Berry Good Shortcake

With Julie Geary

Red, white and blue and berry delicious. The shortcakes are so easy to mix and bake yourself that you may even forget about the store bought version.

There are a few secrets and tricks to this recipe that make it a cut above average. First, as with all biscuits, do not overwork the dough. Just handle it enough so that it is mixed and rolled out. Overworking the dough will make it tough, and you want a flaky, soft texture for the dessert. Since this is a rollout biscuit, you will want two biscuits per dessert, and the easiest and best way to make these is to fold the dough over once you have it all rolled out so that you are cutting two biscuits at once. They will stay separate during baking. Cut out the biscuits with any round object such as a glass.

Second, if you use confectionary sugar instead of regular sugar when making the whipped cream you will get a better result because it will blend so much better. The whipped cream will be fluffier and add a little pure vanilla to the heavy cream while mixing for extra flavor.

Ingredients

For the dough:
2 cups flour
3 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup cooking oil
2/3 cup milk
2 tablespoon sugar

For the whipped cream:
2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
¼ cup confectionary sugar

For the berry filling:
1 cup strawberries
1 cup blueberries
¼ cup simple syrup (Make by combining 2 parts sugar to 1 part water in a sauce pan over heat until blended.)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

For the dough:
1. Sift dry ingredients together.
2. Pour liquid ingredients all at once into dry mix and stir with a fork until mixture cleans side of bowl and rounds up into a ball.
3. Knead about 10 times, without using additional flour.
4. Roll out with as little pressure as possible to about ½ inch thickness.
5. Fold dough over and cut out two pieces at a time with a glass or other round cookie style cutter.
6. Bake biscuits for about 10 to 12 minutes until done. Be careful not to burn the bottom of the biscuits.

For the whipped cream:
1. Whip cream on high speed with an electric mixer until it starts to form.
2. Add vanilla and continue whipping until the whipped cream begins to stiffen. (You will see the whipped cream start to get a yellow tinge as it stiffens.)
3. Turn down mixer and slowly add confectionary sugar a little at a time,  so that it does not spread all over the counter.

For the berry filling:
1. Remove hull from strawberries and slice.
2. Add blueberries with the strawberries in a bowl.
3. Coat berry mixture with the simple syrup.

To assemble biscuits separate the biscuits and add whipped cream, the berry mixture and top with more whipped cream.

Recipe courtesy of Julie Geary, Classic Cooks Catering, 2011.

Owner and Chef, Classic Cooks Catering

Classic Cooks has been entertaining since 1980 all over the North Shore and Boston area.  They catered the premier of the "Perfect Storm" movie for Warner Brothers for 2,000 guests.

The company was nationally televised doing a New England Clambake for Bobby Flay's Food Nation on the Food Channel.