bco fresh

Monroe Organic Farm brought the first strawberries of the season. Sweet, yet delicately so, their perfect texture is a stark contrast from the year-round styrofoam balls that usually pass as strawberries. The first temptation is always to simply devour them all, but cooler heads prevailed. Our house is lucky enough to have a baker in residence (”The Baker”), and she whipped up a batch of old school southern-style buttermilk biscuits - the only true basis for strawberry “shortcake.” The biscuit recipe comes from my Georgia grandmother, and has been handed down in my family for at least four generations.

Buttermilk Biscuits

1. 2 1/2 cups flour
2. 1/2 tsp baking soda
3. 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
4. 1/2 tsp salt
5. 1/3 shortening (classically Crisco)
6. 1 cup buttermilk

Sift together dry ingredients. These next steps take a light touch: Cut in shortening until there are “no pieces bigger than a pea.” Stir in buttermilk evenly. Turn on to a well-floured pastry cloth and knead ten times (I kid you not). Roll out to 1/2 - 3/4″ thickness, the use can or cutter to create 2 - 3″ rounds. Set oven to 450 degrees. Bake about 15 minutes on baking sheet until golden brown.  If you are a wizard these will rise almost impossibly, and mortals must settle for a mildly risen yet succulent biscuit.

The strawberries themselves are simply sliced and a tiny bit of sugar added, then left to “macerate” (as a food writer might say), releasing delectible juices.

Split still warm biscuits, spoon over strawberries, and top with fresh whipped cream. Perfection.

Sources

Monroe Farm

Tags: biscuits, buttermilk, shortcake, strawberry

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008 at 5:10 pm and is filed under Recipes, The Baker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.