TWD: Tender Shortcakes

This week's TWD recipe, tender shortcakes, could not have come at a better time. Look at these beauties I picked up over the weekend:
We drove up to Yosemite recently, and one of the only benefits of the long drive through rural central California is passing fruit stands with beautiful, inexpensive fruit. We got masses of golden cherries, blueberries, peaches, avocados...purrrrr. So I was excited to make a dessert that got to showcase these gorgeous fruits.
And showcase them it did! Shortcakes are so simple, but when done right, so sublime. Crunchy golden edges, lighty, flaky, buttery interior, with a cloud of lightly sweetened whipped cream and juicy berries...can you ask for anything more on a warm summer's day?
I couldn't stop picking at it as I was photographing, and as soon as the camera was down I attacked one of the plates. These were fast, easy, fantastic, and are surely going to be a staple this summer.
What more can I say? Perfection.

For the recipe, and for general hilarity and awesome bloggitude, check out Cathy at the Tortefeasor.

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Tuesdays with Dorie: Cream Biscuits

My mom has been getting a lot of attention on the ole blog, but I don't want you to think that she's the only parenting game in town. Allow me to introduce my father:


In my family, there were a few culinary tasks that always fell to my father: grilling (of course), butchering and filleting fish, and making pie crusts and biscuits. I’m not sure how it is that a man who’s so good at breaking down large fish also has the light touch required for making fluffy biscuits and flaky pie dough, but the fact remains: no one could ever compete with his skills with the pastry cutter. Maybe that’s why I rarely (uh, never) make biscuits myself—I doubt my biscuits now could compete with the biscuits of my childhood, which, in addition to the gobs of butter and jam, also benefit from a hefty heaping of nostalgia.


Nevertheless, this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe called for cream biscuits, so I dusted off my biscuit cutter and got to work. This recipe was unusual in that it didn’t call for butter at all; instead, it gets all its fat from heavy cream. Consequently, these were the easiest biscuits I’ve ever made—no worrying about cutting in cold butter and wondering whether your butter bits are the size of a pea, or a grain of oatmeal, or any other ridiculous food analogy. All you have to do is whisk the dry ingredients and stir in the cream, and you’re done! Easier’n cuttin’ the head offa trout, as my pappy would say.


The resulting biscuits were pretty awesome. Tall, flaky, tender, with a lovely crumb and a firm crust. I’ve always been a sweet biscuit sort of girl, so I ate mine with butter…

and honey…

…and jam.

Okay, so I ate a lot of biscuits! It’s been years since I’ve had them, I was due for a major biscuit binge, and these were delicious. And I won’t say that they were better than dad’s, but I think I need some of dad’s biscuits soon—for comparison purposes, you understand. This is all highly scientific. And then he can grill me some salmon and feed me some pie. For science!

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