Half of my harvest from Sam’s Produce in Arkansaw, Wis.

I’m doing this a little bass-ackwards, because I’ll be posting my experiences at a u-pick strawberry farm in a few days, but I wanted to knock off a few strawberry recipes first. Long story short: I spent Monday morrning with a few friends picking strawberries at Sam’s Produce in Arkansaw, Wis. (listen to a podcast about it here). I was in the fields for about 2 hours, and ended up with two gloriously beautiful boxes heaped to overflowing with berries.

Here’s the thing: When I got back to St. Paul early Monday afternoon, it suddenly occurred to me: What the heck was I going to do with 24 pounds of highly perishable strawberries?

A third of them went to the office, where I scored some major bonus points among my colleagues. Then I farmed some out among my neighbors; it’s always fun to see people’s faces light up over fresh-picked berries. What I wasn’t expecting was seeing my next-door neighbor Sandy walk out her front door the next afternoon, bearing a plate of strawberry shortcake. For me. Wasn’t that sweet?

Of course I wolfed it right down. It was delicious, my first of the season, a big moment for a major strawberry shortcake fanatic. And, nosy me, when I returned her plate a few hours later, I had to ask: How did she make the shortcake? Her answer came out as a half-smile, half-grimace. “It’s Bisquick,” she said. “I hate to admit it, but I still think it’s the best way to make shortcake.”

Hey, I grew up loving Bisquick shortcakes, it was my mother’s shortcut method of choice during Minnesota’s all-too-brief strawberry season. I’ll take a Bisquick shortcake in a heartbeat. Still, Sandy’s admission got me thinking: Is the road to shortcake perfection paved with Bisquick?

It’s certainly a fast method. I had a batch in the oven in less than three minutes - a process that requires just four ingredients, a bowl and a spoon - and the results certainly did the trick, especially when doused with copious amounts of sweet strawberry juice and whipped cream. But then I tried a not-so-complicated recipe from my baking guru, Dorie Greenspan, and the results between the two methods were, to borrow a phrase from “The Patty Duke Show,” different as night and day.

While the Bisquicks were heavy - I don’t want to say leaden, but they seemed familiar with the concept - the Greenspan shortcakes were tender and flaky. They sure tasted better (with all that butter and cream, they had better be superior). And they looked better, too. The Bisquick shortcakes came out of the oven a bit drab, almost grey, but the Greenspan versions were golden brown. Sure, Greenspan’s made-from-scratch-ers required more time (I think I had them in the oven in less than 15 minutes) but the payoff is enormous.

And you know what? They were not difficult to make, not by a long shot. It’s that old food company conspiracy: take an easy-to-make standard and replace it with a facsimile of the original; the new supermarket version won’t taste nearly as good, but consumers will be trained to believe that it’s a viable - and certainly more convenient - substitute for the real thing. Pretty soon the copy becomes the standard, and the food company rakes in a fortune.

My take? Bisquicks are fine for a pinch, but when the window for enjoying locally grown strawberries is so depressingly short, why not showcase them with the best shortcakes possible? And for my money, I’m talking about any made-from-scratch biscuit. Check out Greenspan’s version for yourself. What’s your opinion?

The advantage to Bisquick shortcakes is speed.

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKES: THE SUPERMARKET SHORTCUT METHOD
Makes 6 shortcakes.

Note: Adapted from General Mills. Not including Bisquick, which is essentially flour blended with soybean and/or cottonseed oil - and doesn’t that sound appetizing? - the original recipe suggests using two not-great ingredients: margarine and frozen whipped topping. Seriously, Blue Bonnet and Cool Whip, when the super-premium PastureLand butter and Cedar Summit Farm cream, two of Minnesota’s proudest dairy efforts, are so widely available?

For shortcakes:
2 1/3 c. Original Bisquick mix
3 tbsp. sugar
1/2 c. whole milk
3 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted then cooled
For filling:
4 c. hulled and sliced fresh strawberries
1/2 c. sugar
8 oz. freshly whipped cream

Directions
To prepare shortcakes: Preheat oven to 425 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, stir together Bisquick, sugar, milk and melted butter until soft dough forms. Drop dough by 6 equal-sized spoonfuls onto prepared baking sheet, about 3 inches apart, and bake until golden brown, about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer shortcakes to a wire rack to cool.
To prepare filling: In a large bowl, gently toss strawberries with sugar and set aside about 10 minutes. Using a serrated knife, split shortcakes horizontally. Divide shortcakes among 6 plates. Fill and top shortcakes with strawberries (and strawberry juice), top with whipped cream and serve.

Shortcakes, baked the Dorie Greenspan way.

My baking bible.

The final product. I didn’t cut the shortcakes horizontally, as Greenspan suggests, I lazily served them whole. The cream is from Cedar Summit Farm, and I highly recommend it; unlike super-homogenized creams, this one is so thick it practically doubles in volume when it glug-glug-glugs out of the bottle.

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKES: THE REAL THING
Makes about 10 shortcakes.

Note: From “Baking: From My Home to Yours” by Dorie Greenspan (Houghton Mifflin, $40)

For shortcakes:
4 c. flour
2 tbsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. sugar
12 tbsp. (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 c. cold heavy (whipping) cream
For filling:
Fresh strawberries (about 1/2 c. per shortcake), hulled and sliced
Sugar to taste
Lightly sweetened and softly whipped cream

Directions
To prepare shortcakes: Preheat oven to 425 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Drop in butter and, using your fingers, toss to coat pieces of butter with flour. Quickly, working with your fingertips (the author’s preferred method) or a pastry blender, rub (or cut) butter into dry ingredients until mixture is pebbly. You’ll have pea-size pieces, pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and pieces in between, and that’s just right. Pour cream over dry ingredients and toss and gently turn ingredients with a fork until you’ve got a very soft dough. When dough comes together, you’ll probably still have dry ingredients at bottom of bowl - just use a spatula or your hands to mix and knead dough until it’s evenly blended. Don’t overdo it; it’s better to have a few dry spots than overworked dough. Even with all flour mixed in, dough will be soft and sticky. Spoon out about 1/3 cup of dough for each shortcake onto baking sheet, leaving about 3 inches of space between mounds of dough. Gently pat each mound down until it is between 3/4 and 1 inch high (the shortcakes can be made to this point and frozen on the baking sheet, then wrapped airtight and kept in freezer for up to 2 months. Bake without defrosting, just add at least 5 more minutes to oven time). If you have more dough, repeat, cooling baking sheet in between batches. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, rotating sheet from front to back at midway point, until shortcakes are puffed and give just a bit when prodded. Remove from oven and transfer shortcakes to a wire rack to cool.
To prepare filling: In a large bowl, sprinkle strawberries with sugar to taste and let sit for about 10 minutes, until berries are juicy. The shortcakes are pretty tender and fragile, so go easy with them. Use a serrated knife and not much pressure to cut each cake in half horizontally (alternately, you can use the tines of a fork to prick a ring around middle of shortcake, then use your fingers to gently pry the halves apart). Put bottom halves on plates, top with berries (make sure to include some of the sweet juices) and spoon over some whipped cream. Put tops on shortcakes or lean them against the whipped cream (the author’s preference). If you decide to go for the open-faced shortcakes, you’ll get two textures: moist, and moister.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 11:48 pm and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.