These Strawberry Shortcakes Have Only 10 Ingredients
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When Molly Baz was developing Basically’s Strawberry Shortcakes recipe, I never made it to the syrupy fruit or dollop of whipped cream.
I wandered into the Test Kitchen one day around 3 p.m. in a slightly snacky, salty mood. But because it was Coffee O’clock, I also felt like something a smidge sweet. And there on the counter sat a tray of freshly baked, golden brown shortcakes.
Bingo.
I broke off a corner. And then another corner. Buttery, flaky, salty, slightly sweet—I couldn’t stop. I lifted off the entire roof of the layered biscuit (I mean, we can just call it a biscuit, right?). Then, having gone that far, I gobbled up the bottom half. My afternoon espresso had never met such a fitting partner.
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When you watch the recipe on Basically (filmed in the site’s signature step-by-step videos), you’ll notice that in addition to the standard flour-butter-salt-sugar mixture, Molly incorporates both sour cream and heavy cream. I texted her yesterday to find out why. Here’s what she said:
“So the sour cream is the fat and the acid in the shortcake, which is basically a biscuit [See! I told you!], and it activates the baking soda. Essentially replaces the need for buttermilk with something even fattier to provide more moistness to the shortcake. And the heavy cream helps by thinning the sour cream to a drizzleable consistency. I chose to use those two instead of buttermilk because they also play double duty in the whipped cream portion of the recipe. You whip the remaining heavy cream to soft peaks and then stir in a bit more sour cream, which creates a tangier whipped cream. (As always, with the 10-ingredient cap on Basically recipes, ya gotta get smart with your ingredients.)”
Molly’s off-the-cuff text revealed why Basically recipes are often my favorites—and why they typically drive chart-topping traffic for bonappetit.com.
Because of the vertical’s learn-to-cook ethos, no recipe can require more than 10 ingredients, and the ingredients themselves need to be accessible (no running to three specialty stores in order to cook dinner). Nor can the recipes be that time consuming.
The upshot is that our recipe developers are forced to get industrious and resourceful. Turns out the more constraints we apply, the more creative they get.
So, in this case, you wind up with a biscuit (excuse me, shortcake) that works as well with in-season macerated strawberries as ripe peaches or blueberries.
Oh, and macerated? That just means you hit the fruit with a sprinkle of sugar and a shot of lemon juice ‘til it gets all glazed and gorgeous. Sounds fancy but it isn’t. It’s just Basically.
Get the recipe:
Basically Strawberry Shortcakes
Originally Appeared on Bon Appétit
