Strawberry season is not yet here in the Midwest but we have been getting some awfully pretty strawberries from California at our local grocery store. Nothing tastes like spring more than strawberry shortcake! It’s a long-time favorite in our family. In fact, my grandmother used to schedule her 2 week trip to visit my parents each spring to coincide with the strawberries in Dad’s bed ripening!  She was disappointed if strawberry season came early or late and she missed it!

At our house, strawberry “shortcake” is not really a “cake” at all. Shortcake, instead, is a sweet biscuit, either homemade or using the recipe on the back of the Bisquick box. The consensus at our house is that those little dry, spongy cakes you buy just aren’t real “shortcake”.  Not to say that crushed strawberries over angel food cake is not a delicious dessert, but it isn’t “shortcake” to us!

How to top that wonderful, warm biscuit? That’s where our family’s paths diverge.  Most of the clan (the unenlightened part) top their shortcake with sweetened, crushed strawberries, the sweet juice of the strawberries and whipped cream, but the purists butter their warm shortcake and add sliced strawberries, sugar and milk. Any guess where my loyalties are in the great strawberry shortcake debate?

However you build this luscious dessert, I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Oh, PS, the squirting of the canned-whipped cream is almost as popular as the strawberry shortcake itself!

Strawberry Shortcake

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Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2/3 cups half & half (up to 3/4 cup)
• 2 quarts strawberries
• 1/2 cup sugar (for strawberries)
• whipped cream topping

Directions

Step 1

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Step 2

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. With fork or pastry blender, add butter, stirring until mixture forms small pea-sized balls. Add 2/3 cup of half & half and quickly stir, adding more if necessary to form a ball. Divide dough into 6 equal pieces and place on greased baking sheet. Bake 14 to 18 minutes until light brown.

Step 3

Clean and slice strawberries, crushing them. Add sugar and mix well. Or clean and slice strawberries for Option 2.

Step 4

Option 1: Top warm shortcakes with crushed strawberries and juice. Add whipped cream if desired. Option 2 (try it! It’ll change the way you eat strawberry shortcake forever!): Split and butter warm shortcake and add sliced strawberries (not crushed). Sprinkle with sugar as desired and pour milk over top. The butter melts into the biscuit. The sliced strawberries give you more substance than the crushed strawberries, you can choose how much sugar to add and the milk soaking into the crumbly biscuit is creamy and heavenly!

This will be the last shower post, I promise (but we had so much tasty food!) and Sales Guy is gone this week so there hasn’t been much (any) cooking at our house.  My goal tomorrow is to make something new, learn to download pix from our camera (so I won’t have to depend on Daughter 2) and post about it. Or possibly Saturday??

We made these light, delicious tarts for my niece’s shower (I highly recommend using light cream cheese and light whipped topping to make them seem less sinful) and they were a hit.

They were kind of a pain to make. We rolled out the sugar cookie dough (if you’ve done that before, you know that the refrigerated dough is very sticky and needs lots of additional flour before you can work with it) and cut circles to place in the muffin tins.  Our circles were sticking and it was a mess.  Then today, light bulb comes on!  Why not cut the roll of cookie dough into thin circles and flatten them a bit and press them into the greased muffin cups? Duh! Why didn’t I think of that a week ago!? Anyway, the recipe here includes the new, improved process.

Try them! Especially when fruits come in season this summer. Our kiwi and some of the berries were pretty tart, but everyone enjoyed them anyway!

Fruit Tarts

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Ingredients

• 1 tube refrigerator sugar cookies (16 oz)
• 8oz cream cheese (softened)
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 Medium frozen whipped topping (1 tub)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups assorted fruits (strawberries, kiwi, other berries, canned peaches, mandarin oranges)

Directions

Crust

Step 1

HEAT oven to 375°F.

Step 2

Slice cookie dough and flatten slightly. Place slices in greased mini-muffin pans, molding them to sides and bottom of pans. Bake until lightly browned (10 to 15 minutes). Let cool.

Topping

Step 3

BEAT cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla with mixer until well blended. Mix in whipped topping.

Step 4

Pour cream cheese mixture into gallon storage bag and cut off one corner. Squeeze cream cheese mixture into cookie cups and top with assorted fruit. Chill and serve.

Some people head straight to the cake at a wedding reception. Not me, it’s those delicious little cream cheese mints that catch my attention. Homemade mints scream special occasion around here! They hold a place of honor at wedding showers and receptions, graduation parties and baby showers. Not only are they creamy and delicious, but they give us a reason to get together for pre-celebration mint-making parties! Girlfriends, daughters & bridesmaids can solve a lot of world problems over the 1000 or so mints needed to feed the guests at a medium to large wedding! I can’t even imagine how many mints we’ve made over the years! It’s a fun, tasty tradition we all enjoy.

P.S.Oh, and by the way, we have a wedding coming up in October, any volunteers?

Cream Cheese Mints

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Ingredients

• 4oz cream cheese (Don't use low or non-fat cream cheese. It's too soft.)
• 1/2 teaspoon clear mint extract
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar (extra fine sugar, preferably)
• 1/4 teaspoon butter flavoring (Optional)
• food coloring as desired

Directions

Step 1

Beat room temperature cream cheese until soft (approximately 2 minutes). Add mint extract and butter flavor (if desired). Gradually add powdered sugar until well blended. Mixture will be very stiff.

Step 2

Roll mixture in small balls. Roll in sugar and place into mint molds. Release mints onto waxed paper or parchment paper.

Step 3

Allow to dry at room temperature for 3 to 5 hours. Store in airtight container in freezer in layers separated by wax paper or parchment paper. Thaw 1 to 2 hours before serving.