Growing up, a few times each year we'd buy a few quarts of strawberries and gorge ourselves on strawberry shortcake for lunch. I'd wash and hull and smash the berries with my dad while my mom stirred up a double batch of Bisquick shortcake biscuits. As soon as the biscuits were out of the oven, we'd toss them in our bowls, crisp and steaming, and we'd smother them with the mashed berries. And then, just for good measure, we'd pile on a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream. The biscuits sop up the sweet pink juices, melting into a warm, decadent treat that sings in the mouth when combined with the cool ice cream. We'd fill our bowls again and again, until we couldn't eat another bite. And then we'd sigh contentedly and rest in a semi-comatose stupor for the rest of the afternoon. It was heaven.
It wasn't until near the end of high school that I even learned other people didn't eat their strawberry shortcake this way - that it was, in fact, a dessert. I guess the ice cream should have been a tip off. But really, when you can have this for the whole meal, why would you want anything else? It's all the best parts of the beginning of summer condensed into one sticky, sweet, irresistible bowl.
The first strawberries finally showed up at the market last weekend. Immediately I mentally canceled all of my plans for the next few hours - it was time to hull berries and whip up some biscuits. It's not a lunch for every day, but then, the first day of strawberry season isn't every day, either.
Strawberry Shortcake
The first time I had ratatouille with my host family in Paris in 2008, I asked for the recipe. My host mom just laughed. "Mais c'est trop facile!" she told me; it's just too easy. That's kind of how I feel about strawberry shortcake. Mix up some biscuits, smash some berries, throw on some good ice cream - nothing to it. It's hardly worth writing it out. And yet it's such a delight to eat, I would feel derelict in my duties if I did not discuss how I make it. I won't use a standard recipe format with ingredient lists because there are so few, and because there aren't any specific ratios that need to be followed. It's hard to go wrong here.
I grew up eating this with Bisquick biscuits, following their strawberry shortcake biscuit recipe, with one alteration: I leave out the fat. Even as I have learned to love a good cream biscuit, it just seems like too much for this already-rich meal. For a smaller portion, though, cream biscuits would be fantastic. One batch would probably be enough for a meal for two to three people, but they freeze well so I usually overestimate how much to make. For my family of three, a batch and a half of biscuits is plenty for gorging and leftovers.
You can, of course, make this with store-bought strawberries, too, but they're usually a little harder to smash, since they need to be hardier to successfully travel across the country. Local strawberries are more likely to be red all the way through, which means they'll be that much more flavorful and juicy. The most important thing, though, is to pick strawberries you can smell - if you can't smell them when you buy them, you probably won't taste much, either. To prepare them for being on shortcake, they'll need to be hulled, and the bruises should be cut off. Depending on how big the berries are and how chunky you want them to be, you may want to cut them into quarters or smaller pieces. When all the berries are hulled and cut, sprinkle on a few tablespoons of sugar and smash them with a potato masher. The sugar helps the berries to produce more juice, which is a very good thing indeed, but it could be left out, too, if you prefer.
As for the ice cream, I tend to use Breyer's. Homemade would be fantastic, too. Whatever you choose, it should be an ice cream you'd be happy to eat on its own.
1 comment:
Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.
I would have some ... right now! :-)
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