Strawberry Shortcake

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Strawberries are ripe and ready to enjoy!  If your family is anything like ours we always have at least 3 cartons in our fridge.  I stopped by our local organic grocery store and noticed they had a sale on strawberries.  I grabbed up as many cartons as I could hold and had the perfect recipe in mind for dessert.

Mother's Day, last Sunday, my husband treated me to a lovely dinner at a local restaurant, Mattie's Tavern, and we basked in stilton cheese, prime filet, fish and bread goodness! As we were walking out I noticed a cookbook that needed to be bought.  It's called the Brothers Cuisine and is a compilation of Mattie's best and most popular recipes.  Amazing is all I have to say! I am itching to make ALL of their dishes.  Since I bought loads of strawberries I thought their Strawberry Shortcake would be more then appropriate! 

Ingredients

Shortcakes:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

4 ounces unsalted butter, cold

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 large egg

Strawberry Sauce:

1 1/2 cups fresh organic strawberries, rinsed, stemmed and quartered

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1 fresh lemon, juiced

Whipped Cream:

2 cups heavy cream

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon tahitian vanilla extract

Strawberries:

3 pints of fresh organic strawberries

Preparation

To Make The Shortcakes:

Sift the flour, sugar baking powder and salt.  Chop the butter into small pieces.  In a bowl of a standing mixer, add the flour mixture and butter.  Chill in the freezer for 10 minutes.  Using the paddle attachment, mix on low speed until butter is the size of a peas.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the heavy cream and egg.  Add the cream-egg mixture to the flour mixture and mix on low speed until dough forms. 

Place the dough on a floured working surface.  Roll into a rectangle abotu 1/2-inch thick.  lightly dust the dough with flour as needed to prevent the dough from sticking. Fold the dough in thirds like a letter , and then rotate the dough so the rectangle is in front of you.  Repeat the rolling process and folding of the dough.  Roll out the dough one more time about 1/2-inch thick. Using  a 3-inch round cookie cutter, punch the shortcakes.  Place the cakes on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Gather the scrapes, roll into a ball, and roll out to punch more shortcakes.  Chill the cakes int he freezer until firm, about 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a small bowl, beat together the egg and 2 teaspoons water.  Using a pastry brush, coat the tops of the shortcakes and sprinkle with sugar.  Bake until golden brown, about 20-25 minutes. 

To Make The Strawberry Sauce:

In a sauce pan, add the strawberries, sugar, water and lemon juice.  Bring to a boil over medium heat.  Reduce the heat and let simmer until the strawberries cook down and the juice thickens.  Puree in a blender and pour through a sieve.  Refrigerate and chill.

To Make The Whipped Cream:

In a fitted bowl of a standing mixer (or hand mixer), combine the whipping cream, sugar and vanilla extract, and mix until peaks form.  Refrigerate the whipped cream.

To Prepare The Strawberries:

Rinse, stem and cut he strawberries into quarters.  Place the berries into a mixing bowl.

To Serve:

Mix the strawberry sauce into the bowl of cut strawberries, and let sit for 5-10 minutes.  Split the baked shortcakes in half, horizontally, to make two pieces:a top and bottom.  Place the bottom onto serving plates.  Top the shortcake bottoms with a scoop of strawberry mixture, continued by a large dollop of whipping cream. Top the whipping cream with another spoon-full of strawberries and strawberry juice.  Sprinkle the shortcake top with powdered sugar and place on top of shortcake.  Serve! 

Recipe Adapted from Brother Cuisine