We couldn’t resist a box of strawberries at the markets last week! A mere $8 bought us twelve 250g punnets of small, sweet fruit – a nice change from the chunky, flavourless varieties which seem so prevalent these days.
Pete turned most of them into his low sugar strawberry jam (with nearly two punnets in each jar), and I used the leftovers to make this simple strawberry shortcake. Please excuse the slightly mad piping – I’d had a glass of wine at lunch (never operate heavy machinery or a piping bag under the influence of alcohol).
The recipe comes from one of my oldest cookbooks, The Australian Women’s Weekly Cooking Class Cookbook, and I first made this dish over twenty years ago. Tempus fugit…
It’s interesting to note how little butter there is in the shortbread – perhaps a reflection of how recipes have evolved over the past two decades.
Edit: one more thing – this is a fairly solid, shortbready base, not a cakey one. Don’t expect the base to rise much, and do keep any eye on it to make sure you don’t overcook it. Once it’s lightly coloured, it’s time to pull it out of the oven!
- 60g (2oz) unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 large (59g) egg yolks
- 115g (4oz) plain (AP) flour
- 1 punnet strawberries (about 250g or 8oz)
- ½ cup strawberry or plum jam
- 2 teaspoons water
- whipped cream
1. Wash and hull the strawberries, reserving a few for decoration. Cut the remainder in half. Preheat oven to 175C/350F with fan. Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the egg yolks, beating well until combined. Add the flour and mix on low until the flour is fully incorporated, forming a soft dough.
2. Grease a 20cm (8″) sandwich tin and evenly press the dough into the base. Bake for 15 – 20 mins, or until light golden brown. Remove from the tin and allow to cool slightly.
3. Arrange the halved strawberries over the warm shortcake. Combine the jam and water in a glass bowl, and heat briefly (20 – 30 seconds) in the microwave until hot, then push the mixture through a sieve to form a glaze. Allow this to cool slightly, then brush it generously over the strawberries and shortcake. Refrigerate until serving time.
4. Decorate with whipped cream and the reserved strawberries – I whipped the cream with a little homemade vanilla syrup, but you could use a little icing sugar, or leave the cream plain if you prefer.
Click here for a printable version of this recipe
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
We just bought a flat of strawberries at the farmers market yesterday, and I am in the process of cleaning them up.
Your recipe looks perfect for today!!!!
Please tell me what a punnet is…..I can only imagine that it is a small box of strawberries….and if that is so…about how many medium sized berries would fit in a punnet?
Thanks so much for sharing!!!
Jude
Judy, a punnet is usually 250g, or approximately half a pound of berries. This recipe is actually quite healthy, without the ridiculous amount of cream I piped on in my slightly tipsy state. :) And we did share it between six…
Celia
I adore strawberry shortcake! Adore! I grew up in the southern US and we’d eat fresh berries on poundcake with Cool-Whip. Perfect!
Ok, so it’s strawberry shortcake in the garden today! I guessed wrong. I am on my way xx
SK, I knew it was an American dish! The base on this was quite solid – a bit like a firm shortbread rather than cake.
Zeb, I saved you a piece. :)
Celia
Strawberry season is on its way here–looking forward to the first farmer’s market specimens! Still missing Australian produce….
That is a bargain! I LOVE the evolution of food. I still have my first ever cookbook I was given. Not that I would cook anything out of it, fashions have changed, tastes buds have changed, and availability has changed. It all makes for interesting reading though.
I love strawberry shortckae-not only because it reminds me of my strawberry shortcake dolls when I was little! :D
I love the WW cooking class cookbook – brings back memories. I think strawberry shortcake was one of the first things I made as well, along with pineapple upside down cake! Will definitely make this again.
Nancy, I have a friend in the US who tells me she gets the most amazing berries over there – much better than what we have here! Something to look out for!
CHFG, it’s an interesting thing, isn’t it? There is just the tiniest bit of butter in this recipe, but it doesn’t really detract from the dish at all.
Lorraine…arrggh…Strawberry Shortcake dolls. I’ve just had a sudden flashback of exactly what they looked like! :)
Alex, isn’t it a great book? I think the very first spag bol came from there as well.
Tempus fugit indeed. I wish a bad cold fugit as fast, but it doesn’t seem to :-(
I am glad someone asked what is a punnet, I was punnet-puzzled.
I see nothing wrong with your piping of the whipped cream, but it’s true that the calories go up quite a bit – I made shortcake only once, but it was not that good. Turned out hard like a hockey puck.
Well Sallybr…..try this recipe ….IT IS AMAZING!!!!!
I am not a good cook, but I have had wonderful success with many of the recipes Celia puts up on this site.
Although the first shortcake I made did not come out well….it did not rise…it was none the less delicious and we ate it like a cookie with strawberry jam.
I made a second shortcake…since it does take so little time…..and I was not about to let a cake get the best of me…it is like heaven. So light and perfect with the strawberries and cream.
So thank you so much again for a great recipe!!!!
Judy, thank you! I was about to write to Sally and say this is a solid shortbread (a result of the low butter, I suspect), but I find it a perfect foil to the strawberries. The jam also softens it up a little. If you managed to get it light and crumbly, then you’re doing extra well – a product of not overworking or overbaking the dough, I suspect! There isn’t a rising agent except for the eggs, so it doesn’t rise much. I’ve edited the post to let people know this.
Thanks for trying out recipes and being so enthusiastic, Jude, I really appreciate the encouragement! :)
Sally, hope you’re feeling better soon!
Celia
It’s good that you found well-flavoured strawberries – we have the same problem here with tasteless year-round imports and fruit grown under glass. I rarely eat strawberries now except for the few we grow ourselves.
I wouldn’t have bothered with a piping bag for the cream, so your attempt looks fine to me!
Suelle, I shouldn’t have bothered with a piping bag either..hehe..
I am not a big fan of the piped cream look, but the base looks perfect, I will follow your directions. How do you create a ‘printable recipe’ with wordpress. Roz
Roz, as I said, it’s a solid base – product of the small amount of butter. But it’s a nice biscuity foil to the strawberries. There was only meant to be a little bit of whipped cream on top.. :D
Sally at Bewitching Kitchen taught me how to do the printable recipes – you copy your recipe into Word, then save it as a pdf. You can then upload the pdf as an image in WordPress. Voila! :)
Thanks Celia I will give it a try, Roz
You are a clown……glass of wine, heavy machinery…………. my daughters would LOVE this. We’ve been making swirly meringues too, flavoured different ways – with toasted pecans, choco chips and even crushed mints! LOL
Waw!! What a superb looking strawberry shortcake this is!!
Very appetizing & beautiful presented too!