Ponchatoula Strawberry Shortcake Recipes

Steps:

• For the shortcakes: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Whisk the heavy cream, sour cream and vanilla in a small bowl; refrigerate until ready to use. Pulse the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder and salt in a food processor until combined. Add the butter; pulse until the mixture looks like fine meal. Pour in the chilled heavy cream mixture and pulse until just combined.
• Lightly flour a work surface and dump the dough onto it. Pat out the dough 1/2-inch thick. Cut out as many biscuits as you can with a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter. Then pat the remaining dough out to 1/2-inch thick again. Cut more biscuits; you should get 12.
• Put 6 of the biscuits on the prepared baking sheet. Brush the tops generously with cream, then top each cream-brushed biscuit with one of the remaining biscuit rounds. (This makes it easier to split once they are baked.) Brush the top of each biscuit stack with more heavy cream and sprinkle 1 teaspoon granulated sugar on each biscuit.
• Bake the biscuits until golden and puffed, about 30 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
• Meanwhile, for the topping: Toss the strawberries and 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar in a medium bowl.
• Just before serving, beat the heavy cream, sour cream, the remaining 2 tablespoons brown sugar and vanilla in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes.
• Split the shortcakes in half. Spoon half the cream on the bottom of the biscuits, top evenly with the strawberries and top with the remaining cream. Put each biscuit top on and serve.

Steps:

• Bring a large saucepan with 1 inch of water to a simmer over medium-high heat. Stir the strawberries, lemon zest and 1/4 cup of the sugar in a large stainless steel mixing bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place on top of the simmering pot (the bottom of the bowl shouldn't touch the water). Reduce the heat to medium-low, and let the strawberries macerate over the simmering water for 20 minutes. Remove the bowl from the pot and refrigerate until chilled. (Note: The strawberry sauce can be made up to 1 day in advance.).
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place a 10-inch cake pan on parchment paper; trace and cut out a circle. Spray the pan with nonstick spray, then place the round piece of parchment into the bottom of the pan and spray one more time. Sprinkle a couple of spoonfuls of flour into the pan, tap and coat bottom and sides of the pan and discard any excess flour.
• Cut the 1 1/2 sticks of butter into small pieces and melt in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Simmer, whisking often to incorporate any solids that sink to the bottom, until the butter is a golden-amber color and smells nutty, 4 to 6 minutes. Set the butter aside to cool.
• To prepare the cake: In a large bowl, whisk eggs and 1 cup sugar vigorously for about 2 minutes. The mixture will be bright yellow. Set whisk aside and continue by using an electric mixer to whip the eggs and remaining 1/4 cup sugar on high speed until the mixture is thick and pale in color (4 to 5 minutes more). Reduce speed to low and slowly (adding too quickly will cause mixture to separate) add in the cooled brown butter making sure to scrape in all of the brown bits.
• Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Using a whisk, gently fold in one-third of dry ingredients into the batter, then half the buttermilk. Repeat, ending with the last third of the dry mixture. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until the cake sides pull away from the pan and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. If the cake appears to be browning too quickly, cover lightly with foil in the last 10 minutes of baking. Let cake cool on a wire rack for about 20 minutes before removing from pan. Run a knife around the edge of the pan and invert it onto a wire rack to cool completely.
• For the Chantilly Cream: Pour the heavy cream into the bowl of a stand mixer, add the vanilla and sift in the confectioners' sugar. Whip on low speed to combine and then increase the speed to medium-high. Whip until medium-stiff peaks form, about 1 1/2 minutes.
• Transfer the cake to a plate and slice into wedges. Serve topped with strawberries, sauce and a dollop of Chantilly Cream or slice each wedge in half horizontally and sandwich the halves with strawberries and sauce, then top with cream.

Steps:

• PREHEAT the oven to 400 degrees Farenheit.
• TO MAKE the biscuits, sift the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar in a large bowl. Gently work in the butter with 2 knives or your hands, breaking it into pea-size pieces but taking care not to overwork the dough. Form a well in the center of the mixture, add 1 1/2 cups of the buttermilk mixed with the baking soda, and lightly fold the mixture so that it's just sticky and the dry ingredients just moistened. If needed, add the additional buttermilk. The idea is to create layers so the butter will steam and serve as a leavening agent to help the biscuits rise. The less you handle the dough, the flakier the biscuits will be.
• ON A WORK SURFACE lightly dusted with flour, flatten the dough to 1 1/2-inch thickness. Using a flour-dusted cutter 2 1/2 inches in diameter, cut the dough into 6 or 8 biscuits. Set the biscuits touching each other in an ungreased pie tin so that they stay moist while they bake. Bake biscuits for 20 to 25 minutes. Do not overbake; remember that the final 10 percent of the cooking will happen after they are removed from the oven.
• WASH and hull the strawberries, and cut them in half; if they are large, cut them in quarters. One hour before serving, combine the berries and the sugar. The berries will secrete a juice mixture that should not be gritty from the sugar. The sugar mixture should be of a syruplike consistency.
• TO PREPARE the topping, put the chilled heavy cream in a chilled bowl and whip with a whisk or an electric mixer. When the cream starts to thicken, add the sugar and whip to the desired consistency. Do not overwhip.
• THE BISCUITS should be served warm (prepare and chill the dough the day before, if you wish, and bake before serving) but not so warm that they cause the whipped cream to melt.
• TO ASSEMBLE, split the biscuits horizontally, and dust the top halves with powdered sugar. Place the bottom half of each biscuit on a dessert plate and top each with a portion of the strawberry mixture and some of the syrup. Top with a dollop of the whipped cream, and top each with a sugared biscuit top.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7 and lightly flour a baking sheet. Put the flour, butter, sugar, half of the vanilla seeds and ¼ tsp salt into the bowl of a food processor, then pulse until fine. Tip into a large bowl. Beat the milk, egg and a good squeeze of lemon together, then tip into the bowl and bring together with a knife, using a cutting action, until you have a clumpy dough. Finally bring together with your hands if you need to.
• Lightly flour the work surface, tip the dough onto it, then quickly shape into a smooth-ish disc. Using a rolling pin, pat out to 2cm thick. Cut out 8 rounds with a smooth 7cm cutter (you'll need to pinch together the trimmings). Glaze just the tops with beaten egg, transfer to the floured sheet, then bake for 10-12 mins until risen and golden, and they sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Cool on a wire rack.
• Beat the remaining vanilla seeds and icing sugar into the clotted cream. It will get runnier at first, but keep beating and it will thicken again. To serve, slice the very top from each shortcake to give a flat surface, then spoon over about 1 tsp jam. Top with a good dollop of the vanilla clotted cream and finish with the strawberries.