Christmas Notebook

Yesterday, DH came home from the grocery store with some strawberries that smelled SO good! …like *real* strawberries. 🙂 I was inspired to make some spur of the moment strawberry shortcake. I used this recipe from Southern Living.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
1 stick butter, chilled
2/3 to 3/4 cup half and half, milk, or cream [I used half and half]

1 quart strawberries
1/3 cup sugar [I used 1/4 c. Splenda]

1 c. heavy whipping cream
2 T. powdered sugar

Stir the dry ingredients together. Dice the butter into small pieces and cut into the dry mixture until crumbly. Add the milk and stir until the flour is incorporated.

After mixing, the dough will look like this. BTW, the kitchen tool shown in the picture is great for cutting butter into the flour. If you have a food processor, that works, too. I don’t. Yet.

Turn the crumbly dough onto a lightly floured board and knead it 5-10 times.

When done, it will look like this. It doesn’t take much kneading to turn it into a smooth ball of dough.

Shape the dough into a rough rectangle as you roll it to about 3/4 of an inch thick. Cut into six pieces. Or cut it into circles with a biscuit cutter or a glass.

As the dough bakes, wash, hull and slice some lovely strawberries. I used a quart carton of berries and sprinkled them with 1/4 c. of Splenda to sweeten them a bit.

Whip the heavy whipping cream and two tablespoons powdered sugar until peaks form.

Perfect biscuits.

And beautiful strawberry shortcake. The biscuits were flaky, crispy on the edges, just the right sweetness, perfect.

Dessert was delicious. And all the more fun for being spontaneous. 🙂

~~Rhonda