Strawberry Shortcakes

I've been longing to make Strawberry Shortcakes for a while now; I was waiting till strawberry season. Does anyone remember those strawberry-scented 'Strawberry Shortcake' dolls? With a hat bigger than her head? Type 'Strawberry Shortcake' into Google and you'll find millions and millions pictures of her - not the food :P! Anyways, the odd thing about this recipe is that it calls for frozen butter and you have to grate it into the dry ingredients! But other than that this recipe is very easy and very good (of course it's a Nigella recipe). Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Strawberry Shortcakes recipe: Nigella Lawson - How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Ingredients:
- 2 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 5 tablespoons sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter, frozen
- 1 large egg, beaten
- ½ cup light cream
- 1 large egg white, light beaten

Filling:
- 11 ounces strawberries
- 1 tablespoons sugar
- 1 cup heavy cream, whipped or crème fraîche
- few drops balsamic vinegar (optional)

Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Mix the flour, salt, baking power and 3 tablespoons of the sugar in a bowl. Grate the butter into these dry ingredients and use your fingertips to finish crumbling the butter into the flour.
- Whisk the egg into the cream, and pour into the flour mixture a little at a time, suing a fork to mix. You may not need all of the eggy cream to make the dough come together so go cautiously.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and roll gently to a thickness of about ¾ inch. Dip a 2 ½ inch round cutter in flour and cut out as many rounds as you can. Work the scraps back into a dough, re-roll and finish cutting out – you should get 8 in all. (I got a lot more, but my cutter is a lot smaller)
- Place the shortcakes about 1 inch apart on a greased baking sheet, brush the tops with the egg white, and sprinkle them with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar.
- Bake for 10 – 15 minutes, until golden brown, and let them cool for a short while on a wire rack.
- Meanwhile, crush half the strawberries with the spoonful of sugar and the few drops of balsamic vinegar if using, and halve or quarter the remaining strawberries, depending on their size. Whip the heavy cream.
- The shortcakes should be eaten while still warm, so split each one across the middle and cover with a spoonful of the crushed strawberries mixture, a few halved or quartered strawberries, then dollup some whipped cream or crème fraîche on top and set the top back on.


Strawberry Shortcake dough.

Topped with a few tablespoons of sugar before they go into the oven.

Out of the oven. Mine are a bit smaller than they normally are. I used a smaller cookie cutter.

Oooooeh yummy!!! They are delish!

I think Miss Strawberry Shortcake approves!