Strawberry Shortcakes For 2 Americas Test Kitchen Recipes

THE BEST CLASSIC STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE

Steps:

• For the shortcakes: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Whisk the heavy cream, sour cream and vanilla in a small bowl; refrigerate until ready to use. Pulse the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder and salt in a food processor until combined. Add the butter; pulse until the mixture looks like fine meal. Pour in the chilled heavy cream mixture and pulse until just combined.
• Lightly flour a work surface and dump the dough onto it. Pat out the dough 1/2-inch thick. Cut out as many biscuits as you can with a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter. Then pat the remaining dough out to 1/2-inch thick again. Cut more biscuits; you should get 12.
• Put 6 of the biscuits on the prepared baking sheet. Brush the tops generously with cream, then top each cream-brushed biscuit with one of the remaining biscuit rounds. (This makes it easier to split once they are baked.) Brush the top of each biscuit stack with more heavy cream and sprinkle 1 teaspoon granulated sugar on each biscuit.
• Bake the biscuits until golden and puffed, about 30 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
• Meanwhile, for the topping: Toss the strawberries and 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar in a medium bowl.
• Just before serving, beat the heavy cream, sour cream, the remaining 2 tablespoons brown sugar and vanilla in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes.
• Split the shortcakes in half. Spoon half the cream on the bottom of the biscuits, top evenly with the strawberries and top with the remaining cream. Put each biscuit top on and serve.

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKES FOR 2 (AMERICA'S TEST KITCHEN)

Steps:

• For the shortcakes, use first 8 ingredients: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees with the rack in the middle position. Line a rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper.
• In a food processor, mix the flour, 5 teaspoons of sugar, the baking powder, and salt until combined (about 3 pulses) then add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal (about 15 pulses).
• Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl. Whisk the half-and-half and the whole egg together then mix into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula until large clumps form. The recipe indicates that using regular milk is ok but not as rich as the half-and-half and that using heavy cream makes the cakes too dense.
• Turn the mixture onto a floured board and shape the dough into two circles about 2-1/2 inches in diameter and about 1 inch thick.
• Brush the tops with the egg white. Then sprinkle the tops with the remaining 1 teaspoon of sugar.
• Place on prepared cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes, turning the pan halfway through cooking.
• Cool on wire wrack.
• For the fruit use the next 2 ingredients: Crush 3/4 cup (about 3.75 ounces) of the strawberries with a potato masher in a medium bowl. Slice the remaining strawberries and fold them into the crushed berries, along with the sugar. Let the mixture sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes.
• For the whipped cream use the last 3 ingredients:.
• Whip the cream, sugar and vanilla together in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium spead until frothy -- about 1 minute. Then turn to high and whip to soft peaks, 1-3 minutes. Of course, store bought whipped cream will work, too.
• To serve: Slice the shortcake horizontally. Place some of the strawberries on the bottom half, put a dollop or two of whipped cream on the strawberries and top with the other half of the short cake.