By Nicole Presley
The biscuit is seldom used in desserts these days. Every once in a while someone across the land of sweets will use it, and then it seems it is dropped to the wayside again. Not too long ago I was having dinner with a group of dear friends in a fancy restaurant in Arizona, and when we reached the end of the meal and it was time to pick a dessert I glanced over the menu carefully. My eyes got stuck at a strawberry shortcake made with a biscuit, and everyone else’s did too, because we all ordered it. It was better than the menu could describe, even with all their fancy wording. As I lifted my fork full of biscuit and strawberries to my mouth, I realized there was a sanding sugar on the top of the biscuit. The strawberries had been macerated and then poured over a freshly whipped heavy cream. Mmmmmmm. I had no choice but to come home and recreate it for my family here in Los Angeles. Enjoy!
Strawberry Biscuit Shortcakes
Ingredients for strawberry biscuit shortcakes:
- 2 – cups flour
- 1 – teaspoon sugar
- 1 – tablespoon baking powder
- 1 – stick butter (cold and cut into pieces)
- 3/4 – cup buttermilk
- 1 – tablespoon butter (to smear the baking pans with and a little to brush the top of the biscuits with.)
- 1 – tablespoon sanding sugar
Ingredients for macerated strawberries:
- 15 – strawberries (stems removed)
- 1 – tablespoon sugar
- 1 – teaspoon water
Other ingredients:
- lemon curd
- whipped cream
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit.
- In a food processor add in flour, sugar, and baking powder. Pulse to combine.
- Add in pieces of cold butter into flour mixture and pulse until flour becomes crumbly and the butter in cut into small pieces no bigger than a pea.
- Remove the flour/ butter mixture out of the food processor and place in a bowl. Make a well in the middle of the mixture.
- Pour the buttermilk into the center of the well. Mix with a wooden spoon.
- Once mixture is combined, remove the spoon and knead the dough with your hands until it comes together and is no longer sticky.
- On a floured surface roll the dough out to 1/2 inch thickness, then using a floured circle cutter cut as many biscuit as possible. With extra dough re roll out and cut more circles.
- Smear a cake pan with butter to grease the bottom and sides, then place the biscuits in the pan.
- Brush the tops of the biscuits with butter then sprinkle them with sanding sugar.
- Place the pan in the freezer for 1o minutes.
- Remove from the freezer and place in the oven for 2o minutes.
- Remove biscuits from oven and set to the side to cool.
- In a small bowl add strawberries, sugar and water. Smash with a potato smasher. Set to the side.
- Slice open a biscuit, smear with lemon curd, then top with whipped cream, and pour a tablespoon of strawberries over the top.
- Enjoy!
