So, I decided to make strawberry shortcake for dessert tonight for my daughter and I and my brother’s family. I was getting ready to add the sugar to the strawberries when my brother stopped me. He was absolutely disgusted that I was adding sugar to them and I asked him what does he usually use. Apparently his family uses that strawberry glaze stuff I’ve seen in the store. That, in turn, grossed me out. The stuff has the consistency and smell of strawberry jello. The idea of using that for strawberry shortcake was just so wrong. He insists he’s doing it the ‘normal’ way and I’m the weirdo for using sugar.
So I’m curious as to what you guys prefer. Sugar or glaze?
Before I begin baking, I slice the strawberries, cover them with sugar, stir them up real good, so some juice comes out, and let them macerate in the refrigerator. I make sure I have one unsliced strawberry for each serving of shortcake I am planning.
I use the shortcake recipe on the side of the Bisquik box (but, IAW the method of my late mother-in-law, I double the butter and sugar called for in that recipe). When the cakes come out of the oven I let them cool not too much, slice them equatorially, and make little sliced-strawberry sandwiches in the serving bowls. I top each with a spoonful of sliced strawberries with juice, then add whipped cream and a whole strawberry on the top.
I suppose it’s possible to have the sliced strawberries sit unsweetened while the cakes are baking, but glaze is for a fresh strawberry pie, not a shortcake. Your brother is [del]nuts[/del] mistaken.
I’ve never tried it with Bisquick cakes. I didn’t even know there was a recipe. I always go lazy and just buy some pound cake. Good to hear I’m not the ‘weird’ one! Apparently they don’t even mix the strawberries in the glaze! They just plop a spoonful of it on top. Yuck!
Sugar, but like many others I slice them, put sugar on them, then let them sit overnight. I put hem on angel food cake or those premade sponge cake things you find in the store, then add a lot of whipped cream.
You put some of the sugar on the strawberries and let them sit for a while.
Then you take the rest of the sugar and put it in some heavy cream with a little vanilla and whip it up. The difference between real whipped cream and canned or frozen “dessert topping” is immeasurable.
I use strawberries for the strawberries. Strawberry shortcake consists of some sort of baked good (possibly cake, possibly just biscuit), some sort of dairy (whipped cream, ice cream, or occasionally just milk), and strawberries. It’s that simple. I suppose if you add extra sugar, I’d still call the resulting confection “strawberry shortcake”, but it’s hardly necessary, and, I think, misses the point.
Sugar. I’ve never used brown sugar but I’d try it.
I also will not use Bisquick or angel food cake. I’m sure those would taste fine, but for me they aren’t strawberry shortcake. I use an old family recipe that’s a lovely dense buttery cake with some crumb topping. I have converted a number of people after just one bite.
I hope you’ll all take this in the spirit in which I mean it. As tasty as strawberries on sponge cake are, that’s not shortcake. The name comes from the dense short dough (no eggs, fairly dry, not at all fluffy).
I’ll happily eat it when it’s served to me, and I wouldn’t call anyone out on it in person. I understand that it’s not different enough to have its own different name. I probably wouldn’t even have posted about it, but it’s been a thing in my family for years.
And that red goo is the reason I never order strawberry cheesecake in a diner.
I’m beginning to wonder if it’s regional. Because the stores around here in Oregon always have glaze included in their strawberry shortcake displays. It’s always, strawberries, pound cake and glaze laid out together.
Who do we talk to about getting such wrong-thinkers banned?
Macerated overnight if I want nice wet strawberry shortcake with the juices soaked into the cake/biscuit. But I am more than happy with a drier version using freshly sliced strawberries if the whipped cream is fresh and properly sweetened.
Serve a glazed one to me at a party and I’ll distract you, feed it to your dog, and then hope it doesn’t die before I leave.
