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Deviant and Delicious Canadian Strawberry Shortcake

This traditional early Summer dessert is a celebration of the strawberry and the first harvest from the garden paired with the humble homey rich crumbly butter biscuit and some thick fresh cow's cream. Wickedly deviant (and incredibly slick) only because the biscuit dough is pushed into a 1/2 cup measuring cup instead of rolled and cut. Super easy. Life is good. O, Canada!

Course Dessert
Cuisine Canadian
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings 8 biscuits
Author Valerie Lugonja

Ingredients

Ingredients for Strawberries

  • 4 -6 cups fresh know-your-farmer strawberries , cleaned and sliced (2 pound or 1 kilo whole berries)
  • 3/4 cup sugar

Ingredients for Shortcake Biscuit

  • 3 cups or 500g flour
  • 1/2 cup or 100 grams sugar
  • 4 teaspoons or 20 g baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon or 5 g salt
  • 3/4 cup or 170g cold unsalted butter , cut into small pieces
  • 3/4 cup or 170 grams heavy cream
  • 2 large eggs

Ingredients for Whipped Cream

  • 1 3/4 cups or 400 grams heavy cream
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla paste (or pure vanilla extract)

Garnish

  • mint leaves
  • 2 strawberries, sliced

Instructions

Preparing the Berries:

  1. Toss sliced strawberries with 3/4 cups sugar; set aside for an hour to macerate (no extra sugar needed if you add the extra 2 cups of berries)

Making the Shortcake Biscuit Dough:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 F; line a baking sheet with parchment paper
  2. Weigh flour, baking powder, 1/2 cup or 100g sugar, and salt into TM bowl; pulse on Turbo for 2 seconds 2 times to combine
  3. Weigh butter into TM bowl (see note if making double batch); pulse on Turbo for 2 seconds 2-3 times (mixture should resemble coarse oatmeal with some pea-size bits)
  4. Remove from TM bowl; set aside in a large bowl

  5. Weigh 3/4 cup heavy cream and 2 eggs into the TM bowl; whisk to combine for 10 seconds at speed 4

  6. Pour in a circle around edge of flour mixture in large bowl; using a fork, fold until clumps form

  7. Bring together very loosely in a ball; do not overwork this dough

Forming and Baking the Shortcake Biscuits:

  1. Lightly flour the inside of a 1/2 cup measuring cup and gently pack dough into it; invert and tap out onto parchment covered baking sheet (may need to run a knife around the circumference of the cup to loosen the dough)
  2. Repeat to form 8 biscuits (dough will make exactly 8 biscuits)
  3. Bake 20 minutes, or until lightly golden; transfer to a rack to cool (bake 24 minutes for golden crunchy biscuits)

  4. Slice each biscuit in half gently when cool with a very sharp or serrated knife, as they are crumbly and somewhat fragile; reheat at 400 F for 5-10 minutes just before serving (slice first, when cold)

Preparing the Cream:

  1. Weigh remaining cream and 2 tablespoons sugar with vanilla into TM bowl; insert butterfly whisk and whip for 3-5 minutes at speed 3.5 until soft peaks form
  2. Refrigerate until ready to serve

Putting it all Together:

  1. Remove hot sliced biscuits from oven

  2. Layer bottom half of each biscuit with 1/4 cup strawberries; top with a generous dollop of cream

  3. Add top half of biscuit and cover with 1/4 cup of berries and another generous dollop of cream; garnish cream with mint and slice of fresh berry
  4. Serve immediately (as these are best with the combination of the warm biscuit and the cold berries)

Recipe Notes

Making a Double Batch
Add the butter to the flour by 1/3, turbo for 1 second after each addition, and when adding in the last third, turbo for 2 seconds 5 times, then proceed with the recipe as usual
Amount of Strawberries
4 cups of sliced berries is enough for 8 servings, but I find that almost everyone is looking for more berries and cream when halfway through their dessert, so find it nice to have extra to pass around!