RECIPE #2: SHORTCAKE BISCUITS
Shortcake biscuits add a bit of sugar to a conventional biscuit recipe.
Ingredients
3 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup shortening
Preparation
1. PREHEAT the oven to 450°F. Grease a cookie sheet.
2. SIFT the dry ingredients together. Beat 2 eggs with milk and set aside.
3. MIX 3/4 cup shortening with the dry ingredients. Add the milk and eggs and knead on a board for a few minutes.
4. ROLL the dough out 3/4 inch thick. Cut with a round cookie cutter and bake 10 to 15 minutes on greased cookie sheet. Cool on a rack.
5. ASSEMBLE: Cut biscuits in half. Spoon some of the fruit and any juice onto each shortcake bottom. Top with whipped cream and add the shortcake top (you can serve the shortcake open face if you prefer). Spoon more fruit over the top and serve.
SHORTCAKE HISTORY
The first known strawberry shortcake recipe appeared in an English cookbook around 1588. The original concept used a slightly sweetened baking soda or baking powder biscuit or scone [source].
The next recipe of note was published in 1847 by food writer Eliza Leslie in The Lady’s Receipt-Book.
An 1850 recipe creates the dish with biscuits, butter, strawberries and sweetened cream. Perhaps a way to create a tea-time dessert from leftover breakfast biscuits, softening them with biscuits and cream?
By 1850, strawberry shortcake was a well-known biscuit-and-fruit dessert, served hot with butter and sweetened cream.
But by 1910 the modern version emerged, using whipped cream as the topping, as the French did with their own version, the strawberry génoise (more about that in a minute).
American Shortcake
The concept of using a biscuit traveled across the pond. Split in half, the base was piled with fruit and whipped cream, then topped with the other half of the biscuit, often with more fruit and whipped cream on top (photos #1 and #6).
In the U.S., shortcake parties were held as celebrations of the summer fruit harvest, typically using berries and stone fruits.
Some of the earliest American recipes used pie crust rounds or broken-up pieces of baked pie crust. According to Wikipedia, that recipe that can still be found in the South.
However, another version of shortcake emerged, based on the French sponge cake, called génoise (zhen-WOZ).
Sponge layers were filled with whipped cream and strawberries, and the cake was frosted with more whipped cream (photos #2, #5 and #7).
Some housewives baked a standard sponge cake in a tube pan, sliced it horizontally and used the same filling.
To make the dessert easier for housewives, some commercial bakeries created sponge dessert cups—individual sponge cake cups that only required strawberries topped with whipped cream.
More recently, Japanese bakers created a hybrid of the American and the French versions.
As the concept has evolved, biscuits and sponge have been replaced by everything from:
A base of angel food cake, pound cake and yellow cake to brioche and corn muffins!
All of these can be toasted, for a bit more flavor and texture.
The whipped cream can be replaced with ice cream, mascarpone and mousse—each of which is even richer than the whipped cream.
For even more festivity, any combination of fresh fruit with these three is welcome (photo #3).
For June 14th, National Strawberry Shortcake Day, have whatever style of shortcake you like.
How about a pot luck where everyone brings his/her own creation?
Please invite us!
MORE SHORTCAKE RECIPES
Boozy Strawberry Shortcake With Baileys
Cupcake Strawberry Shortcake
Matzoh Strawberry “Shortcake” For Passover
Peaches & Cream Shortcake
Red, White & Blue Shortcake
Spiced Triple Berry Shortcake
Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Sandwiches
Strawberry Shortcake With Marinated Strawberries
Tiramisu Strawberry Shortcake
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[3] Ice cream can replace the whipped cream. Here, homemade rhubarb ice cream joins stewed rhubarb on a shortcake (photo © The Chefs Collaborative Cookbook).
[4] Think outside the biscuit: a variation made with a loaf of pound cake. Here’s the recipe (photo © The Baker Chick).
[5] The best strawberry shortcake layer cake. Get the recipe in Birthday Cakes by Fiona Cairns (photo © Rizzoli).
[6] Grilled peach shortcake, shown here with ice cream, can be served with whipped cream instead. Or, why not both (photo © Go Bold With Butter).
[7] Strawberry shortcake has become popular in Japan. Here’s the recipe for this Japanese Strawberry Sponge Cake (photo © Recipe Tin Japan).
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