The Best Strawberry Shortcakes You Will Ever Eat
My Grandmothers Tea Cakes
My Grandmother came from strong Scottish ancestors and she told the story of the tea cake that she remembered eating as a child. And she told that the recipe had been brought to the United States from Scotland. My Grandmothers mother came to the United States as a young girl on the ship, " The White Squirrel ". And my Grandmother Propst often made these delicious tea cakes when I was a small child and she would tell of her mother coming from Scotland to the United States to Pennsylvania where she married and came with her husband to the mountains of North Carolina. I never got to meet my Great Grandfather but I was told he was a short red headed man of Scotch Irish decent and that he loved the mountains of North Carolina because it reminded him of the Scottish High Lands where he had lived as a boy.
I remember my Grandmother making the tea cakes and she would always tell us of her father and mother and how they came to live in the mountains of North Carolina.
She would often use two cooked tea cakes to make a strawberry shortcake and those strawberry shortcakes were some of the best I ever ate in my life. This is why I've included the recipe for the tea cakes here for you.
Tea Cake Recipe
1. Four Cups All Purpose Plain Flour Plus More For Rolling Out The Tea Cakes.
2. Two Teaspoons Baking Powder.
3. One Teaspoon Baking Soda.
4. Two Cups White Granulated Sugar.
5. Two Large Eggs.
6. One Half Cup Buttermilk, Not Low Fat.
7. Two Sticks Of Real Butter.
8. One Teaspoon Vanilla Extract.
You will want to start by pre heating your oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl sift together your flour, baking powder, and baking soda together and then work in your other ingredients. Pour your dough out onto a floured surface and shape it into a round ball flouring the outside of the ball of dough.
Wash your bowl and put the ball of dough back into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Put it into the refrigerator for two hours to allow it to chill well. At the end of two hours flour your surface again and roll the dough out to 1/2 inch thick and then cut the dough out in shapes or with a biscuit cutter and bake on a slightly greased baking pan until the tea cakes are golden brown. Be sure not to overcook your tea cakes.
If you make the Tea Cakes I hope you'll post a comment below and let us all know how they turned out for you. Have you ever had Tea Cakes? How did you like them? Try using one split in half or two for a strawberry shortcake. You can also make blueberry and blackberry strawberry shortcakes. All taste wonderful.
Thanks for your time and I hope you find information here that you can use. I hope if you make one of the recipes on this page that you'll post a comment and let us all know how the recipe turned out for you. Thanks for your time.
The Best Strawberry Shortcakes Ever
I was fortunate as a child to live around my Grandmother Hattie Propst who made the best strawberry shortcakes in the world. Our cakes for our strawberry shortcakes did not come out of a package at the supermarket instead they came out of my Grandmothers oven.
And my Grandmother made the best shortcakes in the world. They were very different from the soft spongy cakes sold in the supermarket about the time the strawberries got ripe each spring. And my Grandmother made shortcakes out of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and apples. As soon as the first strawberries got ripe in the spring we had delicious homemade shortcakes until the apples were gone in the fall. And a time or two we even had sweet potato shortcakes and pumpkin shortcakes.
My Grandmother and Mother were both wonderful cooks and I was an award winning Chef for over thirty years. Over the years I worked as an Executive Chef at some of the south's most famous restaurants and I was constantly trying to come up with new and unique desserts to serve people who came in the restaurants
First of all we are going to make the shortcakes which we will make our homemade strawberry shortcakes from. These delicious strawberry shortcakes are what makes the difference between a good strawberry shortcake and an absolutely wonderful strawberry shortcake.
Shortcake Recipe
1. Three Cups Biscuit Mix
2. Four Tablespoons White Granulated Sugar.
3. One Half Cup Whole Milk .
4. Three Tablespoons Butter Melted.
Combine your biscuit mix and the 4 Tablespoons of Sugar in a large bowl. Add your milk and butter and stir until a soft dough forms. Now you want to turn your dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until your dough comes together but don't over work your dough.
Roll your dough out to a one half inch thickness and then use a 4 inch round cookie cutter and place your cut out circles onto a un greased baking sheet and sprinkle the top of your dough circles with sugar.
You will want to bake your shortcakes at 425 degrees for 10 - 12 minutes until they are golden brown. Gently cut your shortcakes in half cross ways to make two half's out of each shortcake.
You have just made the best shortcakes that you will ever eat in your life.
Now For Your Strawberries
Place two cups of fresh strawberries in a large bowl. Combine 4 tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon and gently mix it together. Cover this bowl and let it set in the refrigerator for at least two hours.
Here Is The Secret To The Worlds Best Strawberry Shortcakes
After two hours combine 1/2 cup strawberry preserves and 2 tablespoons strawberry liquor and mix together. When you are ready to put the strawberry shortcakes together take the chilled strawberries out of the refrigerator and put two tablespoons of strawberry preserves mixture onto the bottom half of a shortcake and then put some of the chilled strawberries on top of that. Place the top half of the shortcake on top of the strawberries and add a big spoon of whip topping and a strawberry as a garnish.
You may want to purchase some real pretty strawberry shortcake glass dishes to make your homemade strawberry shortcakes in. And you have never truly lived if you've never had strawberry shortcakes made like this. Because they are truly the best strawberry shortcakes that you will ever taste in your life.
I serve people strawberry shortcakes made by this recipe and when they take that first bite I see their faces just light up with delight. I know I used to wait all winter for that first delicious strawberry shortcake and this is almost exactly how my Grandmother and my Mom made them. Often my Mom would freeze strawberries until Christmas and then on Christmas Eve we would have these delicious strawberry shortcakes and it would just make Christmas perfect.
My Grandmother would fix them for Easter. We always had a big baked ham, fried chicken, homemade mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, macaroni and cheese, homemade biscuits and then after everyone had eaten my Grandmother would bring a big tray filled with glass dishes filled with these delicious homemade strawberry shortcakes. And if you've never had them then you have to make them because they are truly the best strawberry shortcakes that you will ever taste.
You can make your own strawberry shortcakes exactly by the recipe I've given you here on this Hub Page or you can make them as elaborate as you like. Or make them like the multi layered strawberry shortcake in the photo above. If you will include the ingredients I gave you in the recipe on this Hub Page you can truly make the most delicious strawberry shortcakes in the world.
My Grandmother Hattie Propst and her daughter my Mom Virginia Propst Walker were two of the best cooks in the world and I give them all the credit for teaching me my love of cooking and for teaching me how to truly make the best strawberry shortcakes in the world. It is the homemade shortcakes that really make these strawberry shortcakes the best in the world. And I hope that you will take the time to make these strawberry shortcakes and let me know what you think about the most wonderful strawberry shortcakes in the world. Thanks for reading my Hub Page on the best strawberry shortcakes and I hope you'll post a comment below. Thanks for reading and I hope you have a nice day.