Fresh Strawberry Shortcake

I usually make a strawberry shortcake recipe from Epicurious, but I decided to give the one in Foster's Market a try. Eliza helped me out by measuring all the dry ingredients in the food processor. We added the butter and whirled it around, leaving some pretty good sized chunks of butter intact. We moved the mixture to a different bowl to mix in the cream before rolling out the dough. Eliza would have just eaten all the dough before we baked it if I hadn't stopped her. I have to admit, as dough goes, it tasted pretty good. Even with all the nibbling, we were able to get seven large shortcakes and one smaller one (sized perfectly for two-year-old Tessa) from the recipe.

We liked the shortbread portion of the Foster's Market recipe much more than the Buttermilk Biscuits suggested by Epicurious for its recipe. Foster's recipe includes 1/4 cup sugar, much more than the 1 tablespoon included in the Epicurious recipe. The extra sweetness, as well as the richness of cream instead of buttermilk, make the shortbread a tasty vehicle for strawberries and cream, but, really, you could almost eat them on their own. In addition to the flavor, they had an awesome texture; while forming the short breads, I resisted the temptation to really work the dough together, which resulted in super tender-flaky cakes.

Mike and I ate one strawberry shortcake each and split another one. The next day, finding ourselves strawberry-less, we served the remaining shortcakes with some nectarines. We didn't love them quite as much, but the nectarines weren't particularly sweet.

This recipe came together fast and made for an awesome dessert. Eliza apparently talked it up at school today; when I picked her up, her teacher asked me for the recipe.