Red, White & Blue Shortcakes

I tossed sweet strawberries with a little sugar, and a handful of plump blueberries, just for fun! Then, because I couldn’t help myself, I also updated the shortcake recipe to include some fresh lemon zest – it’s a beautiful match for the mixed berries. Served with generous, fluffy clouds of vanilla whipped cream, these Strawberry & Blueberry Shortcakes are the perfect dessert for your next BBQ!

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 6

Ingredients

–For the Berries

• 1 quart of fresh strawberries
• 1 pint fresh blueberries
• 2 tablespoons white sugar

–For the Shortcakes

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup of salted butter cold & cubed
• 1/2 cup of milk
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar for the tops of the shortcakes
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• For the optional glaze; 1 egg yolk + 1 tablespoon half & half

–For the Vanilla Whipped Cream

• 1 pint heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

For the Shortcakes

• Preheat your oven to 450F.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment. Place aside.
• In a large bowl, mix the flour, 2 tablespoons of white sugar, 1 tablespoon lemon zest, salt, and baking powder.
• Cut the cold butter into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter (you can do this in a food processor as well, but I prefer to do it by hand). Keep “cutting” the butter into the flour until the whole mixture looks like coarse crumbs.
• In a small bowl, lightly beat the whole egg.
• Add the milk, egg, and vanilla extract to the bowl with the dry ingredients. Stir together until everything is moistened. This is tricky – but you don’t want to over mix (that makes for tough shortcakes), but do your best. There will be some flour pockets left, which is okay.
• Dump the dough out onto a well floured surface, and kneed for 8-10 pushes – just enough to bring it together. Shape & flatten the dough, using the palms of your hands, to a circle about 3/4 inch thick.
• Using a lightly floured biscuit cutter, or 3-inch across drinking glass, cut out several circles, and transfer to a lined baking tray. You want to have 6-7 rounds. After the first cut, gently bring the dough together, and flatten again, to cut batch #2.
• Once the shortcakes have been cut and transferred to the baking sheet, take a small bowl and fork-whisk together the egg yolk and the half & half for the glaze. Brush the tops of the shortcakes with this to glaze.
• Sprinkle the tops with turbinado sugar (sugar-in-the-raw).
• Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until perfectly golden.
• Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

For the Berries

• Wash & dry all the berries.
• Trim the tops off of the strawberries and slice into 1/8″ thin slices. Add to a medium sized bowl with the blueberries, then sprinkle with 2 tablespoons white sugar. Toss gently and reserve.

For the Vanilla Whipped Cream

• Place your stand mixing bowl and whisk attachment into the freezer for 10 minutes, to chill the equipment. This will help you whip up the cream.
• After chilling, pour the pint of whipping cream into the mixing bowl, and with the wire attachment, beat on low for 30 seconds. Then, raise to medium-high for 1-2 minutes, or until the mix starts to thicken.
• Add the sugar and vanilla extract. Continue to beat the whipping cream on medium-high speed, until thickened and fluffy, usually another 1-2 minutes.
• Do not over beat! It usually takes me about 5 minutes start-to-finish for the whole process.

To Assemble

• Cut one of the cooled shortcakes in half, horizontally. Place a spoonful of berries on top, then a generous layer of whipped cream. Place the second shortcake half on top. Ta-daa!