Strawberry Shortcake

The handicap of clicking half decent food photographs is that you need natural light. Understandably, after stalking numerous blogs, I realised that the only time I can bake and get good quality pictures, is definitely during the day. Which means I can’t cook on weekdays, but this also gives me a schedule for my weekends. I have promised myself a post every weekend.

This week, its strawberry shortcake.

My sister loves Shortcakes (butterier scones). And since I am constantly trying to suck up to her, this post is for her. I mean she does live across the country from me, and obviously didn’t get to try these which is a shame cause these shortcakes were G.O.O.D.

This recipe isn’t for those people who live in an outrageously hot city like I do. Unless they have a centrally air-conditioned kitchen, which I don’t. So if you’re really committed like I was, your gonna have to constantly dip your hands in ice cold water while making the dough AND chill  it a couple of times to make sure the butter remains cold and basically doesn’t become melted gloop.

Having issued the prerequisite warning, you can find the recipe below.

Oh, did I mention its from ‘How to be a domestic goddess’ by Nigella Lawson? This is the first recipe that I have tried from the book. Nigella more often that not, has her way with eggs, butter, cream and sugar.

Ingredients:

Strawberry Shortcake

• 325 gms plain four
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 5 tbsp sugar
• 125 gms butter- FROZEN (Amul, why? because its utterly butterly delicious)
• 1 large egg
• 125 ml single cream (a small tetrapack works)

The ingredients listed above, are everything you need for the shortcakes. You can really experiment with the fillings. My mother is a strawberries and cream person. I had the leftover shortcakes with lemon curd and lingonberry preserve (my special find in Sweden).

Method:

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C; these shortcakes cook really fast.

Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and 3 tablespoons of the sugar in a large bowl.

Grate the frozen butter into the dry ingredients. I had to constantly dip my hands into ice cold water cause the butter would melt in my fingers while grating. If you are living in sweltering heat like I am, you should pop the bowl with the grated butter in the freezer for a few minutes before you rub it in the flour.

 

 

Once the bowl is chilled, using your fingertips, start rubbing the butter into the flour mix till they resemble small crumbs.

 

 

 

Crack the egg in the single cream and whisk well. This is the wet agent you add to the flour to make the dough. Start adding the liquid mix into the flour slowly. You don’t need all of it, so keep an eye out and only add the liquid sparingly until the dough comes together. Use a fork to bring the dough together until you can roll it out with a pin.

 

Once the dough comes together, turn  it onto a floured surface and roll it out to a thickness of about 1-2 cm. Dip a biscuit cutter in the flour and make as many shortcake rounds as possible. You should get 4-5 in the first batch. Rework the dough together, roll it out again, and repeat the process until all of the dough as been used up.

Brush the tops with milk and the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar.

Place the shortcakes on a silicon pad and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the tops are lovely and golden.

Allow them to cool slightly. Split them down the middle and eat with sweetened whipped cream and strawberries. Or with any other filling of your choice 🙂

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