Shortcakes From Pioneer Woman

It’s been a lovely couple of days enjoying our strawberry bounty here.  I love the day or two after we go fruit picking, because the kids (Zander, really) never need to ask “what can I have to eat?”  They already know what the answer will be.  The fresh fruit seasons are fleeting, and the standard house rule is to eat as many as you want while you can, because they will only be here for a short time.

As we sat there enjoying our fresh berries out of hand, Zander very innocently looked at me and asked which night we were having Strawberry Shortcake for dinner.  Not for dessert.  For dinner.  I confess that we have done that before, but I wasn’t totally feeling it this week.  However, it seemed like a great accompaniment to the Israeli Couscous Salad- just in case the kids weren’t digging the salad.

Every year at this time I make strawberry shortcake, and every year I find myself looking for the perfect recipe for shortcakes.  I thought about the shortcakes from Dorie Greenspan.  Oh, those are very good and flavorful, but for some reason I had it in my head that those particular shortcakes were time consuming.  Only now, two days later I’m reading my old blog post and see that they were of the quick and easy variety. At the time, though, I glanced at my shelf of cookbooks and tried to conjur up which chef would have the best shortcakes.  As I looked at my books, nothing jumped off the shelf, and instead I turned to the blogosphere, and honed in on THE perfect person to give me a shortcake recipe.

I wasn’t disappointed.  Pioneer Woman’s shortcakes are very similar to a biscuit, only much sweeter.  There were two things, however, that really made them stand out to me.  One was the extract in the dough.  She recommends almond extract, I used vanilla.  I really liked that punch of flavor in the biscuit itself.  The other thing that worked really well was an increased amount of baking powder.  The shortcakes rose up nice and fluffy, and didn’t feel dense in any way, shape or form.

They were so good, and one I would make again in a heartbeat.  Provided that I remember that I made them, of course.

Shortcakes

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Add flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt to the bowl of a food processor (or a large bowl.) Add butter pieces and pulse until butter is completely cut into the flour mixture (or use a pastry cutter if using a bowl.) Add almond extract to buttermilk. While pulsing (or stirring) drizzle in the buttermilk until dough just comes together and is no longer crumbly.

Drop in clumps on two baking sheets, then bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Set aside and allow to cool completely.