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Winterberry Shortcake

What happens when you have a craving for strawberry shortcake in the winter and the only fresh strawberries are hard and tasteless? Incredibly, try frozen! They’re picked and processed ripe and delicious and with a bit of cooking will satisfy your craving for strawberry flavour while you await true summer berries.

Yield: 8 Servings

Ingredients

For the Nutmeg Butter Biscuits:                  

4 cups of flour

½ cup of sugar

2 tablespoons of baking powder

1 teaspoon of salt

1 whole nutmeg, ground about 1 tablespoon

1 cup of frozen butter

1 egg, whisked

1 ¼ cups of milk

1 egg, whisked together for finishing wash

½ cup of coarse sugar

 

For the Berry Topping:         

2- 1.5 lb bags of frozen strawberries, thawed

1 cup of strawberry jam

 

For the Whipped Cream:

1 cup of whipping cream

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 teaspoon of honey

 

Method

For the Nutmeg Butter biscuits:

Preheat your oven to 400°F and turn on your convection fan if you have on.

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg together evenly distributing the finer powders amongst the coarser ones. Using a standard box grater largest holes thoroughly grate the frozen butter into the dry ingredients. Toss the works gently with your fingers until the butter shards are spread evenly throughout the flour, a far easier process than laboriously ‘cutting’ in the fat.

Pour the milk into the flour mixture and stir with the handle of a wooden spoon forming a dough mass. Knead the works gently a few times with your hands, folding it over and absorbing flour until all the ingredients come together. Pat or roll the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface forming a thick even disc roughly 1” thick then cut into large circles. Position the biscuits on a baking tray and brush with the egg mixture then sprinkle with coarse sugar, which will adhere to the egg in the oven. Bake until the biscuits are golden brown and delicious, 12 to 15 minutes.

 

For the Berry Topping:

Strain the frozen strawberries well, reserving the juice. Set the berries aside. Pour the juice into a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the strawberry jam and bring the works to a brisk simmer. Continue cooking, stirring frequently and reducing to a jam-like consistency, about 10 minutes. Stir the reduction into the reserved berries and chill the works.

 

For the Whipped Cream:

Whip the cream with the vanilla and honey until soft, pillowy white and decadently delicious.

 

Have the biscuits then build the shortcakes with giant spoonfuls of strawberry compote and lots of whipped cream. Serve and share.