Shortcake Biscuits

Strawberry Shortcake

By Cat, September 2011 (Photo, right, from Wikimedia Commons)

Includes: 1. Basic Shortcake Biscuit; 2. Basic Biscuit, Pre-Soaked Flour Version; 3. Rich Shortcake Biscuit; See also: 1. Pound Cake; 2. Gênoise; 3. Cakes & Tortes Menu; 4. Breads Menu; 5. For fruit toppings, see Cobblers, Shortcakes & Crisps Menu

Who doesn’t like shortcake served with fresh fruit of the season? I’m not talking about those spongy, Twinkie-like, packaged shortcakes at the grocery store, I’m talking about buttery, melt-in-your-mouth, slightly crumbly, biscuit-style shortcake.

You might be tempted to make the Bisquick ^(R)  version because it is ‘quicker,’ but I wouldn’t advise that. For one thing, it isn’t that much quicker to make. But the main reason is because it contains trans-fats or otherwise chemically-altered fats, and may contain GMO ingredients. Much better to take the few extra minutes to cut in real butter – not only more healthful but also so much better in taste and texture!

One of my favorite fruit toppings is peach melba, made with sliced wedges of fresh peaches, and raspberry puree, and a hint of ground ginger.

NOTE:  alternatives to shortcake biscuit for a shortcake dessert, is Pound Cake, or a sponge cake (Sponge Cake or Gênoise).

Basic Shortcake Biscuit

This recipe is adapted from Home Baking Made Easy, by Virginia Roberts, Director Occident Home Baking Institute, 1944 (1;see also Beloved Cookbooks). It is adaptable to pre-soaking a whole grain flour – see pre-soak version below.

Unrefined Demerara Sugar

A coarse-grain sugar such as raw demerara or turbinado sugar (photo,left , from WIkimedia Commons (2)) is sprinkled on top of the biscuits just before baking. It is a minimally-processed, coarser-ground sugar with a slight tan color, similar to “Sugar in the Raw” which is a good substitute. Turbinado sugar is a similar product and another good substitute. Or you could use Rapadura – it just isn’t as coarsely textured.

I indicate a range of sugar amount: use less when using sweeter fruits (like plums, peaches) and more when using less sweet fruits (like strawberries).

Makes 8 – 16 biscuits, depending on size and thickness. I don’t record testing of this version because I’ve made it many times since my childhood, and now I make the presoak adaptation, below, for which I do record testing.

Ingredients & Equipment:

• 2 cups unbleached white flour (or mix of white and whole grain pastry flour), plus more for rolling & cutting biscuits
• 1 – 3 Tbsp Rapadura sugar
• 4 tsp baking powder (aluminum-free)
• ½ tsp Unrefined sea salt
• ¼ tsp freshly ground/grated nutmeg (optional)
• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 egg, beaten
• ¾ cup milk or cream.
• Glaze
• 1 tsp milk or cream (divided)
• 1 Tbsp demerara sugar
• Equipment:
• mixing bowl
• pastry cutter or fork
• 2 ¾” biscuit cutter
• baking sheet
• parchment paper

Method:

1. Position rack in center of oven and preheat oven to 425°F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment, or butter the pan.
2. Sift flour with sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg, into a mixing bowl. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture looks like coarse meal (I use a pastry cutter for this).
3. Beat the egg, then lightly beat in ¾ cup milk or cream. Add this mixture to the flour/butter mix, using a fork to combine, but do not overmix.
4. Turn dough out on to floured board, then knead about 30 seconds, just enough to make it hold together in a single ball.
5. Pat or roll dough into a sheet about ½ –  ¾” thick. Dip biscuit cutter into flour before cutting each biscuit by pressing straight down through the dough, but do not twist the cutter (it will hamper the rise).
6. Transfer shortcakes to lined baking sheet, placing them about 1” apart.
7. Gather scraps together, knead briefly, pat out & cut more rounds. Repeat as necessary to use up the dough, hopefully making 8 biscuits.
8. Brush tops of shortcakes with 1 tsp milk/cream, then sprinkle demarara sugar over tops.
9. Bake in preheated oven until bottoms are slightly golden, 14 – 16 minutes. Remove sheet from oven onto a rack to cool before serving.
10. If serving as a shortcake dessert, marinate fruit and whip the cream while the biscuits are baking.

Basic Shortcake Biscuit, Pre-soaked Flour Version

This adaptation uses part whole-grain flour, which is presoaked in buttermilk or yogurt-milk combination overnight, to make the nutrients in the whole grain more available for absorption, and to decrease some of the anti-nutrients and lectins in the whole grain. Makes 8 – 16 biscuits, depending on size and thickness.

See below for half-recipe and testing.

Ingredients & Equipment:

• Presoak:
• ¾ cup buttermilk, or ½ cup milk plus ¼ cup plain unsweetened yogurt
• 1 cup whole grain flour
• 1 – 3 Tbsp Rapadura sugar ( I use 2 Tbsp)
• ¼ tsp freshly ground/grated nutmeg (optional)
• 6 – 8 Tbsp unsalted butter (I recommend this higher amount)
• Next day:
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup unbleached white flour, plus more for rolling & cutting biscuits
• 3 ½ tsp baking powder (aluminum-free)
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp Unrefined sea salt
• Glaze
• 1 tsp milk or cream
• 1 Tbsp demerara sugar
• Equipment:
• mixing bowl
• pastry cutter or fork
• rolling pin (ptional)
• 2 ¾” biscuit cutter
• baking sheet
• parchment paper

Method:

