Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Classic Strawberry Shortcake – Thanks, Grandpa!

I was visiting my mom last summer, and overheard her and my aunt talking about making strawberry shortcake using “dad’s” recipe. They were obviously talking about my grandfather, which was surprising, since I had no idea he baked.

I remember he did a lot of cooking growing up, but it was things like frittata, meat sauce, or polenta. I never once saw him bake anything sweet. Nevertheless, he apparently gets credit for inventing our official family recipe for strawberry shortcake, which I’ve adapted here.

What he had done was taken the strawberry shortcake recipe off the box of a certain, very popular premade biscuit mix, and added extra “everything,” as my mother put it. So, that’s what I did here, except instead of using the stuff in the yellow box, I used self-rising flour, which I’m pretty sure is basically the same thing.

The only other major change is the original recipe calls for regular melted butter, but as you’ll see in the video, I like to toast mine just a little, to bring out those subtle, nutty flavors. I'm hoping Armand Cianfoni would approve. I really hope you give “our” strawberry shortcake a try soon. Enjoy!


Makes 6 Large or 8 Normal Strawberry Shortcakes:
2 cups self rising flour ((You can make you own by sifting together 2 cups of all-purpose flour with 1 tablespoon baking powder, and 1 teaspoon fine salt)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
4 tbsp butter, melted, and lightly toasted to a golden-brown

4 pints fresh strawberries
1/2 cup white sugar
*add 1 tbsp water, if strawberries aren’t perfectly ripe
3/4 cup cold heavy cream, whipped with a tablespoon of sugar and a few drops of vanilla (watch demo here)

- Bake at 425F.  for 15-18 minutes or until browned.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

REAL strawberry shortcake

MikeTheBarber said...

Can the shortcakes be made a day ahead? I would like to cool them completely then store in an airtight container. Also, I was wondering if I multiply this recipe for a crowd would it be necessary to change the shortbread ingredient proportions?

Rosalie Lingo said...

I didn't have any self rising flour and only a little bit of normal flour, so these ended up being mostly bread flour. But it still worked just as well as long as you make sure not to knead it and to add in a tablespoon of baking powder.

Unknown said...

Obligatory science moment.
Osmosis is the fancy word. When something gets dissolved in water (like sugar or salt) the solute wants to spread evenly into the solvent. Cell walls, however, are semi-permeable and only allow small molecules like water through.
In this case the water has to travel through the cell wall into the stronger solution to even out the osmotic pressures. This is also why plants will wilt if watered with of salty water.

Mike said...

This didn't work at all for me. The biggest problem was the toasted butter. It took forever to clean my toaster afterwards! 😎

Unknown said...

Hi Chef John, is it possible for you to put a short note at the end of each recipe to specify how long the final prodcut can be kept and how it should be kept, and refreshed? If it's not too much work, that is. :)

Unknown said...

Chef
Could please post a golden recipe for Mississippi mud pie?
It's about time for the BBQ and slow n low season. It will be a perfect addition to "Spoil yourself BBQ Saga".

thank you.

Dan and Hilary said...

My moms favourite dessert! Thanks for this Jen Chef John!

Pink said...

Hello Chef, please make a moist white cake, pineapple or vanilla flavored.

Jules said...

That looks great! I wonder if you could somehow get almond flour into this, I think that would taste amazing.

Unknown said...

I, like others, was wondering if the dough could be made ahead of time. I want to make it for dessert tomorrow and make the dough tonight to keep in my fridge. This way, all I have to do tomorrow is take the dough out, cut it into squares, and get that "freshly baked" taste without having to do all the work and clean up with company at the house.

Jef said...

The toasted butter is known as buerre noisette in the culinary world!

Chef John said...

Sorry, but I've never tried to make a quick dough the day ahead. Not sure how it would work!

Julie said...

Delicious! The nutty butter flavor really came through and I was surprised how much I enjoyed the sugar sprinkled on top--will be more generous with it the next time.

Side note: I appreciated you including directions for making self rising flour...discovered a Magic Bullet can quickly turn table salt into fine salt for that.

Thanks Chef John! Both for the excellent recipe and for the time you take on these entertaining videos! You're a peach!

Julie said...

The recipe comes together so quickly.

For those wanting to make it ahead, I would suggest sifting the dry ingredients together in the bowl you want to mix everything together in. Measure and store your milk and cream.. Brown your butter then refrigerate---the day you plan to make them, carefully remelt the butter and it'll be a snap to mix, flatten, cut and bake. In the time it takes to preheat your oven, you'll have them on the pan with minutes to spare.

Anonymous said...

Pretty please stop giving volumetric amounts for ingredients, particularly for something like flour. My batter came out way looser than yours looked and the only possible culprit is the amount of flour I used. Please use grams. PLEASE.

Andrew said...

For everyone wondering, i made this dough ahead of time and it worked out great. I even made it gluten free (Erika's all purpose), a day ahead, and it worked out fine.

However, do not bake the dough ahead of time! That did not run out fine. It turned out dry and boring and lame.

Make the ough ahead out it in the fridge. I dodnt even cover it, just put it on the silpat on a tray in the fridge. Then went from fridge to oven. Worked perfectly. Eat it while it is still warm, once it cools down it loses its magic. If you're not eat it all at once, only bake what you need and keep the rest in the fridge.

Unknown said...

i like to print the recipes but i can not find a print button on the page . that will allow to print a friendly recipe form . can any one help .

Dax said...

I made a test batch today at 16 minutes. Almost perfect, I will be aiming for closer to 18 minutes next time. It's not going to stop me from eating the test batch though. Yum!

Unknown said...

Making this to share with friends celebrating my husbands birthday. My husband and I love your videos and recipes. One of our favorite things to watch together. Keep up the good work!

Em said...

Strawberry shortcake (using angel food cake) is what my husband and I had for our wedding cake (we opted out of the super expensive wedding cake route), and now we have strawberry shortcake on our anniversary each year. This year we'll try this recipe, and I'm so excited!

MLBoone said...

i made this today OM Goodness this is such a good shortbread