The Perfect Strawberry Shortcakes {and Introvert vs Extrovert}

I find that the older I get the more I learn about myself. Deep huh?I’ve learned that I really love to eat sweet things in the morning. Although if it’s a ham and cheese croissant with mustard and tomato that wins.I’ve learned I really love quiet mornings and will pry myself out of bed to catch a few moments of peace by myself before I’m getting the best person in the world out of his crib, picking scrambled egg out of my hair, wiping the floor and changing the third diaper and outfit of the day in a matter of minutes.I’ve learned that a much as I love people, I also kind of don’t like them. My family refers to too much people time as “people poisoning”. When you’re raised by two introvert parents you learn to appreciate privacy. The older I get, the more I crave the privacy. I used to think (and was told) I was purely extroverted growing up, but now, I'm not so sure.I’ve learned that I have a weird love / hate relationship with crowds. Sometimes I feel comforted by them and other times I will do anything to avoid them. There’s good crowds and bad crowds in my book.Case and point, this past Memorial Day weekend.Usually we don’t do crazy things like attempt to go to the beach on a holiday because of said crowds but we did it this year and I don’t regret it. It was a good crowd.We set up camp next to three families - none of which spoke English. We think they spoke Spanish, Danish and Russian but we really couldn’t tell.Myles immediately went up to this gorgeous Russian (?) couple (I’m still wondering if her boobs were real or not) and said hi with his little wave. The couple melted. Then he went up to the Danish family and also said hi. The family immediately switched to English when Myles went up to them and ooo-ed at his cuteness. Then he ran back to our set up, all happy and fulfilled and wanted to smash sandcastles and have alone time in the sand.I can’t tell if my son is an introvert or extrovert yet... but he sure seems little bit like my adult self and lands somewhere in-between.Good thing as he gets older he’ll learn more about himself.Just like his mom. lolHappy official Summer my friends. I hope these strawberry shortcakes grace your plate more than once this Summer cause they're amazing (and easy!). xo

The Perfect Strawberry Shortcake

The beauty of this shortcake recipe is it doesn’t get soggy when you lather it in the whipped cream and syrupy strawberries. That’s the magic of the egg yolk working - it stops the gluten from getting overworked in the shortcake and thus too soft. The texture of the two types of crunchy sugar on top lends itself to part of the magic too. Syrupy tangy strawberries, whipped cream, not-too-sweet-shortcake - I promise you’ll love ever single beautiful bite and want seconds. 

for the shortcake:

• 2 hard boiled egg yolks
• 1 ¼ cups / 175g all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons almond flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon medium grain kosher salt
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (chilled and cut into 1” pieces)
• ⅔ cup / 153g plain, full fat yogurt
• ½ cup / 120g heavy cream (to brush on before baking)
• ½ cup / 100g super fine sugar or regular sugar (to sprinkle on before baking)
• ½ cup / 100g turbinado or coarse sugar (to sprinkle on before baking)

for the strawberry topping:

• 4 cups / 800g fresh strawberries (hulled, cut and divided)
• ¼ cup / 50g sugar
• ¼ cup / 80g high quality raspberry jam
• 1 pinch sea salt or kosher salt

for the yogurt whipped cream:

• 1 ¼ cup / 287g heavy whipping cream
• 2-3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 1 ½ tablespoons plain, full fat yogurt

for the shortcake:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

2. In a food processor pulse together all dry ingredients (flours, salt, baking powder, sugar) + egg yolks until ingredients are mixed together and egg yolks are blended.

3. Add cold butter and pulse like a heart beat until you get dime-sized clumps (it’s okay if the clumps are a little bigger too)! 

4. Next gently pulse in the yogurt (try to pour it in a steady stream) until the mixture starts to come together just a little bit. We don’t want the mixture totally mixed together in the food processor - we should still see some dry bits - so don’t go overboard wit the mixing in here. 

5. Dump mixture out on a clean surface and finish kneading together by hand until dough just comes together. Take care not to over mix, but there should be no more dry bits at this point. 

6. Using in ice cream scoop (preferably one with a spring), scoop two “scoops” and put one on top of the other (snowman style) and mush them slightly forming a large shortcake. Should make about 5-6 shortcakes. Shortcakes stacks should look / feel slightly smaller than two golf balls on top of each other.

7. Cover the shortcakes + baking sheet with plastic wrap and chill for 35 minutes (or you can even let them chill overnight).

8. Brush chilled shortcakes generously with cream and top with coarse sugar and then fine sugar.

9. Bake at 350°F / 180°C for 26-30 minutes or until entire shortcake is golden brown.

10. Cool before slicing + serving. Serve + fill with suggested strawberry topping and yogurt whipped cream.

11. Short cakes can be made up to one day ahead of time, covered in an air tight container kept at room temperature - but are best the day they’re baked.

for the strawberry topping:

1. Put two cups of strawberries, jam and sugar into a small pot over medium/ low heat and stir until mixture bubbles. Note that you may not need the exact amount of suggested sugar if your berries are very sweet. Feel free to use less or more depending on your taste.

2. Remove from heat and let it come to room temperature before adding remaining two cups of strawberries. Add pinch of salt. 

3. Topping can be made up to 8 hours ahead of time, covered and chilled. 

for the yogurt whipped cream:

1. Add all ingredients into an electric mixer and beat until stiff peaks form (about 3-5 minutes). Take care to scrape down the bowl a few times. 

2. The whipped cream should be sweet, so if you need to add more sweetness, feel free to do so. 

3. Whipped cream can be made a few hours ahead of time, kept covered and chilled.

bakers note: You may want to double the strawberry topping and yogurt whipped cream here for a hungry group. My family ate every bit when I did this. ;) So I only made 5 shortcakes total, but doubled the whipped cream and strawberries and people seemed to think that was perfect.

RESOURCES:I used Maple Hill's new line of blended yogurt to make the yogurt whipped cream. It really is fantastic, organic, grass-fed yogurt that's so clean and tangy. I couldn't get enough of it and highly recommend!