Spring fever. Every year it hits me! Sometime in April I get antsy, watching for the first greengrass to appear.
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| Not green yet, but no longer winter-brown, either! |
Watching for the orange baby bison (they have started arriving, but we haven't seen any yet.)
And longing for delicious spring foods - Asparagus! Rhubarb! Strawberries!!!
But this year...with everything that's going on with the virus and quarantines and short supplies in the grocery store...I'm going to have to wait.
Until then, enjoy this post I shared back in 2013. This is still my favorite strawberry shortcake recipe. I'll have to make some and top it with the frozen berries I keep on hand for my morning smoothies!
Old Fashioned Strawberry Shortcake
I must be coming down with a bad case of spring fever. The first symptom is a craving for strawberry shortcake, months before strawberries are in season.
It all starts with an innocent trip to the grocery store...and there...right in the produce department...it begins.
Oh, they're so beautiful! (I say)
But it's too early... (my pragmatic self tries a counter argument: reality)
I just want to smell them!
They're way too expensive... (my frugal self goes for the throat)
Look! They're on sale!
They're probably spoiled... (my pragmatic self tries again)
No! Look! They're beautiful! sniff...sniff... I can smell them through the plastic!
Every time you buy those, you're disappointed in how bland they taste... (that's the Mom me...I should learn to listen to her)
(But then I lay down the final blow...) I could make SHORTCAKE!!!!
.....and the strawberries jump into the cart!
And now I get to make shortcake :-)
My shortcake recipe came from my grandmother...but was never written down. You know the kind of recipe I mean: "Start with biscuit dough, put it in a pie plate, add sugar."
That's the way I always made shortcake, thinking Grandma's recipe was unique and wonderful.
Then I got married, and for Christmas that year my mother-in-law copied some family recipes for me. Imagine my surprise when I saw her mother's shortcake recipe!
It was almost exactly the one I had always used!
That's when I knew I had married into the right family - that, and the fact my mother-in-law loves chocolate as much as I do.
Maybe more.
And she raised at least one wonderful son (I only married one of them, so I can't vouch for the other three!)
Strawberry Shortcake
2 cups flour (either all-purpose or 1/2 all-purpose, 1/2 whole wheat)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup sugar (you can substitute other sweeteners, or leave it out)
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, plus 1 Tablespoon butter (save for later)
2/3 cup milk
Preheat your oven to 325°.
Stir together the dry ingredients, then cut in the 1/2 cup butter (just like you're making biscuits) until the dough is crumbly. Stir in the milk.
Grease a 9" pie plate (or you can use a similar sized baking dish) and put in the dough. Pat the dough into the edges of the pan, and then dot the top with the 1 Tablespoon butter.
Last of all, sprinkle the top with 2 Tablespoons sugar or 1 teaspoon stevia or other natural sweetener.
Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the edges start browning and the center is done (I use the spring test - touch the center lightly. If it springs back, it's done.)
Now comes the best part.
While the shortcake is still warm, cut it into six or eight slices. Split the slice in half and layer quartered strawberries between the halves, replace the top, and then spoon more strawberries over the top.
What's that, you say? Whipped cream? Ice cream? No way!
You take a couple tablespoons of heavy cream (aka whipping cream) and pour it over the top, just like your farming grandparents used to do.
Heaven.
Or, at least it would be if this was June and the strawberries had some flavor.... I need to learn to listen to the Mom me.
* * * * * *
Yes, I definitely need to bake a batch of this shortcake!
Recipes like this one are memory triggers, aren't they? When I make this shortcake, I'm transported back to my grandmother's kitchen in Indiana. Windows open to the fresh air, flour sprinkling the red formica table, the heat radiating from the oven on one side of the room... Her many fruit trees blooming, Grandpa's bees buzzing, and the overwhelming fragrance of an eastern spring.
I'm so thankful for those memories of time gone by! And the opportunity to make new memories.
Like this ancient cottonwood tree.
Located on the Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park, this tree is amazing. It is growing next to French Creek with its roots in the damp loamy soil of the creek bed.
Every spring, I make sure we drive by this tree. It has withstood fires, drought, deer, elk, bison, insects, wind, blizzards...you name it. It has to be more than one hundred years old, but is isn't as tall as some of the big cottonwoods in town. Instead, it spreads out, with broken branches resting on the ground around it. (It reminds me of a big Live Oak tree from Texas!)
