Carla Makes Strawberry Shortcake

Great strawberries, great shortcake,

when they come together they will make magic.

(soft music)

First things first, the shortcake.

Couple of things that are special about the shortcake

some of the ingredients are not gonna surprise you,

one of them might.

This biscuit relies on cooked egg yolk.

Basically it gets in the way of the flour

forming too much gluten.

They also add a little bit of richness.

So, then we have all-purpose flour.

A little bit of semolina flour.

If you can't find semolina flour,

use finely ground cornmeal.

Granulated sugar.

Baking powder for lift.

And every good baking recipe should have kosher salt.

I'm gonna pulse everything together

until I see that the egg yolk is nice and ground up.

If you're doing this by hand, that's great,

more power to ya.

Chilled butter, cut into cubes.

And then I'm gonna pulse again

until there's just pea size pieces of butter.

The key thing is you want little pockets of butter

they create steam and openness in the finished dough.

But the best way to control it is by pulsing it.

And then the other thing is,

you can't really see what's going on in there,

so periodically, don't cut your hand on the blade,

I learned the hard way, and kind of feel around in there.

And it's better to air on the side of bigger than smaller.

You just don't wanna ever over work the dough.

Next thing, this is a cream biscuit, cold heavy cream.

I mean it's gonna go in all at once

so pulsing again until it looks like

it's just starting to come together.

Reach in again without cutting your hand

and squeeze it together and see if it holds.

A little bit of dryness is OK.

So I do this thing.

I don't know if everybody does this,

I put my finger in here to hold the blade down.

Does everybody do that?

I just hate the idea of the blade clinking and clanking out.

So I just secure it with my finger.

Free bonus tip, wasn't even, whoa.

(laughs)

I wouldn't call this kneading.

What's gonna happen now I'm just gonna call this

bringing it together.

So a little smushing and a little folding

unlike other biscuits there's no rolling,

there's not cutter.

Now, you're gonna scoop out your shortcake

and just drop it onto a parchment lined baking sheet.

What that does is it creates this nice mounded shape

so they'll be nice and round when they come out of the oven.

They'll spread as they puff open

and that also makes a really pretty appearance.

These need to chill in the fridge for about 20 minutes.

So, we're back 20 minutes later

with chilled but not frozen biscuit balls.

I'm brushing these guys with cream so that they look pretty

but also so I can make this sanding sugar stick to them.

They're patted, they're happy.

It's like putting on foundation.

And now we've got our sanding sugar

which already looks sparkly and beautiful.

They're going into a 350 degree oven.

I'm gonna bake them until they're puffed

and they're golden, but not to where they're browned.

30 minutes plus or minus, set a timer, keep an eye on it.

Goodbye, shortcakes, see you.

(upbeat music)

Alright, now we're getting to the strawberry part

of the strawberry shortcake.

A couple of key things also here.

First of all, you've gotta have a great berry.

If your berry doesn't smell great or look great,

it isn't great, it's just period end of discussion.

Just make sure you're using a berry

that you're excited about.

This recipe celebrates the berry.

They need to be berry berry good.

Do you know what I mean?

(laughs)

Everything is gonna get seasoned

and treated the same right now.

And then I'm gonna split them.

So half of them get cooked down a little bit.

But, you do sort of sacrifice a little bit on the texture

so that's why half of them are going to be raw.

Some of them get to be jammy.

The other guys get to be juicy.

And, then when they get together it's jammy and juicy.

Which is jamtastic.

If I have enough bowl time I'm just going to keep going.

Alright, I saved the cutest

and most beautiful strawberries for last.

Will they even make it into the recipe?

OK, pinch of kosher salt,

'cause they're so sweet.

Quarter cup of sugar, it's not that much sugar.

Little lemon zest.

And now I'm just gonna toss this together.

I'm being gentle, but it's OK

if they get a little bit smushed up.

Half of this is gonna go right into a sauce pan.

And the other half is just gonna hang out.

I'm just gonna add a little splash of water

to the ones that we're cooking down to be jammy.

So, just while it comes up to a simmer,

I'll stir it a couple of times.

I want them to cook down and create that syrupy juice

without turning them into a pulp.

And you still want to be able to see

the shape of the strawberry.

It will take 15 to 20 minutes,

there's already steam coming off, smells really good.

Alright, it's time to take the biscuits

slash shortcakes out of the oven.

Gorgeous.

So, they did all the things I said they were gonna do.

They puffed up, they spread out a little bit,

they're lightly golden, they look perfect.

So, while those are cooling.

The strawberries are getting jammy.

These guys are macerating.

These just need a little bit of fresh lemon juice.

And I want to be gentle with these

but you can see they've given off so much of their juices

with the help of that sugar.

And that will be part of the sauce in the end.

Yum.

It's time to check the strawberries.

So, these are looking pretty perfect.

The juices are so shiny, they look like candy.

Just as I put a little bit of lemon juice

into the raw strawberries I'm gonna finish these guys up.

And now this will cool.

Mm.

Acid is always a good thing.

I mean, not that kind of acid.

Alright, this is the moment we've all been waiting for.

In my house there would be three people over here.

And everybody would be already choosing which one

was their shortcake.

And so people would put dibs on them.

So, these are so tender and delicate,

practically like looking at them cross eyed

is gonna make them crumble.

So, a serrated knife is your friend here

just little gentle sawing motion.

Gentle as she goes.

These crumbs are Scooby Snacks.

Who is the most beautiful biscuit?

Oh, I didn't even cut you.

Also, every time I say biscuit guys,

just substitute the word shortcake.

We think there's a difference between the two,

we're not going to get into it.

Compote, then you get the best of both worlds

with the double textures.

And you know, spillage is inevitable.

And this biscuit has, shortcake.

Well this shortcake.

This shortcake is firm enough

to not just turn into a puddle.

Our perfectly whipped whip cream.

And now, I'm gonna be jaunty with this.

You know?

That's so beautiful.

Look at those berries.

What do you think guys?

Is she pretty?

Does she need more beautification?

It's like putting makeup on a supermodel.

You know?

You just don't have to do much.

(upbeat music)

Mm.

Mm, that shit is really good.