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Individual Strawberry Shortcakes
Mix and sift twice two cups of flour, one-fourth of a cup of sugar, four level teaspoons of baking powder, a pinch of nutmeg and one-fourth of a teaspoon of salt; rub in one-third of a cup of butter; add one egg, well beaten, to two-thirds of a cup of sweet milk. Mix on a floured pastry board, roll, cut with a cookie cutter, and bake in a hot oven twenty minutes. When done split, spread with soft butter, then with well sweetened strawberries. Cover the top layer also with strawberries, sprinkle generously with sugar, and heap over all sweetened whipped cream. See Page XVII.
A period biscuit-style shortcake — sweetened, egg-enriched, and baked in rounds rather than one large cake. A few of the instructions need translating before it behaves in a modern oven.
- "Hot oven"The book gives no figure; in period usage the term covers roughly 400-450°F, so 425°F is a sensible middle. Much cooler and the rounds tend to spread rather than rise; much hotter and the sugar in the dough darkens the bottoms before the centres set.
- Twenty minutes is longThat timing suits thick rounds cut a good inch deep. Cookie-cutter rounds of ordinary biscuit thickness are done at 12 to 15 minutes, when the tops are golden and the sides look dry. Check early.
- "Sweet milk"Plain fresh whole milk, named to distinguish it from soured milk or buttermilk. No substitution needed.
- Four teaspoons of baking powderThat is a heavy hand by modern standards, and reflects single-acting powders that spent their lift in the mixing bowl. With today's double-acting powder, 4 teaspoons to 2 cups of flour will work but can leave a faint metallic edge; the dough should go into the oven promptly either way.
- Cold butter, quick hands"Rub in" means working the butter into the flour until it is in flakes the size of small peas. Keep it cold and stop early — overworked butter gives a dense, bready shortcake instead of a flaky one.
- Split while warmThe recipe specifies soft butter on the cut faces, which spreads more easily while the cakes are still warm.
- The strawberriesSugar them and let them stand 20 to 30 minutes before assembly so they give up their syrup. Taste before sweetening rather than measuring.
- YieldAbout eight shortcakes from a standard 2½-inch cutter, serving eight. They are at their best within an hour of baking.
Strawberry shortcake in American cookbooks has usually meant a sweetened biscuit dough rather than sponge cake -- the split-and-buttered biscuit is the older and more widely printed form, and the store-bought sponge shell is a later commercial convenience. This version's egg and its quarter-cup of sugar push the dough toward a scone. The instruction to cut individual rounds rather than build one large cake reflects a period interest in individual service, single portions being easier to serve without carving at the table.