This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie selection is Devilish Shortcakes. I will not lie: I was a little worried these would not get made. I had trouble picturing them on Thanksgiving table and they don’t appear to be a portable/shareable treat, since for the full shortcake experience you need accoutrements. Fortunately by Sunday, we were no longer completely overwhelmed with holiday sweets and it was a quick recipe, both in hands-on and baking time, so they got made. I made a half batch and got eight generous shortcakes, using a standard ice cream scoop.
I made them in the late morning, between breakfast and lunch, so the first shortcake actually became an errand-running snack (must keep the blood sugar up). Josh bit in and said it tasted like a chocolate scone. The chocolate flavor is fairly subtle, but nice and they have a lovely lightly texture. We enjoyed one with blackberries and whipped cream. Josh had one with ice cream (of course) and ate the remaining shortcakes for breakfast over the next couple days – we’ve done much worse for breakfast around here, trust me.
This recipe rated a 7 for Deliciousness and a 2.5 for Effort, for an EDR of 2.8. Many thanks to Tania of Love Big, Bake Often for giving us the opportunity to try chocolate shortcake, a fun spin on the standard biscuits. You can find the recipe here on Tania’s blog and visit the TWD site for more shortcakes.
This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie recipe is Tender Shortcakes. What an ideal selection for this time of year. I’ve been eating strawberries pretty much every day for the past month and a half, but last week ALL the good summer produce started appearing at the farmer’s market. Also, we’ve had a rather cool spring and it finally got warm last weekend, so I appreciated that the shortcakes only required fifteen minutes of baking time and a minimum of prep time. I love when recipes end up taking much less time than I think they will. Last time Tuesdays With Dorie made biscuits, I learned I underestimated how much the dough should be mixed, and was much happier with the results of the shortcakes. I feel bad that I haven’t made Josh too many breakfast treats recently, so I told him they were scones and that he could have them for breakfast. Of course we had to try one (I only made four) the traditional way with berries and whipped cream and it was amazing. I don’t make whipped cream very often since Josh prefers his desserts be drowned in ice cream and I’d forgotten how delicious it is. I’ll definitely need to find an excuse to make these again before the end of the summer.
I gave the shortcakes an 8 for Deliciousness and a 2.5 for Effort, for an EDR of 3.2. Many thanks to Cathy of The Tortefeasor for a splendid seasonal choice. You can find the recipe here on Cathy’s site and visit the TWD site for more shortcake.
I’ll get to shortcake in a moment, but is anyone else excited about the movie “Julie and Julia?” I think it looks like a charming summer movie. The movie is merging Julie Powell’s Julie and Julia with Julia Child’s memoir, My Life in France. Although I read Julie’s book, I think it reads better as a blog, and you can find the Julie/Julia project here. As far as I know, Julie Powell was the first to “cook a book” and blog about it. Her book inspired me to buy a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which, sadly, I rarely use for fear of too much butter. My Life in France is a good read too, in regard to both cooking and the process of publishing a cookbook.
Okay, so on to Strawberry Shortcake, this week’s Sweet Melissa Sunday selection. You really can’t improve upon the combination of strawberries and whipped cream, so the component that made this recipe a winner was the shortcake. I had never made shortcake before, and when I have been served “strawberry shortcake,” it has more commonly been with a pound cake. I was pleased that this recipe produced a tender, sweet biscuit, with a nice sturdy crumb to hold the macerated berries and whipped cream. And not only is the shortcake delicious, it is amazingly quick and simple to put together. I made it on Friday night when I had a couple of other kitchen projects going, which isn’t always a great idea (not that it stops me), but this was a trouble-free and worthwhile endeavor.
Many thanks to Wendy of Pink Stripes for choosing such a great seasonal recipe. You can find the recipe on her site, not to mention loads of other great treats. Seriously, she makes impressive things like croissants and morning buns (which I have been trying to get up the nerve to attempt for weeks) and everything is always exquisitely presented. And if you would like to see what the other members of Sweet Melissa Sundays thought of these, you can via the SMS blogroll.
