eating in instead

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a dessert.  I love baking, but in a household of two, baking can get dangerous.  It’s hard to feel good about myself after realizing that I consumed half a cake.  Last night we had dinner with friends and I offered to bring the dessert.  Having perused my latest issue of Bon Appetit, I decided to try the Almond-Oat Strawberry Shortcakes.

I got a little too happy with the food processor so my dough was a little short, but that’s ok, I served it with only one “biscuit” which was really more like shortbread.  I also had a cooking disaster, adding a number of loud expletives and excitement to the kitchen when my ceramic canister of sugar fell off the shelf, shattered, and left me with sugar all over the kitchen floor.  My saving grace was the fact that the canister was close to empty, with only 3-4 cups of sugar left in it.  Dyson to the rescue!

I followed the recipe ALMOST exactly, but couldn’t resist a few adaptations.  First, I sliced my dough into eight pieces instead of six.  Next, I substituted orange juice for the Grand Mariner because I didn’t have any Grand Mariner on hand.  I also increased the vanilla to full teaspoon in the whipped cream.  Finally, I served this with 5-6 cups of strawberries.  If I make this again, I’ll try adding ½ teaspoon of fresh basil to the dough and ½ teaspoon fresh basil to the strawberries.  Let me know if you try it out!

Finally, a shameless plug- I’m on twitter!  Follow me @eatingininstead!

ALMOND-OAT STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKES (from Bon Appetit and on Epicurious)

My version makes 8 servings instead of 6.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1/3 cup slivered almonds
1/3 cup and 1½ tablespoons, divided, plus more for sprinkling
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup chilled heavy cream, divided, plus more for brushing
2 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
4 cups fresh strawberries, hulled, sliced
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier (I used orange juice)

DIRECTIONS

For the shortcakes/shortbread: Preheat oven to 375F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease lightly with unsalted butter. Pulse flour, oats, almonds, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt in a food processor. The mixture should be finely ground.

Add the butter and pulse until you get pea-size pieces.

You can see below, this is where I over-processed the dough it a little bit and turned this into shortbread instead of biscuits.

Next, add 1/2 cup cream and 1 teaspoon vanilla and pulse everything together until the dough just starts to come together.

Transfer the dough to a floured work surface and kneed the dough just until to comes together and pat the dough into a rectangle.  I patted mine to a 6×8 inch rectangle, leaving me with a thinner “biscuit,” but it also allowed me to stretch this to 8 servings.  Once you shape the dough, slice it in half length-wise, and down the middle width-wise.  Then slice each quarter width-wise again, giving you 8 pieces.

Optional: Insert your own kitchen disaster here. 

Place the pieces of dough on the prepared baking sheet. Brush with cream; sprinkle with sugar.

Bake, rotating sheet halfway through cooking, until golden brown around edges and a tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.  You can bake these ahead and store them in an airtight container at room temperature for about a day.

For the Strawberries:  Combine strawberries, 1 tablespoon sugar, and Grand Marnier or orange juice in a large bowl.  Cover and let the strawberries macerate.  I did this about 5 hours in advance and set them in the fridge.

For the Whipped Cream:  Whisk 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1/2 tablespoon sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla in a small bowl until peaks form.

Assemble the shortbread, strawberries and whipped cream!  EAT!