Homemade Strawberry Shortcake

Sooo good!

Cheri, Gail and I went to Bakesale Betty's, where we ate fried chicken sandwiches, and then we made strawberry shortcakes, inspired by the ones they sell at Bakesale Betty's:

Cheri put a lot of effort into the dough (ended up being more like a scone than a cake)!:




With sugar:


Here's the recipe Gail found (original here from Allrecipes.com):

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 cup butter
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3 cups sliced fresh strawberries
• 3 tablespoons white sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In large bowl, mix flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder and cream of tartar.
3. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives.
   
4. Stir in cream and egg.
   
5. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 2 minutes.
   
6. Press into a half-inch thick sheet, cut into squares, and place on baking sheets.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until golden.
8. Sprinkle 3 tablespoons sugar over sliced berries.
9. Let shortcakes cool before splitting and filling with strawberries.

--> Instead of splitting and filling them, we just put the hand-whipped cream Gail made on top of each square and then topped that with strawberries (as you can see in the picture above)

Here's the recipe for the whipped cream (from Bakesale Betty's site):

"Wash, hull and slice strawberries. Sprinkle with 1/4c. sugar and sit for 30 mins.

Whip cream, sugar, and vanilla until soft peaks form.

Top shortcakes with a dollop of cream.

Spoon strawberries over cream."

Baking With Daniel & Vong

Daniel and Vong came over to bake on 5/20/09, and we decided to try adding marshmallows to espresso chocolate chip cookies. Didn't work out so well...but they didn't taste awful. Too sweet though.

The Food Network's Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies

Made these for our Psi Chi chapter's last Cookies 'n' Cram (name stolen from Clovis West High School's Link Crew's old study group. No one was there at 6:30pm, and our room's door was locked anyway, so I sat in the Psi Chi office and studied by myself. :)

Like the teeny one? lol




This is how Kurtis and I sift our flour without a sifter:






RECIPE (from The Food Network's website:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso coffee powder
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet choc chips

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

1. Cream butter with sugars using an electric mixer [I just did this by hand] on medium speed until fluffy (~30 seconds).
2. Beat in egg and vanilla extract for 30 seconds.
3. In a mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients and beat into the butter mixture at low speed for about 15 seconds.
4. Stir in espresso coffee powder and chocolate chips.
5. Using a 1-ounce scoop or a 2-tablespoon measure, drop cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet ~3 inches apart.
6. Gently press down on dough to spread out into a 2-inch circle [I didn't make them this big].
7. Bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely browned around the edges.