And every spring, before any green shows up, it's branches are tipped with gold. It reminds me of the Robert Frost poem, "Nothing Gold Can Stay." Be sure to look up this short poem to read it. The first lines are:
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
What are some of your favorite spring memories? And what new ones are you making this year?
Jan Drexler is an author by day who is addicted to counted cross stitch and sauntering through the Hills with her dear husband and their puppies - goofy corgi Jack and baby border collie Sam. You can find Jan's books and other fun things on her website: www.JanDrexler.com.
You had me at Robert Frost. I love this man's work. I love the simple beauty he forecasts into verse, the turn of phrse and love of simple things. It makes me ponder and yearn and dream and smile, all the things that poetry is supposed to make us do!
ReplyDeleteI was sharing this "first bloom of spring" with my son the other day. We walk miles every day, through our quaint village, waiting for spring to really come. Like your spring, living on the banks of the Great Lakes, warmth takes its sweet time because the wind off the water chills everything for weeks. It takes a lot of sun to warm up a Great Lake!
But being in woodlands means we get that glimpse of gold and crimson and amber in the trees as the first buds take hold... and before they start to photosynthesize and give us green leaves that we know so well. It's like the blush of fall in April, a glimpse of what's well down the road and it only lasts for days from tree to tree, but it's so pretty!
Now, the recipe.
I am not a bit surprised that the recipes were similar because recipes are like science experiments. It takes the right mix to achieve the desired result, so the ratio of baking powder to flour is kind of universal... Unless you want a different result, right? So women all over the world shared and tweaked recipes for that desired result long before magazines jumped on the bandwagon. Women are smart creatures!
I love strawberry shortcake. We scrunch/mash our berries. Then I add halved berries to that mashed part because I love the juicyness.... so that's different, but either way, I love strawberries, too! They're so good!!!!
Jan, thank you for this glimpse of ALMOST SPRING! We'll get there!
We WILL get there! This morning, after yesterday's wet snowfall, it is sunny and mild. The snow has melted and every blade of grass got that extra oomph from the water seeping slowly into the soil.
DeleteMy crocuses are even beginning to show!
I forgot to join the Robert Frost fan club! Like you, I love his simple, beautiful poetry. That poem, "Nothing Gold Can Stay," is only eight lines long, but those are powerful lines. He captured the bittersweet longing for the all-too-brief perfection of the turning from dark to light, spring to summer, Eden to the Fall.
DeleteBreathtaking.
Ruthy, we chop/mash our strawberries, too.I usually use a pastry cutter! :) And I add sugar to pull the juice out.
DeleteAh, strawberries! We even get those Driscoll strawberries up here in the winter! BUT our local farmer's market has started up an online delivery service of fresh produce since they won't be able to open up for awhile and I notice they have early local strawberries. Eeeeep!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to be brave and try this recipe. I've only had strawberry shortcake using angel food cake or sponge cake as the base. Wonder if that's a geographical thing? More of a British influence up here? Anyway -- I might just give it a try.
I think the angel food cake/sponge cake is a newer thing. Everywhere we've lived, that's been a popular option. This recipe takes a little longer, but it's worth it!
DeleteAnd the delivery service for the farmer's market is wonderful! I hope you get delicious strawberries!
Oh yum, strawberries and shortcake. Spring is already here in Oklahoma and soon my neighbor will be calling me to pick strawberries because she's overwhelmed. I so love that she plants too many! Being a good neighbor, I rush right down and help her pick. Being a better neighbor, she shares. And I make shortcake. My recipe is similar to yours but I slather it with buttery icing glaze while it's hot, then add smashed and sweetened berries. Oh man, I'm hungry now!
ReplyDeleteOooh! A buttery icing glaze sounds heavenly!
DeleteI love that you get to pick your own strawberries. My neighbors asked if I wanted to do a community garden with them. We're new to the neighborhood, and I think the exchange of labor and veggies sounds like a wonderful way to get involved. I'll have to see how strawberries grow in our area!
And yes, I'm definitely ready for strawberry shortcake now!
This looks so good!! We've had some pretty good strawberries already. But I'm ready for more!
ReplyDeleteStrawberry shortcake always reminds me of my paternal grandmother. She loved to bake all sorts of amazing desserts and they usually included massive amounts of whipped cream.
ReplyDelete