Traditional Strawberry Shortcake

I don't know what it is but summertime always makes me think of cool desserts. Maybe it is because it is so hot here in Texas (I think it was 98 degrees yesterday....uggg). Regardless, I've been wanting to make a cool refreshing dessert. I wanted to do something with fruit and berries but I kept coming back to cobblers and pies. Although I love myself some hot berry cobbler it still wasn't exactly what I wanted. After perusing different recipe ideas I came across a great recipe for strawberry shortcake. That's it, I thought! What's more refreshing than strawberry shortcake. In my search for the perfect recipe I discovered that strawberry shortcake is traditionally made with biscuits. Yummy. Who doesn't like biscuits? I personally don't really enjoy sponge-type cakes so I was really excited about making a good dessert even better. It also gave me an excuse to try my hand at making homemade biscuits. I found a great biscuit recipe (which I varied a little) on http://www.homesicktexan.blogspot.com/. So I had it. I was going to make homemade biscuits, homemade whipped cream and top with fresh strawberries.

The recipe also made me a little nostalgic. When we were little my Granddad would call biscuits "cat heads." It always made us laugh and I thought he must have made it up to be silly. Well, when I was reviewing biscuit recipes I discovered that a "cat head" biscuit is actually a name for a biscuit where the dough was "dropped" on to the pan (as opposed to using a biscuit cutter to shape the biscuits). It's also because the biscuits are supposed to be as big as a cat's head. In the spirit of childhood memories I decided to make "cat head" biscuits.



Homemade Biscuits:

Ingredients:
Two cups of flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of sugar (can add more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 stick of butter, cold (8 tablespoons)
3/4 cup of buttermilk


Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together. Cut the stick of butter into pieces, and work into the flour mixture with your hands or a pastry blender until it resembles pea-sized crumbs.
3. Add the liquid, mixing until a bit loose and sticky. Pour dough out on a floured surface, and knead for a couple of minutes. Dough should be smooth and no longer wet. You can sprinkle more flour on the surface if you find it’s sticking (I had to keep adding flour).
4. Roll out dough until it’s 1/4 of an inch thick, and then fold it in half.
5. Using a round cutter (can use a glass or a cup if don’t have a biscuit cutter) cut out your biscuits from folded dough. To make "cat head" biscuits, after kneading dough, just scoop dough and drop on to pan. Shape as you please (I actually folded dough and shaped edges).
6. Place on a greased baking sheet close together (so they rise up not out), and bake for 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Makes 10-12 biscuits.


Strawberry shortcake
Ingredients:
2 pints of strawberries, rinsed, hulled and quartered
1/4 cup of sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 tablespoons of honey

Directions:
1. Toss the strawberries with the sugar in a bowl, and leave out at room temperature for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally.
2. Pour the cream into a chilled bowl, and whip with either a whisk, eggbeater or mixer until thickened (be careful to not whip it too much or you’ll turn it into butter!).
Gently stir in the vanilla. Cover and chill until ready to use (though if it sits too long it will revert back to its liquid state and will need to be whipped again). Optional: My mom said that she adds sugar to her cream to make it sweeter. I chose not to do it this time but I'm sure it makes for a sweeter cream.
3. Cut each biscuit in half, and on the bottom half place some strawberries and whipped cream. Put the top half on and add some more berries and cream.
4. Drizzle with honey and serve!



Results: The recipe was actually pretty easy. The only problem was that I made the biscuits on Friday and didn't make the rest until Sunday. By Sunday, the biscuits were a little dry. I will need to make some adjustments next time. I was worried about the dessert turning out ok so I also made a batch up backup brownies. We ended up eating both!