Fresh Raspberry Shortcakes

    

First things first... between my last post and this one, I became an auntie and I absolutely love it!  I cannot wait to bake lots of yummy things for this little one.

Just two days before Cliff was born, his mother (my sister) and I went raspberry picking... on her due date.  It was a fun and dusty adventure, and it left us with about 40 pounds of raspberries.  I froze a lot of them on sheet trays lined with waxed paper and then put them in quart-sized freezer bags once the individual berries were frozen.  This keeps them from mushing into one big frozen blob, and will make them perfect for throwing in scones and muffins throughout the year.  We did keep some of them fresh, of course, and one of the things I did with the fresh ones was to make some raspberry shortcakes.  I decided to give the berries themselves a little something extra, so I added some citrusy flavors which worked really well.

Fresh Raspberry Shortcakes

Yield: 6 shortcakes

Shortcakes

2 c. all-purpose flour

3 Tbsp. sugar

1 t. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1/2 c. or 1 stick unsalted butter, cut into cubes

6 fl. oz. heavy cream

Extra cream and raw sugar for topping

Berry mixture

6 c. fresh raspberries

1/4 c. sugar

Zest of 1 orange

Juice of 1 orange

1 Tbsp. limoncello (optional, but amazing)

Whipped cream

2 c. heavy cream

1/2 c. powdered sugar

Combine the berry mixture ingredients and let them hang out in the fridge for an hour or so, longer if you have the time.  Make the shortcakes following the process below (basically, combine dry ingredients, work in butter, add cream, shape into a rectangle and cut into squares).  Bake at 400F for 11-16 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through. When shortcakes have cooled, split them and place the bottom part in a bowl.  Top with a good-sized scoop of raspberry mixture, some whipped cream, and then the top of the biscuit.

A shortcake is essentially a biscuit, and as such you will be using 'The Biscuit Method.'  Basically, that means you sift the dry ingredients together, work in some cold butter (should be about the size of macadamia nuts... that's the example they give you when you go to pastry school in Hawaii anyways), add your liquid, fold a couple of times and cut into desired shapes. 

It's helpful to cut your butter into pieces and then get those back into the fridge while you mix up your dry ingredients.  Then when the dry ingredients are ready, just work in the butter quickly with your fingers.  You don't want the butter to heat up too much, and you don't want to still have chunks of butter.  The flour should look like it's had some fat rubbed into it, not just like flour with butter chunks throughout, kind of like this:

Then pour in the cold liquid and mix together quickly with a fork or bowl scraper, like this orange one that I have.  Turn the dough onto a floured surface and gently fold it a couple of times, using enough flour so it doesn't stick to the counter.  Then you can use a rolling pin or just press it into a rectangle with your fingers, about 3/4" thick.  Cut the rectangle into 6 squares, like so.

Transfer to a sprayed or parchment-lined sheet pan.  For a nice finish, brush a little cream on the top of each shortcake and sprinkle on some raw sugar.

  

    

Bake the shortcakes in a 400 degree oven.  This helps them rise because it helps the butter turn into steam right away.  Then all the little pockets of butter become the flakiness that is so amazing in a good biscuit.

Let cool completely before slicing in half lengthwise. Fill with berries and whipped cream and top with the other half!