Sometimes, when you don’t like a thing, you can fix it to make it better.
But sometimes, when you don’t like a thing, no amount of fixing will be enough to make you like it. You have to find something else entirely to take its place.
Such is the case for me and strawberry shortcake — everyone else’s favorite springtime dessert. I’ve tried for 40-odd years to like strawberry shortcake, but I just plum don’t.
Here is a recipe that, I am told, produces a lovely strawberry shortcake dessert.
Classic Strawberry Shortcakes
Recipe from “The Good Housekeeping Cookbook, 125th Anniversary.” Adapted for high altitude (leavening reduced). Makes 8.
Ingredients
SHORTCAKE BISCUITS
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter or margarine, cut into pieces
1 large egg, separated
1 cup buttermilk
SUGARED STRAWBERRIES
2 1/2 pounds strawberries (8 cups)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon water
WHIPPED CREAM
1 cup heavy or whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Preheat oven to 425. Prepare shortcakes: In large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and 1/3 cup sugar. Cut in butter.
In small bowl, with fork, beat egg yolk with buttermilk; stir into flour mixture just until mixture forms soft dough that leaves side of bowl. On floured surface, with floured hands, knead dough 6 to 8 times to combine; pat to 3/4-inch thickness.
Cut out shortcakes with a biscuit cutter, place 1 inch apart on large, ungreased cookie sheet. Press trimmings together, cut to make 8 biscuits in all.
In another small bowl, with fork, lightly beat egg white; brush on shortcakes. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden. Cool on wire rack.
Hull strawberries, then slice. In large bowl, stir together strawberries, sugar and water. Let stand 15 minutes or refrigerate up to 4 hours.
Prepare whipped cream: In medium bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat cream, sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form.
Split each shortcake horizontally. Place bottom halves on 8 dessert plates. Layer berries and cream over shortcake bottoms; replace tops. Dollop with cream and berries.
Picture-perfect strawberry shortcake. If that’s your sort of thing.
My problem with it? For one thing, finding decent-enough strawberries that don’t need a bigger nudge than just a sprinkling of sugar is much easier said than done. Most strawberries you find in the grocery store are like bad books with great covers — shiny and appealing until you see what’s inside. It’s no wonder people resort to dipping them in chocolate. And the really worthwhile strawberries at the farmers market last a depressingly short time and go very fast.
What’s more, the “cake” in this recipe is a total bait-and-switch. That’s not cake, that’s a biscuit. Call me crazy, but when I hear cake, I think, you know, cake. Not biscuits. You can’t fool me: This isn’t dessert. This is breakfast.
Strawberry shortcake doesn’t just need a fix, it needs a total scrape-and-flip. My suggestion? Instead of shortcakes, make a short honey cake, then drape it with warm, stewy-gooey strawberries (even sub-par berries can be made luxurious with honey and heat) and whipped cream.
To make the most of this cake, use a flavorful honey, preferably a local one. Mass- produced honey will work fine, but a more interesting honey will make a more interesting cake.
Prepare this cake a day or two before you plan to serve it. It greatly benefits from a day or so of sitting around, wrapped tightly.
Extra points: No refined sugar in this recipe.
Short Honey Cake with Stewed Strawberries
Tested at high altitude. Makes 1 cake, about 12-16 servings.
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder (increase to 1 1/2teaspoons at sea level)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper (optional)
1 1/4 cups honey
1 cup canola oil
3/4 cup milk, heated
2 eggs at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Heat oven to 350. Butter a 9×13-inch baking pan. Dust the pan with flour and tap out the excess.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and white pepper. Set aside. Whisk the honey, oil, hot milk, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl until uniform; the eggs will emulsify the mixture. Gently fold the dry mixture into the wet mixture just until blended. Scrape into the prepared pan and bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan.
Honey Glaze
To make the glaze, stir 2 tablespoons milk and 2 tablespoons honey together in a small bowl until the honey is dissolved. Using a spoon, drizzle and spread the glaze all over the warm cake, especially around the edge. Let the cake absorb each application of the glaze before applying the next, using the entire amount of glaze. Cool the cake completely. Wrap well, it will be even better in a day or two.
Stewed Strawberries
This part of the recipe is not Hudgens’s, so if you hate it, blame me — not him. Use the freshest berries you can find; but even less-than perfect berries can be transformed by honey and heat.
Hull and slice 1 pint of strawberries. Place them in a medium saucepan with 1 generous tablespoon honey and 2 tablespoons water. Stew over low heat until berries are soft and syrupy. Taste and add more honey if needed. Spoon over cake while still warm.
Spoon the warm strawberries over squares of cake, and seal the deal with a big dollop of whipped cream, sweetened sour cream, or mascarpone that you’ve whipped with a drizzle of honey.
There, dessert. And when the strawberries go out of season, swap in raspberries. Cherries. Peaches. Pears. And so on, and so on.
