Strawberry shortcake will forever remind me of my Grandma Dale. What a wonderful person she was!
Spending several weeks at her house in the summertime are some of my favorite childhood memories! She had an in-ground swimming pool that we about lived in, and she babysat half the town. So there were always tons of kids to play with!
One of her favorite things, and ours, too, were strawberries!! Every summer we could hardly wait for the first pints of strawberries to hit the farm stands and grocery stores!
Huge, plump, juicy, ruby red strawberries! She’d hull them and cut them up and pour sugar over them to sweeten them and let them sit until the sugar soaked in!
Grandma then served them over sweet little store-bought sponge cakes with a spoonful of Cool Whip and a scoop of vanilla ice cream! The perfect, refreshing, summertime dessert if there ever was one!
I was feeling very nostalgic, and craving this childhood favorite, but I decided to make some fun biscuits to serve the berries over instead of just boughten cakes.
I thought up a nice lemon-poppyseed flavor that I thought would go perfectly with the sweetened strawberries!
I also wanted a fun shape to remind me of spring, so I cut them into little daisy shapes using the last little bits to make the flower centers!
Don’t they look cute?! 😀 And boy are they good, too!
The larger ones were used for this recipe, and the smaller ones were made for my brunch biscuiettes, since it’s just the two of us! 😉
Though some people don’t care for it much, Grandma LOVED her Cool Whip! That’s how we all had it growing up, so that’s what I chose. 😉
I did at least take the time to spoon it into a plastic pastry bag with a mega 1M tip and pipe it out nicely, though! But it just wouldn’t quite be the same with anything else!
And if you’re serving this to a crowd, say for a brunch or a dessert for a luncheon, Cool Whip actually does hold it’s shape! So you can pipe it and hold it until needed.
But I think my favorite part about this dessert this time, was my addition of Champagne! 😉 You can add just a splash or really go for it and add up to a cup!
You of course don’t have to add this if wanting a non-alcoholic dessert. But it sure is a nice, surprising treat! And goes very well with Mimosas, too! Jus’ sayin’. 😉
So I hope this wonderful dessert with a little twist makes an appearance on your table soon! You and your guests will really love this! Have a nice Easter everyone! 😀
LEMON POPPY SEED STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE A LA MODE with CHAMPAGNE
6-8 servings
For Shortcakes:
2 cups flour
2 Tbl. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 Tbl. sugar
1 Tbl. + 1 tsp. poppy seeds
fine zest of 2 lemons, (2 rounded tsp.)
1 1/2 cups thick sour cream, I like Daisy’s
1 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbl. plus 1 tsp. vegetable oil
thin slices of butter for tops
Rest of Ingredients:
2 pints fresh strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
a splash or up to 1 cup Champagne
1/2 gallon vanilla or strawberry ice cream
sweetened whipped cream, Cool Whip or Reddi Wip
sprigs of fresh mint for garnish, optional
lemon zest for garnish, optional
DIRECTIONS:
For the Shortcakes:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Cover baking sheet or pizza pan with foil. Spray with Butter-Flavored cooking spray. (I like Crisco’s.)
In large bowl, whisk first 7 ingredients well. Add sour cream in dollops and drizzle in vanilla and oil over top. Quickly mix together. Then on lightly floured surface, knead 6-8 times, then roll very thick making a round of dough just big enough to cut 6 regular-sized biscuits. You can use a sharp, 3 1/2″ flower-shaped cookie cutter if desired. *Do not use anything dull like a drinking glass or your biscuits will rise sideways. And always, always – – RESIST THE TWIST! You need the sides to be cut sharply straight down to get them to rise correctly, and twisting or using something dull-edged smooths the sides.
Cut as many as you can, then reshape dough, roll again, and cut rest. Place onto prepared baking sheet. *If you have bits of dough leftover, you can roll them into small balls, wet bottoms and stick on top of cakes to resemble the centers of flowers. Top each with thin slices of butter. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-16 minutes. When done and golden brown on the bottom, remove from the oven and place on racks to cool.
While cakes are cooling, rinse and hull strawberries, then cut them into 4ths or smaller and place into a large bowl. Pour sugar and Champagne over top, fold in and let sit to macerate for at least 30 minutes. *You can also use a sharp pastry blender and mash/cut them into the sugar a little to help release the juices and cut smaller if preferred. When the sugar has dissolved into the berries and there’s juice, you’re ready to assemble!
To serve, slice open biscuit cakes, top with ladles of sweetened berries, prop top onto berries on the side, top with whipped cream, and serve with a scoop of ice cream. Garnish with a mint sprig and some lemon zest if desired. Wonderful served with “Mimosas”. (Champagne and orange juice.)
*If a non-alcoholic dessert is preferred, simply omit the Champagne. It does not have to be replaced with another liquid.
