Sweet

Devilish Shortcakes

Strawberry shortcake is one of my most favorite desserts. So when I stumbled across Dorie Greenspan’s devilish shortcakes, I knew they had to happen … and soon! A chocolate shortcake? Can you even think of anything better?

Jake’s job, when I bake, is to read me the recipe. He’s really good at it and it’s just so darn nice of him. When he cooks, he doesn’t let me read the recipes to him. It’s because I tend to forget to tell him steps/ingredients, and well, can you blame him?

I had intentions to pat this biscuit dough down and use my super awesome new biscuit cutters, but the truth is, this dough is sticky and the best way is to use a lightly floured measuring cup to scoop that chocolaty goodness.

I’d say these were a hit, and such a fun remix to the original. What do you think?

Devilish Shortcakes
Recipe from Dorie Greenspan

Ingredients:

shortcakes –

  • 1 1/3 cups milk
  • 1 1/2 t vanilla
  • 1 large egg
  • 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2 T baking powder
  • 1/2 t baking soda
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 sticks (12 T) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and chilled

filling –

  • berries of your choice, (about 1/2 cup per shortcake) hulled and sliced if using strawberries
  • sugar (I used about 1/4 cup)
  • lightly sweetened softly whipped cream (1 cup whipping cream + powdered sugar to taste + vanilla, beaten until soft peaks form)

Directions:

  1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 425ºF. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. Make shortcakes. Whisk the milk, vanilla and egg together. Set aside. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar into a large bowl. Drop in the butter and, using your fingers, toss to coat the pieces of butter with flour. Quickly, working with your fingertips, a pastry blender, or forks, cut and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is pebbly. You’ll have pea-size pieces, pieces the size of oatmeal flakes an pieces in between. (P.S. Try not to get the dry ingredients all over you like below:)
  3. Pour the milk mixture over the dry ingredients and toss gently with a fork until you’ve got a very soft dough. When the dough comes together, you’ll probably still have dry ingredients  at the bottom of the bowl. Use a rubber spatula to mix and knead the dough until it’s evenly blended. Don’t overdo it; it’s better to have a few dry spots than an overworked dough. Even with all the flour mixed in, the dough will be very sticky.
  4. Spoon out about 1/4-1/3 cup of dough for each shortcake onto the baking sheet, leaving about 3 inches in between the mounds. Pat each mound down until it’s between 3/4-1 inch high.*
  5. Bake for 12-18 minutes, rotating halfway through bake time, until the shortcakes are puffed and give just a bit when prodded. Pull the sheet from the oven and transfer the shortcakes to a cooling rack. Repeat with remaining dough.
  6. Make the filling. Put the berries in a bowl, sprinkle with sugar to taste and let sit for about 10 minutes, until they are juicy. Cut each cake in half horizontally. Put the bottom halves on plates, top with the berries, make sure to include some of the sweet juices and spoon over some whipped cream. Put the tops on the shortcakes or lean them against the cream.

* The shortcakes at this point can be frozen on the baking sheet, then wrapped airtight  and kept in the freezer for up to 2 months. Bake without defrosting by simply adding about 5 more minutes to the bake time.

7 thoughts on “Devilish Shortcakes”

  1. These make me love you even more….just because. I wonder if I could make raspberry shortcake; would it be the same? Hmmmmmm

  2. Wow wow and thrice wow. This is enough to make me wish it was still strawberry season, and in lieu to go out and buy some flown-in-from-somewhere-far-away ones just to make these. Thanks!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*