The perfect summer dessert

All I want to do this time of the year is cook.  Everything is fresh.  The cooking is simple and light.  Food, summer, wine and beach go hand in hand for me. 

This month’s Gourmet (July) had a few really good recipes.  I made the shortcakes last night.  This is a winner.  Easy, quick and can go with any fruit.  The shortcakes cook up so quick that if Fred hadn’t looked in the oven I would have burnt them.

Unfortunately I did not take a picture but grabbed this one from Gourmet’s website.  Mine pretty much looked the same although I used different fruits which I will put in this recipe.

For the Biscuits:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. kosher salt
2 T. sugar
5 T. cold unsalted butter cut into bits
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450.  Whisk together all the dry ingredients.  Blend the butter in the dry mixture with your fingers tips until it looks like a coarse meal.  Add the buttermilk and stir until a sticky dough forms.  FYI – I doubled this recipe and it was perfect.  The recipe above is for 6 biscuits.  I made 12.

Drop 6 mounds 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake until browned about 10-12 minutes.  Pay attention here.  They cook really quick!

For the filling:

2 cups strawberries  (cut into 1/2’s)
2 cups blueberries
2 T. sugar ( but you can always use a bit more if it isn’t sweet enough for you – it depends on the fruit)

Take 1 cup of each fruit and mash with a potato masher.  Add the unsmashed fruit and mix in the sugar too. 

The final touch:

1 cup of heavy cream
3 T. confectioners sugar

Beat until thick and holds soft peaks. 

I brought these to someones house so the biscuits were cold.  I warmed them up for about 5 minutes at 250 in the oven before serving them.  I actually ended up cutting them each in half and putting them back in the oven half way through to make sure the insides were warm.

Put the bottom half on a plate, scoop the fruit mixture over and a dollop of whipped cream, place the other half on top, a little off to the side and voila!

This could be done with raspberries, peaches, nectarines, blackberries, you name it.  They are also good heated in the morning with a some fresh jam.