Strawberry Shortcake

It's pleasant when our Jewish calendar intersects the secular season, and this blend is nicest at Shavuoth. The lovely holiday celebrates Moses receiving the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai. To honor the wonder of this event, Jews traditionally eat dairy foods of "milk and honey," as a taste of the Torah’s sweetness.

At the same time, in the northern hemisphere, it's finally spring, and the first fruits begin to appear.

What Shavuoth recipe could be more appealing than old-fashioned strawberry shortcake? If there's one dessert for which no pareve product could be substituted, it's the whipped cream used in shortcake.

A "shortcake" is so-called because it is lower and denser than regular cake, the result of fats in the batter. The Scottish equivalent is "shortbread."

The genuine "American shortcake" is a biscuit dough to which sugar has been added. Any biscuit recipe works, however, and the English "scone"also may be used.

These doughs are sturdier, and stand up better to the moisture of the whipped cream that is integral to the treat, but pound cakes and sponge cakes are often used instead of biscuits. When traditional cakes are used, these are presented in layers, with whipped cream and fruit pieces between each layer as well as on the top. The biscuit variation simply halves each biscuit, adding whipped cream and fruit between the halves, and another dollop of whipped cream on the top.

Several fruits work well with the shortcake, including peaches or nectarines, peeled and sliced, pitted cherries, and even bananas. Apples and pears are too tough, citrus and most tropical fruits are too acidic, and plums and apricots are too wet to adapt well. Yet berries...well, berries are perfect, and strawberries are the classic here. These need little preparation, other than washing and slicing the larger strawberries, or adding a bit of sugar if these are too tart.

BASIC SHORTCAKE

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 heaping tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar, plus additional
sugar for sweetening the berries
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons solid vegetable shortening
3/4 cup light cream
6 cups berries, sliced if large, whole if small
3 cups heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Grease a cookie sheet.
Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Cut in 2 tablespoons of the butter and the shortening until the size of large "peas." Beat in the light cream.
Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Drop batter in large tablespoonfuls on to cookie sheet so that the mounds are adjacent, almost but not quite touching. Glaze each biscuit with the melted butter and sprinkle with the reserved 2 tablespoons of sugar.
Bake about 15 minutes, until golden brown. Allow to cool.
While the biscuits are baking and cooling, sort through the berries and wash well. If these are large, slice into smaller pieces, reserving several of the largest for garnishing the top of each biscuit. Taste for sweetness. If too tart, toss the berry pieces with some of the reserved white sugar. Set aside.
The recipe may be completed in advance up to this point.
Immediately before serving, whip the heavy cream.
Halve each biscuit. Put a heaping tablespoon of berry pieces in the center, and a heaping tablespoon of whipped cream. Top with more berry pieces and more cream.
If using regular cakes, put berries and whipped cream between each layer, and on the top.
Yields 12--15 single serving biscuits.