SHORTCAKES

SHORTCAKES MAY SEEM SIMILAR TO CRISPS AND cobblers, but there is one important difference—the fruit is not cooked. For a true shortcake, sweetened fruit is spread between a split biscuit. A dollop or two of whipped cream is also added. The contrast between cool fruit, warm and crisp biscuit halves, and chilled whipped cream places this dessert in a category by itself.

Since the fruit is not cooked, frozen fruit is not an option. The fruit must be ripe as well. Half-ripe berries will bake up fine in a pandowdy, but will make a second-rate shortcake. Also, because the fruit is not baked, only softer fruits are appropriate. A pear or apple shortcake does not make sense. (For more information on choosing and preparing fruit for a shortcake, see .)

Our testing for this recipe revolved mostly around the biscuit. We tried four very different sweetened biscuits at the outset—a baking powder version with fat cut into flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar, and then moistened with milk; buttermilk biscuits with buttermilk in place of milk and baking soda substituted for part of the baking powder; cream biscuits with heavy cream standing in for the milk and some of the fat; and egg-enriched cream biscuits with an egg and half-and-half replacing the milk.

After sampling each, we felt that the egg-enriched biscuits had the advantage. Even with the added sugar, the baking powder and buttermilk biscuits seemed more at home in a bread basket than on a dessert plate. The cream biscuits were good looking, but gummy inside. The egg and light cream biscuits were finer-textured and more cakelike.

With our general direction settled, we then tested individual ingredients. Because biscuits should be tender, we assumed that low-protein cake flour would deliver the best results. Defying our predictions, the cake flour biscuit came in last, with a meltingly tender, yet powdery and dry texture that was too much like shortbread. There was not enough gluten in this flour to support all the fat.

Shortcakes made with bleached all-purpose flour were tender, moist, and cakelike. They were our clear favorites, besting a combination of cake and all-purpose flours, as well as plain cake flour.

We then experimented with liquids, figuring that the egg might be crucial but maybe not the light cream that won in our initial test. Buttermilk made the biscuits too savory, while heavy cream made them squat and dense. Milk was fine but the richer flavor of half-and-half made it our first choice.

With the ingredient list settled, we focused on technique. The pastry cutter works well, but cutting the butter into small cubes beforehand can be a problem. If the butter is soft enough to cut easily, then it's too soft for the pastry and must be refrigerated or frozen (plus it tends to stick to the knife). If the butter is hard enough for the pastry, then it's difficult to cut.

Some cooks have cold fingertips, perfect for cutting butter into flour by hand, but many people don't and soften the butter too much in the process. The food processor is foolproof and is our preferred method for mixing biscuits. For cooks without a food processor, we suggest using a box grater to cut frozen butter into the flour (see figures 33–35).

When testing dough shaping, we made an interesting discovery. Although hand-formed biscuits look attractive and rustic, we found they were fairly easy to overwork, since warm hands can cause the dough's surface butter to melt. Using a biscuit cutter requires less handling, and dough rounds cut this way develop a natural crack around the circumference during baking, making them easy to split by hand. We also realized we didn't need a rolling pin. Patting the dough to three-quarters inch thick on a floured work surface was fast and simple.

TO PREPARE FRUIT FOR SHORTCAKES

Two types of fruit are soft enough and have enough flavor to be used uncooked in a shortcake. Stone fruits, such as apricots, mangoes, nectarines, peaches, and plums, should be sliced thin and sugared to release some of their juices. The peels must be removed from mangoes but can be left on the others if desired.

Fresh berries are also suitable for use in shortcakes. We don't like quartered or sliced strawberries in shortcakes—they often slide off the split biscuit—but we don't like the look of a crushed fruit shortcake either. So we found a happy compromise by quartering the strawberries, and then crushing a portion of the berry mixture to unify the quartered fruit. Set fruit aside while preparing biscuits to allow the juices to become syrupy.

Macerated Berries:

Measure out 8 cups hulled and quartered strawberries, stemmed whole blueberries, whole blackberries, and/or whole raspberries. Crush 3 cups fruit with potato masher (see figure 32). Mix with remaining 5 cups fruit and 6 tablespoons sugar. Set aside for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.

Macerated Stone Fruits:

Measure out 8 cups pitted and sliced peaches, nectarines, mangoes, and/or plums. (Mangoes must also be peeled —see figures 11–14; other fruits can be peeled if desired.) Mix with 6 tablespoons sugar. Set aside for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.