1. Presoak: If using milk/yogurt mix, blend together and set aside. Otherwise, measure the buttermilk and set aside.
2. Sift together the whole grain flour, sugar, and nutmeg, into a large bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture looks like coarse meal (I use a pastry cutter for this).
3. Stir in the buttermilk or milk/yogurt mixture just until all the flour is moistened. Cover bowl with waxed paper or slip it into a plastic bag. Then cover with a cloth (to make it dark) and let rest on the counter overnight. If you kitchen gets cold, put it in the warmest spot you can find.
4. Next day: Position rack in center of oven and preheat oven to 425°F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment, or butter the pan.
5. Lightly beat the egg, then stir into the presoaked mixture.
6. Sift together the white flour, baking powder and soda, then fold into the batter just until mixed – don’t over-mix.
7. Turn dough out on to floured board, then knead about 30 seconds, just enough to make it hold together in a single ball.
8. Pat or roll dough into a sheet about ½ –  ¾” thick. Dip biscuit cutter into flour before cutting each biscuit by pressing straight down through the dough, but do not twist the cutter (it will hamper the rise).
9. Transfer shortcakes to lined baking sheet, placing them about 1” apart.
10. Gather scraps together, knead briefly, pat out & cut more rounds. Repeat as necessary to use up the dough, hopefully making 8 biscuits.
11. Brush tops of shortcakes with 1 tsp milk/cream, then sprinkle demarara sugar over tops.
12. Bake in preheated oven until bottoms are slightly golden, 12 – 16 minutes. Remove sheet from oven onto a rack to cool before serving.
13. If serving as a shortcake dessert, marinate fruit and whip the cream while the biscuits are baking.

Testing Pre-soak Version 

7/3 – 4/12; Made half recipe as follows:

• Presoak:
• ¼ cup milk plus 2 Tbsp yogurt
• ½ cup whole spelt flour
• 1 Tbsp Rapadura sugar (or 1½ Tbsp if you like them really sweet)
• ⅛ tsp freshly ground/grated nutmeg (optional)
• 3 – 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
• Next day:
• ½ egg, beaten
• ½ cup unbleached white flour
• 2 scant tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp unrefined sea salt
• Topping
• ½ tsp milk or cream
• ½ tsp Rapadura sugar

I made this with the lesser amount of sweetener (½ Tbsp for half-recipe). I got 5 biscuits (the 5th one was shaped into a flat round rather than cut, to use up all the scraps). They rose wonderfully in the oven and baked about 16 minutes. Result: they were a bit dry and not very sweet. Next time, use more butter (4 Tbsp/half recipe) & sugar (1 ½ Tbsp/half recipe), and bake for shorter time.

Testing 4/21/13: Made half-recipe as above with the following changes: used 1 Tbsp sugar and just shy of 4 Tbsp butter in the presoak; didn’t have time to rest overnite, but did rest 7 hrs. Got 8 regular rounds plus 1 small round. Result: They rose well and turned lightly golden. Sweetness is better than before; just right, in fact. Wonderful with fresh strawberries & cream.

Rich Shortcake Biscuit

This recipe is adapted from Fine Cooking (3), originally by Carole Blum. This biscuit is slightly sweeter and richer than the previous recipe. The original recipe requires a food processor; I don’t have one, and much prefer manual combining of ingredients, so have altered the process accordingly, based on an old recipe in my Mom’s Occident Family Flour cookbook from the 1950s (see above recipe).

See Basic Shortcake recipe above for discussion of the demarara sugar sprinkled on top of the biscuits..

This recipe is adaptable to pre-soaking the flour (use sour cream instead of fresh cream, and follow the method described above for Basic Shortcake Biscuits, Pre-soaked Flour Adaptation).

Ingredients & Equipment

• 2 cups unbleached white flour, plus more for rolling & cutting biscuits
• 2 – 3 Tbsp Rapadura sugar
• 2 ½ tsp baking powder (aluminum-free)
• ¼ tsp unrefined sea salt
• ¼ tsp freshly ground/grated nutmeg (optional)
• 6 – 8 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup heavy cream (or sour cream if doing a presoak)
• Glaze
• 1 tsp heavy cream
• 1 Tbsp demerara sugar
• Equipment:
• mixing bowl
• pastry cutter or fork
• 2 ¾” biscuit cutter
• baking sheet
• parchment paper

Method:

1. Position rack in center of oven and preheat oven to 425°F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment, or butter the pan.
2. Sift flour with Rapadura sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg into a mixing bowl. divide butter into 10-12 pieces and add to dry ingredients. Then, using a pastry cutter or fork, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture looks lke coarse meal.
3. Add 1 cup cream to mixture, using fork to combine, but do not overmix.
4. Sprinkle a bit of flour onto breadboard, then turn hough out onto floured board and knead just enough to make it hold together in a single ball (less than a minute).
5. Pat or roll dough into a sheet about ¾” thick. Dip biscuit cutter into flour before cutting each biscuit by pressing straight down through the dough, but do not twist the cutter (it would hamper the rise).
6. Transfer shortcakes to lined baking sheet, placing them about 1” apart.
7. Gather scraps together, knead briefly, pat out and cut more rounds. Repeat as necessary to use up as much of the dough as you can, hopefully making 8 biscuits.
8. Brush tops of shortcakes with the 1 tsp cream, then sprinkle demarara sugar over tops.
9. Bake in preheated oven until bottoms are slightly golden, 14-16 minutes. Remove sheet from oven onto a rack to cool before serving.

References

1. Home Baking Made Easy, by Virginia Roberts, Director Occident Home Baking Institute, 1944 (see also Beloved Cookbooks)
2. Wikimedia Commons, Demerara Sugar image (commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Raw_cane_sugar_Demerara.JPG)
3. Fine Cooking.com recipe by Carole Blum (finecooking.com/recipes/peaches-cream-shortcake-biscuits.aspx)