Home › The Waldorf Kitchen › Shortcakes
Shortcakes
Rub together half a pound of butter and a pound of flour, mixing in a quarter of a pound of caster-sugar, a beaten egg and half a pint of milk. Dust a board with some flour and roll out the paste quite thin, then cut into small fancy shapes, brushing over the top of each with a paste-brush dipped in beaten white of egg, and dust some caster-sugar over the top; then butter some tin dishes, place the cakes in them and bake in a quick oven for about ten to twelve minutes, and serve either hot or cold, as desired.
A plain rich dough, closer to a British sweet biscuit than to the split-and-filled American strawberry shortcake. Nothing here leavens it, so the handling of the dough decides the result.
- No leavening at allThere is no baking powder, soda or yeast, and the single egg does little lifting. These are meant to be thin, crisp and short, not risen; if you roll them thick expecting a biscuit you will get something dense and bready.
- Weights in cupsHalf a pound of butter is 2 sticks (225 g), a pound of flour about 3 1/2 cups (450 g), a quarter pound of caster sugar about 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (115 g).
- The half pint of milkRead as a US half pint, that is 1 cup (240 ml). Add it gradually — with a pound of flour and half a pound of butter the dough comes together well before the full amount in most kitchens, and a wet dough cannot be rolled thin.
- Caster sugarSuperfine sugar, finer than granulated and coarser than confectioners'. Granulated will work in the dough; for the sugar dusted on top, use superfine or pulse granulated briefly in a grinder so it does not sit in gritty crystals.
- "Paste"Period usage for pastry dough, not a spreadable paste. "Rub together" means the same cold-butter-into-flour rubbing used for shortcrust — keep the butter cool and stop while the mixture is still crumbly.
- A quick ovenUsually read as about 400-425F (200-220C). At that heat ten to twelve minutes suits thin cakes; watch the edges, since the egg-white and sugar glaze colors fast.
- Buttered tin dishesMost likely shallow tins; modern baking sheets, buttered or lined with parchment, will serve.
- YieldRoughly three to four dozen small cakes, depending on the cutter. They keep several days in a tin. The recipe says they may be served hot or cold.
In an American book of this period "shortcake" covers two quite different things: the split biscuit heaped with berries and cream that most readers now expect, and this older, more English sense of a thin, sugar-glazed short cake cut in fancy shapes — nearer to shortbread or a tea biscuit than to a dessert base. The word "short" in both refers to the fat, which coats the flour and keeps gluten from forming long strands, giving the crumbly texture. Oscar Tschirky, the maître d'hôtel whose name carried the Waldorf's 1896 cook book, was compiling from a hotel kitchen that fed European and American guests alike, and his pastry section reflects that: the technique, the vocabulary of "paste" and "quick oven," and the caster sugar.