Strawberry Shortcake

There are a few things that seem to shout "summer", and one of those is strawberry shortcake. This is one of the simplest desserts to throw together, and you probably have all of the ingredients for the cream biscuits on hand. Pick up some fresh strawberries, and you have the perfect summer dessert. I also firmly believe in eating leftover strawberry shortcake for breakfast, so that's an added bonus.

Strawberry Shortcake
2 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream, plus additional for brushing
strawberries, washed, hulled, and sliced
sugar
whipped cream

Place sliced strawberries in a medium bowl and sprinkle with sugar to taste. Stir together to coat strawberries, and let sit, covered, while biscuits are baking.

Put a rack in middle of oven and heat oven to 425 degrees. Lightly butter a baking sheet.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl. Add cream and stir just until a dough forms. Gather dough into a ball and gently knead 6 times on a lightly floured surface.

Pat dough into a 10-inch round (1/2 inch thick). Cut out as many rounds as possible with lightly floured cutter and invert rounds onto buttered baking sheet. Gather scraps, pat out dough, and cut out more rounds in same manner, for a total of 8 rounds.

Brush tops of rounds with cream and bake until pale golden, 15-20 minutes. Transfer biscuits to a rack to cool.

Split biscuits with a fork and arrange on plates. Spoon strawberries over the biscuits and top with whipped cream.

source: recipe from The Gourmet Cookbook