While the pots were warming, I started thinking about the strawberries we had bought that morning, the first ones to show up this summer. Seattle is always slow to get its local summer fruits and vegetables, but this year has felt especially late \u2013 like, trains-in-Italy late. Now that we\u2019ve actually got strawberries, I wanted to do right by them. I wanted to do something special, something celebratory, but I didn\u2019t want it to be too<\/span> special, to get in the way of tasting the fruit. And that, I think, is a pretty good way to describe shortcake.<\/p>\n When I was a kid, in Oklahoma, most people bought their shortcakes: the packaged kind from the grocery store, sealed in noisy plastic wrappers, yellow and spongy, shaped like large, concave hockey pucks \u2013 or maybe they were more like saucers? Deep saucers? Shallow ashtrays? Anyway, my mother refused to buy them. Instead, she baked her shortcakes from scratch, shoulder to shoulder in a 9\u201d-x-13\u201d pan, cooled and cut apart and sandwiched with whipped cream and strawberries macerated with sugar. But that was years ago, and when I asked her what recipe she used, she said she doesn\u2019t remember. She said it was probably something from Martha Stewart, but she didn\u2019t sound confident about it. We\u2019ll never know. I was on my own.<\/p>\n The version I was after would not be spongy, but more like my mother\u2019s, more like a biscuit. I like my shortcakes very tender, crumbly, and flaky \u2013 but more crumbly than flaky, ideally. I like the crumb very short and slightly sweet, and the top should be riddled with crags and lumps. The thin, outermost crust should be a little crisp at the edges, and when you stick a fork in, the crumb should yield with a quiet whoosh<\/span>. That\u2019s important.<\/p>\n So, Sunday night, I scoured my shelves, and I wound up settling on a recipe from Dorie Greenspan<\/a>, my longtime hero when it comes to sweets, and her book Baking<\/a><\/span>. She calls the recipe \u201cTender Shortcakes,\u201d and that about nails it. I knew right away that I wanted to tell you about them.<\/p>\n There\u2019s nothing inventive or even terribly blog-worthy about a classic strawberry shortcake, but we don\u2019t need to reinvent the wheel every day. This blog is the place where I record my best stuff, and Dorie\u2019s is the best shortcake I\u2019ve ever had. Not only would I happily eat it on its own \u2013 on its own and, hell, maybe even a week stale! That\u2019s true love \u2013 but it uses very basic ingredients, the kind I always have around: flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, butter, and cream. It also comes together like lightning, with no need for floured countertops, rolling pins, or cookie cutters. As nice desserts go, it\u2019s pretty close to instant. This one\u2019s coming with me into July.<\/p>\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/69cb7-polawhiteshortcake1.jpg?w=300\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDorie Greenspan\u2019s Tender Shortcakes<\/h2>\n
From Baking: From My Home to Yours<\/a><\/span><\/h3> \n \n <\/header>\n\n