Shortcake

Shortcake with Strawberries and Whipped Cream

We are currently experiencing some unusually warm weather for this time of year (read - it's too hot!). I thought a some early strawberries and Jean Butler shortcake would be a great recipe to kick off this summer.
The shortcake is actually supposed to be more like a cake...baked all in one big circle and filled in the middle with the fruit of your choosing, but I brought this treat to a birthday party and I thought that single-serve portions would be better, hence the triangles!

The dough came together great, it went from crumbles to a solid ball. I like to take cold butter and slice it up into small bits, and then put it in the freezer while I prep the rest of the ingredients. That seems to help everything to come together and helps the pastry cutter do it's business without the whole thing turning to mush. I also kept the milk in the refrigerator until it was time to add it.

I really like the technique of splitting the dough in half, with a layer of melted butter in between. It made it really easy to split, while the middle is perfectly flaky and cooked.

As you can see, I served with it strawberries, but I'm sure it would be fantastic with any fruit you have handy. I split the dough into 12 small triangles for this occasion, but if I was making this on a regular evening I would serve 6 large slices.

Shortcake

2 cups flour, sifted 4 times with
4 tsp baking powder (Royal if you can find it)
1/2 TSP salt
1/4 cup sugar

With knives or pastry cutter, cut into this mixture:
1/3 cup butter. Add:
1/3 cup milk, gradually.

Roll out onto floured board as for biscuits. Place one-half of the dough in a buttered pie or cake pan, brush with melted butter, and place the there half of the dough on top. bake at 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes. 

For fruit shortcake, split, spread with sweetened fruit, replace top of shortbread, add more fruit and top with sweetened whipped cream.

Shortcake, ready for the oven!

Shortcake at the party!