Tender Shortcakes

I saw these a week or two back when Tuesday's with Dorie made them and was sold. I love shortcakes but can't think of the last time I've had one. From all the reviews, and by looking at the recipe, I could tell this was easy to make and produced great results. It was a laid back recipe, so if cutting in cold butter scares you or you wonder if you've reached "pea-sized pieces", then you're in luck. In the end it all comes together effortlessly.


These made incredible breakfast (or really anything) treats! I love whipped cream and fruit toppings for shortcakes, so I decided to put them together. Sometimes strawberries are too sweet for me, I'm not sure why, but they are, so I chose raspberry. My twist? I like to put my fruit into my whipped cream. I've done it once before and I really enjoyed the way it tasted. So I went for it again. After you've whipped your whipped cream enough, just add in the amount of fruit jam (or whatever really) that you want.


Ahh so good! I would go crazy with that topping. Don't be afraid to do one part short cake and two parts whipped berry topping! Haha but really those short cakes were oh so good. Okay I'll stop saying they were "so good" and just give you the recipe already!

In my first batch I accidentally had prominent finger marks from pressing down. Whoops!

Tender Shortcakes,
from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
found on The Tortefeasor's blog
Makes about 10 shortcakes

FOR THE BISCUITS:
4 cups all-purpose flour2 tablespoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 cups cold heavy cream

FOR THE FILLING:
a jam of your choice (I used raspberry)
whipped cream

GETTING READY:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment.

TO MAKE THE BISCUITS:
Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together in a large bowl. Drop in the butter and, using your fingers, toss to coat the pieces of butter with flour. Quickly, working with your fingertips, cut and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is pebbly. You'll have pea-size pieces, pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and pieces in between - and that's just right.

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. When the dough comes together, you'll probably still have dry ingredients at the bottom of the bowl - just use a spatula or your hands to mix and knead the dough until it's evenly blended. Don't overdo it; it's better to have a few dry spots than an overworked dough. Even with all the flour mixed in, the dough will be soft and sticky.

Spoon out about 1/3 cup of dough for each shortcake onto the baking sheet, leaving about 3 inches of space between the mounts of dough. Pat each mound down until is is between 3/4 and 1 inch high. (The shortcakes can be made to this point and frozen on the baking sheet, then wrapped airtight and kept in the freezer for up to 2 months. Bake with out defrosting - just add at least 5 more minutes to the oven time.) If you have more dough, repeat, cooling the baking sheet first.

Bake for 15 - 18 minutes, rotating the sheet from front to back at the midway point, until the shortcakes are puffed and give just a bit when prodded. Pull the sheet from the oven and transfer the shortcakes to a cooling rack.

The cakes are tender and really pretty fragile, so go easy with them. Use a serrated knife and not much pressure to cut each cake in half horizontally.