A Father's Day Treat: Strawberry Shortcake

Father's Day at our house means pampering Dad with, well, what else?  Yummy food!  July is almost here, and along with watermellons come strawberries.   The Dads in my life (father of my children and my own father) absolutely love strawberry shortcake.

So, how hard can it be to make, right?  Full-proof--you are thinking--like, who even NEEDS a recipe for that.  Well, the strawberries and the whipped cream are the straight forward part.  The part that gets a little dicey in certain circles is the "shortcake" part.  How do you like your "shortcake?"  Do you actually like cake, a biscuit, or a scone, and if you even tell me that you whip up some Bisquick, well, I won't completely fault you, but hope to lead you to tastier pastures instead...and no, I'm not saying you are a cow if you go to town on some strawberry shortcake. 

Back to the issue at hand:  what kind of "shortcake" to pair with your strawberries and whipped cream?  For me, the perfect strawberry shortcake is the right amount of "cake," strawberries and cream. Too much of any item just doesn't work.  Over the years, I have made several different recipes.  Today my husband asked for the "scone-like" kind.  I immediately had memories of a dry english scone, flavorless, that almost chipped my teeth.  No thanks, I thought.  Usually I make something along the lines of a biscuit, but biscuits can sometimes have too much, well, biscuit--there is just too much bread hanging out. 

I set to work making the scone-esk style "shortcake," because, afterall, this day is not about me.  Scone-like he will get, but not the tooth-chipping kind.  I made the dough much like I would make biscuit dough, only I rolled it out thinner (so as to make each cake thinner and not create that imbalance of too much bread I was talking about), I cut the cakes into squares with a knife instead of a biscuit cutter (faster, easier, and just more rugged for the home-style shortcake), and last I took the extra 30 seconds to crack an egg, add a couple teaspoons of water, and put an egg wash on top to make it shiny, crunchy, and golden like a scone should be. 

That said, here is the recipe for this Father's Day's Strawberry Shortcake.
(Print this Recipe)
Strawberries:

Clean, de-stem, chop up in a bowl with white sugar to taste.  Set aside to macerate for 30 minutes while you make the shortcake.
*Today I had around 6 cups of chopped strawberries and I added almost a cup of sugar, but that's me.  Just consider that your topping of choice will be sweetened, so adjust accordingly; or, back off on the sugar you add to your topping if you are making it from scratch, which you should because it is so much tastier than the bottled or tubbed varieties. 

Whipped Cream (from scratch)
2 c. whipping cream
1/2 c. powdered sugar
1-2 tsp. vanilla

Directions:
Mix this all together in a kitchenaid or whip with beaters until soft peaks form.

Shortcake Recipe (from the New Best Recipe Cookbook)

Ingredients:

2 c. all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

5 Tbs. sugar

1 Tbs. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

8 Tbs. (1 stick) cold butter, cut into cubes

1 large egg, slightly beaten

1/2 c. plus 1 Tbs. half-and-half or whole milk

Egg Wash:

1 egg beaten with 2 tsp. water

Directions:

1.  Wash, chop, and add sugar to your strawberries. 

2.  Preheat an oven to 425 degrees.

3.  For the shortcake: in a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to combine.  Add the butter pieces and process until mixture resembles coarse meal, about 15 1-second pulses.  Transfer to a medium bowl.

4.  Mix the beaten egg and the half-and-half in a separate cup.  Pour the egg mixture into the bowl with the flour mixture.  Combine with a rubber spatula until large clumps form.  Turn the mixture onto a floured surface and lightly knead until it comes together.

5.  Roll out the dough to about 1 1/2 inch thickness.  Take a sharp knife and cut squares (and I use that term loosely--they can be odd shaped, rectangles, etc.) out of the dough.  Just make a grid to create same sized squares/shapes to allow for even baking. 

6.  Using a pastry brush, or spoon if you don't have a brush, put the egg wash on top of each square--give it a good going over so it isn't dry on top, but not too much to have it running all over the place.  A little running over the shortcake dough isn't going to hurt anything. 

7.  Place squares on a baking sheet and cook at 425 for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown on top.

Assembly:

I like to cut the shortcakes in half with a bread knife.  If the shortcake is particularly large, sometimes I will, after cutting it in half, will break the top and bottom pieces in half to create a super-layered shortcake (as seen below).  Next, place the bottom of the shortcake on a plate and top with strawberries, then with whipped cream, and top it off with the other half of the shortcake.  For an added flair, sprinkle some powdered sugar over the whole thing (through a sieve), and place a strawberry on top.  Happy Father's Day!