrapped in plastic wrap, and stashed in the freezer. Bake without defrosting – just add 5+ minutes to the baking time.]

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, rotating the sheet from front to back midway through, until the shortcakes are puffed and give just a little when poked with a fingertip. Pull the pan from the oven, and carefully transfer the shortcakes to a cooling rack. Repeat with the remaining dough, cooling the baking sheet first.

Serve the shortcakes slightly warm or at room temperature. To serve, use a serrated knife to gently cut each cake in half horizontally. (They’re fragile, so go easy.) Put the bottom halves on plates, top with berries and whipped cream (unsweetened, and softly whipped), and then cap with the top halves.

From Dorie Greenspan Baking

Ricotta Orange Pound Cake With Strawberries

 

 

A great dessert for Easter Sunday. The only thing I would add is a heavy dose of homemade whipped cream!

 

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups cake flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature, plus more to grease the baking pan
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk ricotta cheese
• 1 1/2 cups sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
• 3 large eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 orange, zested
• 2 tablespoons Amaretto
• Powdered sugar, for dusting
• 1 pint strawberries, hulled and quartered or 3 oranges, cut into supremes

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pan with butter. In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir to combine.

Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter, ricotta, and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. With the machine running, add the eggs 1 at a time. Add the vanilla, orange zest, and Amaretto until combined. Add the dry ingredients, a small amount at a time, until just incorporated. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick comes out clean and the cake is beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 45 to 50 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Using a mesh sieve, dust the cooled cake with powdered sugar.

Meanwhile, place the strawberries (or orange supremes) in a small bowl with the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. Let sit until the juices have pooled around the strawberries.

To serve, slice the cake and serve with a spoonful of strawberries and their juices over the top of the cake.

© 2012 Cooking Channel, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Giada de Laurentis

A Rustic Meringue Tart With Strawberries And Mint

I had every intention of making strawberry shortcake for dinner tonight but, in this heat, I am getting lazier by the minute.  That means no cooking and very little work around the house. 

At Costco yesterday we picked four artichokes, a box of strawberries and  fresh salmon for the grill tonight.  Hollandaise sauce to accompany the artichokes is a must in this house and little meringues for dessert with the leftover egg whites are a tradition with the "children" now passed down to the grandkids.  It's a great way to con them into eating artichokes at a very young age. "Nany Surprise" for dessert is the code and they bite! 

This weekend, with the grandchildren away at another lake with another set of grandparents, I decided instead to make a simple meringue tart  filled with the strawberries and served with ice cream.  The oven temperature is a low 275 degrees for an hour. 

For a hollandaise sauce, remember the eggs must be at room temperature.  Once I take them out of the fridge and separate them, the yolks are left in a bowl on top of the counter until the sauce is made.  The meringue is made soon after the whites have warmed up and the tart is left in the oven until dinner time.

Serves 4-6

1 pint fresh strawberries
2 TB sugar
8 leaves mint
Grand Marnier (optional)

Meringue tart

3 egg whites room temperature 
9 TB sugar
Pinch of salt

Wash and slice strawberries and put them in a bowl.  Add sugar and mint, cover and set aside.  Once the strawberries have rendered their juice, drain them  and transfer the juice to a small saucepan.  Boil it down until it is reduced by half.  You may have to add some sugar to make it more syrupy.  Set aside until ready to use.  Place strawberries in the refrigerator.

Beat egg whites and a pinch of salt to a stiff peak.  Add sugar gradually.

When the meringue is ready, spread in a circle on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Indent the middle so you can lay strawberries on top.

Bake at 275 for an hour.  Turn the oven off and leave tart in the oven until ready to fill.

Bring out of the oven.  Let cool for a half hour.  With a sharp knife make a circle on the top being careful not to cut all the way to the bottom.  Add strawberries, the syrup and some chopped mint on top.

 Slice as you would a pie. Serve with vanilla ice cream.