Don’t short the cake Making a killer classic shouldn't be a tall order BY ANDY KING
	Digital outdoors Picking local strawberries will improve your shortcake to no end. A pretty amazing site that lists participating farms — in every state in the country, no less — can be found at www.pickyourown.org

With all the talk of retro-pastries these days in the cooking world (and that is what we talk about. I’m serious. We sit around and talk about the recent cupcake revolution. It’s pretty amazing!) it’s easy to overlook one of the country’s great classic desserts. So I thought, as we ponder the greatness of our founding fathers and what those bewigged old fellows did the night the Declaration of Independence was signed, I should resurrect the kindly ghost of an American Independence Day classic: strawberry shortcake.

There are only three components to any strawberry shortcake worth eating: strawberries, whipped cream, and shortcake. Anything more gets froofy, although I’m sure there are some fancy chefs out there who infuse some rosemary essence or green tea in there somewhere. And just between you and me, they’ll burn in pastry hell for it.

Out of those three ingredients, there’s only one that deserves prolonged attention. It’s not the fruit, as you really can’t screw up a good strawberry unless you buy rotten ones, and it’s not the whipped cream, because whipped cream makes almost everything better. Case in point: not only is whipped cream great for things like Nabisco Ice Box cakes, but salted and herbed it can make a fantastic addition to your average risotto.

No, the most common offender in the lackluster strawberry shortcake is its namesake: the shortcake. Recipe books will try to sell you on using scones, and your cramped summer schedule will suggest you head to the nearest Hannaford Brothers for some pre-made ones. Resist the urge, brothers and sisters. Stale imitations will drag the first two ingredients through the mud, and you’ll end up with something worse than the dessert itself: a reputation as someone who mails in their grill-party donation. Not cool.

The thing is, making fantastic homemade shortcake is about as easy as it gets. The ideal result will have a soft, buttery interior, tender and easy to cut through with plastic picnic forks. The crust will have crisp to it, and be able to stand up to perhaps prolonged exposure to the cream and strawberries. My new favorite recipe comes from my friend Beryl Lewitt, a baker at the Standard Baking Co., who adapted it from a recipe appearing in Fine Cooking magazine. Beryl always has tons of great recipes in her back pocket.

Here are procedures for the classic dessert.

Strawberries: Dice as many strawberries as you see fit (about four or five per serving) into small cubes, put into a bowl, and sprinkle a light layer of sugar on top. Toss the strawberries and let sit until the sugar leaches out the strawberry’s juices and makes a nice little syrup (this is called macerating the strawberries).

Whipped Cream: Whip the cream, a pinch of sugar, and a drop of vanilla in a bowl using a whisk or an electric mixer until it holds a peak when you pull the whisk away. One cup of cream will make four to six servings, depending on how much you like whipped cream.

Shortcake:

13.5 oz or 3 cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar, plus a few pinches for sprinkling

1.5 tablespoons baking powder

.75 teaspoons table salt

6 oz unsalted butter, chilled and cut into .25 inch cubes

1.5 cups heavy cream, plus a few tablespoons for brushing

1.5 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees, and set your oven rack to the second highest setting.

2. Mix the first four ingredients in a large bowl. With your fingers, work the cubed butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles coarse sand.

3. Make a well in the dry ingredients, and pour the cream and vanilla in the middle. Stir the cream until both are well incorporated with the other ingredients. Do not overmix. It should look shaggy, with some dry specks throughout.

4. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead five or six times. Shape the dough into a square about one inch thick and place on a sheet pan. Cool in the fridge for 20 minutes.

5. After cooling, take the square of dough and barely roll out until you can divide it into 2.5-inch squares. Set two inches apart on a baking sheet, brush them with cream and sprinkle them with sugar.

6. Bake for 20 minutes and cool before cutting in half.

Andy King can be reached at dinnerwithandy@yahoo.com