Strawberry Shortcake

What a nice Easter! I spent the weekend welcoming my cousin Arthur to Philadelphia and then hanging out with him and my sister. Saturday we had a nice lunch with his parents (my Aunt Barb and Uncle Bruce) at Top Of The Hill Market and bought some Easter candy at Zipf's. Good thing he came to visit because he was a great help in the kitchen; baking this cake and rolling out balls of Jaques Torres' chocolate chip cookies. I need him next Xmas when we turn my mom's house into a gingerbread cookie decorating factory again. But back to the cake...

In honor of my Nona I made strawberry shortcake for Easter dinner at my Aunt Pat and Uncle Tommy's house. Nona used to make her cake from a box- but when we were little kids we didn't care. It was delicious anyway. I came across this recipe while stumbling around Taste Spotting one day. The recipe comes from Thyme, it's called Mammie Moo's Strawberry Shortcake.

What an easy recipe!! I pretty much followed it to a T except I didn't realize that they don't sell creme fraiche at Pathmark so I just made regular whipped cream instead of the one in the original recipe. I also just used two 9 inch cake pans and covered the bottoms with tin foil and Pam since I didn't have a spring form. But I knew I'd have to cover the bottom because this cake will stick if you just try to grease and flour the pan. Parchment circles will work as well. Then I cut each cake in two and made a four-layer cake with whipped cream in between each layer and strawberries in the middle and on top. Again, really easy and very tasty.

For the cake:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
5 eggs, separated
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
5 Tbs. boiling water
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Grated zest of 2 lemons

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350, in a bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl whip together the egg yolks and sugar with a hand mixer on high speed until thick; the mixture will still be grainy. Reduce the speed to medium-low and add the boiling water. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Increase the speed to high and whip again until thick. Stir in the vanilla extract and lemon zest. Reduce the speed to low and stir in the flour mixture.

3. In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites on medium-low speed until frothy. Increase the speed to medium-high and whip until thick and smooth; the mixture should not look dry. Fold half of the whites into the batter with a spatula, then fold in the remaining whites.

4. Gently spread the batter in the prepared pans. (You can use a 9 in spring-form pan, I used two 9 inch cake pans- don't forget to line the bottoms) Bake until a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the inside edge of the pan and invert the cake. Transfer the cake to a wire rack and let cool completely. Using a serrated knife, cut the cake horizontally into 3 layers if you used the spring-form or cut each layer in 2 to make 4 layers if you used the two 9 inch cake pans. (Snippet's Notes: If you used the spring form wrap dental floss around the cake, cross the floss, and gently pull it through the body of the cake to get 3 even layers.)

For the strawberry layer:

2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and thinly
sliced, plus more for garnish
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
2 Tbs. granulated sugar

Method:

Place the 2 cups strawberries in a bowl. Stir in the lemon juice and 2 Tbs. of the granulated sugar.

For the whipped cream:

2 cups heavy cream
4 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Method:

Whip cream, sugar, and vanilla with a hand mixer on high until cream is thick and fluffy- don't make butter out of it.

Hurry up, it's almost gone!!

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma TASTE Magazine, "Layers of Delight," by Emily Luchetti (Spring 2002).

Jaques Torres' Chocolate Chip Cookies

For Easter dinner I asked my cousin Mike what he wanted me to make for dessert. Anything in the world- give me a challenge. "Chocolate chip cookies". Ok- chewy or crispy? "It doesn't matter". Ok if there were both chewy and crispy on the table which one would you grab first? "I'd probably eat both." -The conversation went something like that for a while until- CHOOSE ONE!!!! "Ok let's go with crispy".

So I went on Taste Spotting- my newest obsession, designed specifically for people like me who choose recipes solely on the basis of a good picture. Try typing chocolate chip cookie (or any other ingredient or dish) in the search box and check out the results. The most gorgeous mouthwatering pictures and some pretty damn good recipes to boot! I looked at the New York Times take on the best chocolate chip cookie- but I've done it before- so I went with the Jaques Torres one this time instead. It's a little bit more involved than the average cookie and it takes some ingredients that not everyone has lying around- but it's Easter, so I figure let's go crazy, right?

So you make this batter and then you leave it in the fridge for an entire day at least, these are not impromptu cookies- they take some foresight. However, I am not a planning person and I am not patient at all so I decided to bake half of the batter right away and leave the other half to "marinate" in the fridge until Easter day. I threw the impatient half of the dough into the freezer for about 10 mins so it wouldn't melt all over the oven and then portioned and baked them. The batter is like velvet because of the cornstarch and they actually turned out well- I made everyone at work try them and they got good reviews. So it will be interesting to see how the impatient cookie compares to the one that's still sitting in the fridge. I will let you know how that turns out later today while I'm making my STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE!!! for Easter Dinner. (In memory of my Nona who put whipped cream and strawberries on a Duncan Hines cake and no one was the wiser.)

For the flour in this recipe you can use either AP flour, cornstarch,and bread flour OR cake flour and bread flour. The bread flour is a must, I had cornstarch so I used that and the AP flour- I don't usually keep cake flour lying around.

Ingredients:

(1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
OR
2 cups minus 2 tablespoons cake flour)

1 2/3 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups butter, room temperature (2 1/2 sticks)
1 1/4 cups brown sugar, packed
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 2/3 cups dark chocolate chips

Method:

Oven Temperature: 350 F

1. Set out your butter and eggs to reach room temperature.

2. If using all-purpose flour and cornstarch as a substitute for cake flour, level your all-purpose flour and cornstarch as you measure them and sift together 4-5 times. (If using cake flour skip this step)

3. Sift together the cake flour or AP flour and cornstarch with the bread flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

4. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugars for about 3 minutes, until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for about a minute after each addition. Add vanilla and beat to combine. With machine set at lowest speed, slowly add the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand, dispersing evenly throughout. Turn dough out onto plastic wrap and throw it in the fridge. Refrigerate for 24-72 hours. Or just throw it in the freezer for 10 mins if you're an impatient freak like me.

5. When you are ready to bake your cookies, remove them from the fridge to reach room temperature. Once your dough is just about scoopable, preheat your oven and prepare your baking sheets. Scoop the dough onto the baking sheets using a fairly large scoop.

6. Bake for 10-12 minutes in the preheated oven, switching racks and rotating the trays halfway through the time. Don’t go longer than 12, even if your dough looks a bit doughy in the middle. Let the cookies cool on the baking trays just until you can move them to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Later today... STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE with Nora and cousin Arthur

Photo Credits: Bright Eyed Baker and Thyme