Strawberry Shortcake
My starting ingredients:
For the scone
- All purpose flour, 2 cups
- Castor sugar, ¼ cup
- Baking powder, 2 tsp
- Salt, ¼ tsp
- Butter, ⅓ cup
- Egg, 1
- Vanilla extract or essence, ½ tsp
- Milk, ½ cup
For the filling
- Strawberries, 2 punnets
- Castor sugar, ¼ cup
- Cream, whipping
Preheat oven to 190 C.
Prepare the strawberries by washing, hulling and slicing them. Place about one third of the strawberries in a bowl and crush them with a fork.
Add the remaining sliced strawberries to the bowl, along with the sugar. Set aside to macerate at room temperature for about 30 to 60 minutes.
To make the scone, mix the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder together. Cut the butter into small cubes and add to the dry mix.
Blend or pinch the butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mix resembles breadcrumbs.
NOTE: Some people prefer to use a butter knife and continuously cut the butter into the flour for about 10 15 minutes. I have tried doing this but am usually too impatient so I use my fingers instead.
Whisk the milk, egg and vanilla extract together.
Make a well in the middle of the flour mix and add the wet ingredients.
Gently combine until the mixture comes together to make a soft dough. Do not over mix the dough.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and roll the dough out into a sausage.
Cut the dough to form your scones.
NOTE: Some people prefer to roll the dough out and use a scone cutter. Either method works.
Transfer the scones to a baking tray and brush the tops with a little milk.
Cook in the oven for 15 20 minutes or until brown on top. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Whilst the scones are in the oven, whip the cream until it forms firm peaks.
To serve, cut the scones in half. Arrange the strawberries on top of one half
.
and then top with the whipped cream.
Place the other half of the scone on the cream. You can serve the scone like this if you like.
But I was after Strawberry Shortcake today. So, I placed a little dollop of cream on top of the scone and added more strawberries on top.
Enjoy!
So, yeah, she wouldn't be able to find out until next week even if I asked her today.
