The strawberry season is here! I stopped at our local market yesterday morning and just getting close to the basket of these beautiful berries made me smile. Honestly – the wonderful aroma just hits you without even getting close to them. That’s what you get from these beautiful berries that are grown outside and ripen in warm sun!
But – how do you buy the best ones, and what can you do with them? I hope the following information will be helpful to you:
What to look for:
Look for locally grown strawberries that are plump and brightly coloured. The best ones are the ones that have the green caps attached and are uniform in size.Avoid soft, shriveled or moldy fruits. If the strawberries smell sweet, they will most likely taste sweet as well.
How to store them:
Sort and remove any damaged berries as soon as possible. Do not rinse them until you are ready to use them. Refrigerate them in a tightly sealed container, preferably in a single layer on a paper towel for 2-3 days.
About nutrition:
Strawberries are a very good source of vitamin C, potassium, iron and folic acid.
Traditional Strawberry Shortcakes Recipe
The advantage here is that since the cakes are made and baked as biscuits, you can have individual servings. Little tip before you start making them: to prevent biscuits from crumbling, let them completely cool down and use serrated bread knife to cut them.
Ingredients:
- about 6 cups of strawberries, rinsed, hulled and quartered
- 1-1/4 cups of sugar
- 3 cups of flour
- 4 teaspoons of baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon of salt
- 12 tablespoon of cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 2 cups of heavy cream
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 375F
- In a medium bowl, toss strawberries with 3/4 cups of sugar and let sit to bring out the juices
- In a food processor, pulse flour, baking powder, 1/2 cup of sugar and slat until combined
- add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse oatmeal but still has pea size balls of butter remaining
- in a medium bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup of cream and the eggs, pour over flour mixture and pulse until large clumps begin to form – about 20-30 times
- Using a half cup measuring cup. gently pack the dough in it, invert and tap out onto a baking sheet
- Repeat to form 8 biscuits
- Bake until lightly golden – about 20 minutes.
- Transfer to a rack to cool fro about 15 minutes
- Beat remaining cream with 2 tablespoons of sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form
- Slice biscuits in half horizontally, spoon strawberries and their juice over the bottom half, spoon cream over strawberries and replace top half of the biscuit
- Garnish with additional cream and strawberries and enjoy!
Hope you have enjoyed this information – please send me your comments, suggestions and experiences – your input is very welcomed and much appreciated!
