Cook with Arthy shama: Fruity shortcake

Tuesday 15 July 2014

Fruity shortcake

According to wiki, Shortcakes are crumbly bread that is leavened by baking powder. Not only do they differ in size to regular cakes, but their method of preparation resembles like that of an bread/muffins. The liquid ingredients used to moisten the dry ingredients are milk/cream, resulting in crumbly-textured dough, which is shaped as desired and baked. The baked ones are then, garnished with whipped cream along with fruit & fruit juices.

So, when such gorgeous short-cakes were, suggested as this month's Baking partners challenge, I could hardly resist myself from trying them. All thanks to Reeni and Swathi Iyer, for this awesome challenge. I made this, and my family relished whole-heartedly.

Also, this being an fair fruity affair, you can offer this to even fussy kids, who will get along by this pastry-driven look. :)

Preparation time: 25 minutes

Baking time: 15 minutes

Yields: 7 shortcake

Ingredients required

11/4 cup All purpose flour
1/4 cup cornflour
3/4 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar + 4 tsp sugar (to sprinkle on top of shorcakes)
3/4 cup of Amul fresh cream
3/4 cup melted butter
2 cups fresh fruits like watermelon, orange, pear, pomegranate seeds
Whipped cream, to serve

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degree celsius. Mix flour, cornflour, baking powder, salt and sugar in an bowl. Add fresh cream, little by little till the dry mixture resembles coarse bread-crumbs. An ideal check will be, if squeezed by hand, the mixture must hold its shape. If they break down, then continue adding more fresh cream, till they shape tight.

After this step, introduce this moistened dough into lightly floured surface and pat/ roll them into 3/4 inch thick circle. Mine was almost 7 inch circle and i used 21/4 inch bottle cap to cut down individual shortcakes.

After cutting down, I dipped the shortcakes in melted butter and sprinkled some sugar. Placed them on foil lined tray and baked for about, fifteen minutes till the edges turn brown and shortcakes becomes puffy. Cool them completely. Alternatively, you can prepare fruit juice by blending in half of (ie 1 cup) the fruit mixture.

To assemble, cut the shortcake, horizontally in two. Cover the base with whipped cream, then fruit juice. Now arrange fruits over the cream and sandwich them with cream again. Repeat the same for another section of shortcake.