Berry Shortcakes

My dad’s birthday was this past weekend (Happy Birthday, Dad!) and I had dessert duty. My dad loves fruit but instead of buying premade shortcakes, I found this recipe from Annie’s Eats & decided to give it a shot. It was really simple and turned out really good. I didn’t make the whipped cream (my dad prefers lite Coolwhip) but I’m including that portion of the recipe anyway.

Source: Annie’s Eats
Makes: 6 shortcakes

Ingredients
For the shortcakes
2 cups flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar, divided
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup heavy cream

For the berry topping
1 quart strawberries, hulled and quartered
2 tbsp. confectioners’ sugar
Blueberries (optional)

For the whipped cream
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp. confectioners’ sugar

Directions
To make the shortcakes 
Preheat the oven to 400 and line a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt with a fork. 

Pour in the heavy cream and stir together with the fork until almost all of the dry ingredients have come together to form a dough.

Gently clump the dough together with your hands and transfer to a work surface. Form into a 6-inch round log. (The dough can seem very dry and crumbly, but just do your best to keep it together, and avoid kneading as much as possible.) 

Slice the log into 6 equal rounds and transfer them to the prepared baking sheet. (Even if the dough seems like it is not sticking together, just gently squeeze it into the disc shape. It will fuse together during baking.) 

Sprinkle the tops of the rounds with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To make the berry topping 
Transfer about one third of the strawberries to a mixing bowl. Add in the confectioners’ sugar, and mash together with a fork until the mixture is mostly liquid. Stir in the rest of the quartered berries. Chill until ready to assemble the shortcakes.

To assemble the shortcakes. slice each one in half horizontally. Transfer the bottom half of each cake to a serving plate, top with the strawberry sauce and a dollop of whipped cream. Add some blueberries to the top. Serve immediately.