Strawberry Shortcake

The weather has been so beautiful lately (minus the thunderstorm this morning) and I’ve been dying to make strawberry shortcake!  Last week on my favorite daytime tv show, The Chew, Carla made a strawberry shortcake that looked so amazingly delicious that I knew I had to find her recipe and make it myself!

This shortcake makes enough for 12 servings and can be easily made in two batches for a larger group… but for me, I don’t want to share… I might be eating most of this myself.  I LOVE biscuits and I LOVE strawberries.

Nom.

Nom nom nom.

NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM!

Go get some strawberries and make this!

Strawberry Shortcake

51

Total Time: 2 hours

Yield: 12 strawberry shortcakes

Lemon zest & sour cream bring life to these biscuits topped with fresh sliced strawberries and a lemon & mint infused whipped cream!

Ingredients

    Biscuit
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • zest of 1/2 lemon

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt

  • 5 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cubed
  • 1/2 cup cold sour cream
  • 1/3 cup cold milk
  • 1 Tbsp cold water

  • 2-3 Tbsp Turbinado Sugar (Sugar in the Raw)
  • Whipping Cream
  • 400ml heavy cream
  • 3 5in sprigs of mint, leaves removed and torn in half
  • zest of 1/2 lemon + lemon peel, cut into strips

  • 1 Tbsp sugar
  • Strawberries
  • 6 cups fresh strawberries, cleaned and sliced
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 Tbsp sugar
  • 1 Tbsp vanilla

Instructions

    Biscuit
  1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees and move baking racks to upper third of the oven. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and generously grease or spray with cooking spray.
  2. In a large bowl, press lemon zest into sugar using the back of your spatula until the sugar becomes fluffy.
  3. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk until well combined.
  4. Cut the butter into the flour using a fork until no large chunks of butter remain. Use your fingers if that's easier for you.
  5. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, milk and water.
  6. Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the milk mixture. Using a spatula, fold ingredients together until just combined. DO NOT OVERWORK THE DOUGH. You want it lumpy, not smooth.
  7. Using an ice cream scoop, drop 12 mounds of dough onto prepared baking sheets.
  8. Sprinkle Turbinado sugar over the top of each biscuit.
  9. Bake about 15 minutes or until the biscuits are golden brown.
  10. Immediately remove to wire rack to cool.
  11. Whipping Cream
  12. In a small sauce pan, on high heat, stir together heavy cream, mint leaves, lemon zest and peels until right before boiling point. DO NOT BOIL.
  13. Remove from heat and cool completely.
  14. Strain so that only cream remains. Refrigerate until ready to use.
  15. When ready to use, whip cream in a cold metal bowl of a stand mixer using the whisk attachment until soft peaks form.
  16. Add the sugar and continue whipping until you reached your desired texture and consistency.
  17. Strawberries
  18. Clean and slice strawberries until you have about 6 cups worth.
  19. Toss strawberries with lemon juice, sugar and vanilla extract. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to allow flavors to come together and juices to form.
  20. Refrigerate until ready to use.
  21. Assembly
  22. Place one biscuit in a bowl. Scoop 1/2 cup of strawberries on to the biscuit, making sure lots of juice from the berries is included.
  23. Dollop a generous scoop of whipped cream on top.
  24. Garnish with a mint sprig.

Notes

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Cinnamon Crescent Rolls & a New Baby

I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!  Well… back to baking, that is.  I’m about at 20% right now, but I wanted to get back in the kitchen and bake something our first weekend home with my new baby boy.

Oh, you didn’t know I had a baby?  YES… this week, Monday!

Matthew William was born (via c- section) on Monday, March 5, 2012 at 8:31am in Weiden in der Oberfalz, Germany weighing 5lbs 12oz and 19.5in long.  He has all 10 fingers and 10 toes, blue eyes, brown hair and looks just like his daddy! He’s pretty  much perfect and I’m so in love with him.

Matty came home on Thursday and this morning I decided that I wanted to bake something simple.  I can only stand for a few minutes at a time since I’m healing so slowly.  (In Germany, they don’t give you any pain medication or send you home with anything after a c-section, so I hurt… a lot.) I decided to use a can of pre-made crescent rolls and saucy them up with ooey gooey filling of cinnamon, sugar and butter.  It only took me about 10 minutes to put together and a few more in the oven before these breakfast pastries were ready!  A perfect way to get back in to the kitchen!

Cinnamon Crescent Rolls

Prep Time: 7 minutes

Cook Time: 11 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

8 rolls

Quick, simple and delicious breakfast rolls filled with butter, sugar and spice! YUM!

Ingredients

    Rolls:
  • 1 can of refrigerator crescent rolls (I used Original Pillsbury)
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, soft
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar, NOT packed
  • 2 Tbsp sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • Glaze:
  • 1/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 1-2 Tbsp heavy cream (you can use milk if you don't have cream)
  • pinch cinnamon

Instructions

    Rolls:
  1. Preheat oven to the temperature listed on the refrigerator crescent rolls packaging. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
  2. In a small prep bowl, add butter, sugars, cinnamon and nutmeg. Using the back of a spatula, press the sugars and spices into the butter until combined.
  3. Roll out the crescent rolls and separate each triangle, laying them out on your counter or work surface. Scoop a Tbsp of the butter/sugar mixture onto each piece of dough and spread evenly across the entire surface.
  4. Roll the dough as you normally would and place on prepared cookie sheet.
  5. Bake 1-3 minutes longer than what the crescent roll baking instructions require. NOTE: Filling will ooze out of the rolls onto the sheet. Don't worry! You can scoop this out with each roll and it's delicious!
  6. Remove immediately to a wire rack to cool.
  7. Drizzle with glaze before serving.
  8. Glaze:
  9. In a small bowl, mix together the powdered sugar and 1 Tbsp of cream with a fork.
  10. Add upto one more Tbsp of cream until you come to a consistency which can be drizzled over the rolls.
  11. Add a pinch of cinnamon and mix in.
  12. Drizzle glaze over slightly cooled rolls.
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