Best Ever Strawberry Shortcake

It’s strawberry season!

I love fresh local strawberries!  They are so much better than the giant ones from Mexico or wherever that are around the other ten to eleven months of the year.  For one thing, they’re not all moldy from spending who knows how long in transit across the country.

I remember when I saw my first box of berries in the store this year.  I was at work (I work in a grocery store) and not having the greatest day.  But when I saw those little red beauties on my way to get lunch, they brought a smile to my face and things seemed a little better.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always looked forward to berry season.  I used to help my mom pick berries at the U-pick.  And what did we do with those berries?  Well, I’d eat them for breakfast with cream… and sometimes for dessert after lunch and supper too.  Mom would make jam.  And she’d also make strawberry shortcake, with the best homemade shortcake biscuits.

I was a strange child.

For the longest time, even though I liked all the individual components of a strawberry shortcake, I wouldn’t eat the assembled shortcake.  I would eat the biscuit separately from my un-mashed berries with whipped cream.  For some reason, I was turned off by the whole mashed up berries thing.

I’m not sure when it happened, but I eventually came to my senses and started eating the real deal shortcake, assembled in all it’s splendor.

I will tell you this.  If you’re going to make strawberry shortcake, make sure you do it right.  You need to make it with these homemade biscuits.  This is the recipe my mom has been using for years.  I don’t know where the recipe came from originally, but I think it was from someone she knew.  Sorry I can’t give that person credit.

And might I add that I wore an actual apron while I made these.

Shortcake Biscuits

 

2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

3 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup milk

 

Preheat oven to 425º.

 

Mix together dry ingredients in a bowl.  Add shortening and use a fork to blend in.  Stir in milk.  It will be kind of goopy.

 

Turn out onto a floured surface and knead 8-10 times.  It will pick up some of the flour and make a nice dough.  Pat into a 3/4 inch thick circle.  Cut into biscuit shape with a 2 1/2 inch round cookie cutter, or you can use a glass (that’s the way my mom always did it, so that’s how I do it).

 

Place about one inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 14-16 minutes.  Cool on a wire rack.

 

This made 10 biscuits for me.  I usually make a batch and then freeze them so I can thaw one out when needed.

 

Best Ever Strawberry Shortcake

 

Shortcake biscuits

Strawberries (I used about a cup of berries and had a little bit left over after making one shortcake)

Whipped cream (I use Dream Whip)

 

Wash and hull berries.  Mash to desired level of mushiness.

 

If biscuit isn’t fresh from the oven, warm slightly in microwave for about 20 seconds.  Split biscuit in half. 

 

Spoon berries onto bottom half of biscuit.  Top with the other half of the biscuit.  Spoon on a dollop of whipped cream.  Top with a drizzle of a few more berries. 

 

Vanilla Coconut Pound Cake

Ugh!  My mystery illness continues.  I went to the ER on Wednesday, but after blood work and an x-ray, they can’t tell me what’s wrong with me.  I would feel SO much better if I knew what it was that is giving me this fever.  If it’s not gone by Monday, I need a CT scan to rule out a reoccurrence of the lymphoma.  May the odds be ever in my favor.

And the worst part of being sick is that I haven’t got anything accomplished all week.  I haven’t been to the gym all week, my apartment is a disaster, I haven’t got groceries.  Thank goodness for Michael!  He’s been really fantastic.  I’m so happy he happened to be around this week.  He’s brought me juice and water, brought supper home, did my dishes, took out my garbage.

So I will continue to lie on the couch and watch too much TV and drink lots of fluids and take many naps until I get better, which will hopefully be very, very soon.  I am the worst sick person ever because I convince myself I have some rare deadly disease and then try not to worry myself to death.

Luckily for you folks, I made this recipe a couple of weeks ago.  I really wish I had some right now.

I saw Jessica from How Sweet It Is post a recipe for Mini Brown Butter Vanilla Bean Pound Cakes that she had adapted from her Vanilla Lime Pound Cake.  The brown butter idea didn’t super thrill me, but the vanilla lime combo got me thinking about what other flavours go well with vanilla and my mind instantly thought of my vanilla coconut candle which I love so much.

If vanilla coconut smells so good, I bet it tastes even better!

Plus it plays right into my summer goal of having more coconut flavored things in my life.

So I swapped out all the lime and put in coconut and it turned out to be one of the best things I have ever baked.

I made this one evening I was lonely because Michael had to leave me to drive for hours to get to where he was going to work the next day.  That’s what I do when I’m lonely and bored – I bake.  And in this case I also watched the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie which I had DVR’ed (how cute is Orlando Bloom as a pirate?).  I really wanted to eat the whole thing myself, but that would be hard on the thighs, so I took it in to work the next day to share.

You need to try this now!  Even if eating more coconut isn’t on your summer goals list.  I promise you won’t regret it.

 

Vanilla Coconut Pound Cake

(adapted from How Sweet It Is) 

 

3 eggs

1/4 cup + 3 tbsp coconut milk

1 tsp coconut extract

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 tbsp sweetened shredded coconut

1 vanilla bean

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup margarine (1 1/2 squares), room temperature

 

Preheat oven to 350°.

 

Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean.  Combine the vanilla seeds with the eggs, extracts, shredded coconut, and coconut milk in a bowl.  Whisk together.

 

Combine flour, sugar, and baking powder in the bowl of stand mixer.  Mix on low speed until combined.  Add margarine and mix until combined.  Add half the milk mixture.  Mix on medium speed until combined.  Add the rest of the wet ingredients and combine on medium speed.

 

Butter a loaf pan.  Place a piece of parchment the size of the loaf pan in the bottom (trace bottom of pan, cut out, flip paper over so the side with pencil marks is on the bottom and won’t touch the batter).  Butter the exposed side of parchment.  Pour batter into pan and bake for 50-55 minutes.  Cool on wire rack.  Once cool, top with glaze.

 

Vanilla Coconut Glaze

(slightly adapted from Martha Stewart)

 

1 1/3 cup icing sugar

1/4 cup coconut milk

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp coconut extra

 

Combine ingredients in bowl of stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment.  Whip on high speed, scraping sides often, until combined.  Should be the consistency of glue.  Add more sugar or milk as needed.