Sunday Edition: Strawberry Blackberry Shortcakes

Blackberries have become a recent obsession of mine. I buy a pint every week at the grocery store and have been using them as much as possible, whether it’s eating them alone or with my morning yogurt. These tasty brambles have surpassed strawberries and blueberries as my spring/summer fruit of choice. The first time I had ever eaten one was about a year ago when a baking recipe called for them as a garnish, and I’ve been in love ever since.

My inspiration for this dish was the standard strawberry shortcake, a definite summer staple. Take a fluffy biscuit, add fruit and cream, and you will have created heaven on a plate. Now, for me any heaven must include blackberries, so I decided to throw them into the mix. Once I saw this wonderful recipe on Joy the Baker’s website, I knew I had to try to make it soon.

Creating the biscuit layer was a snap using my food processor. The dough came together nicely and was easy to pat together and cut into squares. I added as much of the fruit mixture as would fit and drizzled some of the mixed berry juice over the biscuit to add a little moisture. The result was a delicious and festive summer dish that exploded with fruit flavor from the first bite until the last.

Hope everyone has a wonderful enjoyable holiday weekend!


STRAWBERRY BLACKBERRY SHORTCAKES
from Joy the Baker
makes 6 servings

For the berry mixture:
-1 pint fresh strawberries, sliced
-1 large handful fresh blackberries, cut in half
-3 tablespoons granulated sugar

For the whipped cream:
-1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
-3 Tablespoons powdered sugar
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the biscuit mixture:
-2 cups all-purpose flour
-1/4 cup sugar
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1/8 teaspoon salt
-1/3 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
-1 large egg
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, plus more for brushing the tops before baking
-about 2 Tablespoons of granulated sugar to sprinkle before baking


DIRECTIONS

Slice the strawberries and blackberries and place in a medium sized bowl. Sprinkle with sugar. Stir. Cover and place in the fridge to macerate for at least 2 hours.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, or using simple a bowl and whisk, whip the cream, powdered sugar and vanilla extract together until soft peaks form. Cover place in the fridge for later.

Now let’s make the biscuits!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place a rack in the center of the oven.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl whisk together the egg, vanilla extract and heavy cream. Cut the cold butter into small pieces and, using your fingers, incorporate the butter into the flour mixture. Work quickly, the butter and flour mixture will look like coarse crumbs.

Make a well in the center of the butter and flour mixture and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix just until the dough comes together. Dump out onto a clean, floured surface and bring it together with your hands. Knead once or twice then pat the dough out into a rectangle roughly 7-inches long, 4 -inches tall and 1-inch thick. Cut the dough into six equal pieces.

Place the shortcakes onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush the tops of each shortcake with a bit of cream and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake for 15-20 minutes until nicely browned.

Remove from the oven. Cool completely.

To assemble, cut the shortcakes in half, top with a few spoonfuls of berries and juice, whipped cream and the biscuit top.