Chocolate strawberry shortcake recipe
I love strawberries, but have
always been a bit undecided about strawberry shortcake. For one
thing, there just aren't enough strawberries in the dish. And
where's the chocolate? With strawberry season in full swing, I
tested out a new recipe that won everyone's heart...including my own.
Start with a big bowl of strawberries. A
gallon of strawberries will serve about seven or eight strawberry
lovers. Try not to eat too many on the way into the house.
If you must, wash the
strawberries, but only if it's been raining and the fruit is really
dirty. Then cut off the stems and slice the berries into
slivers. Sprinkle on a bit of sugar (perhaps 0.25 cups at the
most) --- you shouldn't need much, but if you couldn't wait to pick the
berries on a sunny afternoon, a bit of sugar will bring out the
flavor. Stir up the berries and set them aside. You should
have just over two quarts of lightly sweetened strawberry slices.
Now make the
brownies...I mean, shortcake. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Fahrenheit and butter a 9 by 13 inch pan. Melt a stick of butter
and stir in 1 cup of sugar, 2 eggs, 1.25 cups of cocoa (we used
Hershey's Special Dark because it was on sale), 0.25 c. flour, 0.5
teaspoons salt, 0.5 teaspoons baking powder, 1.5 teaspoons vanilla, and
about 2 tablespoons of water 
(enough to make the dough
hang togeher.) Whir up one 3.52 ounce bar of 60% dark chocolate
(we used Hershey's Extra Dark) in the food processor to turn it into
chips. Stir the chips into the dough and spread the result into
the bottom of the pan --- it won't want to spread and will be a bit
thin. Bake until a butter knife barely comes out clean.
Now, pour a pint of
whipping cream in a bowl and turn your mixer on high to whip it.
At the end, sprinkle in a bit of sugar (perhaps 3 or 4 tablespoons) and
mix just enough to blend.
Finally,
assemble your dessert. Brownies on the bottom, then strawberries
(being sure to pour on some of the juices), and finally whipped
cream. This recipe is too rich to eat every day, but is
definitely a great way to celebrate the height of strawberry
season. Heather deemed it worthy of a muddy trek through the
alligator swamp...and she doesn't like homemade brownies!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Heather loves chocolate, but she's been looking long and hard for a homemade recipe that will match her boxed-mix expectations. She thinks she may have finally found it...
You'll have to plan a trip down here sometime at the end of May and we'll treat you to a repeat!
Jennifer sent me this delicious-looking recipe in an email, and I thought I'd throw it up as an alternative:
Just read your post on strawberry "shortcake" (cheater :-), and I thought I'd chime in with my absolute favorite new made up recipe: chocolate scones. I think they would go awesomely with strawberries.
3 c flour 2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 2 Tbl sugar 1/2 c dutch cocoa 1 tsp salt 8 Tbl (1 stick/4 oz) butter, at room temp 1 large egg 1 c buttermilk
-Preheat over to 450 F. - Blend dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and rub in the butter. If you're feeling really decadent, toss in about 1 c mini chocolate chips. - In a small bowl, beat together egg and buttermilk. Make a well in the flour/butter mixture and pour in the liquid. Mix together for about 20 seconds. - Turn out dough onto a well-floured surface and dust the top with flour. Using a bench knife or bowl scraper, knead together gently about 10 times (don't get too tough with it, or they'll develop too much gluten and be tough back at ya :-). Pat the dough until it's about 1/2" thick (I usually make them a bit thicker -- up to you, just watch the baking time). - Cut out circles with a biscuit cutter (again, size is up to you, but the smaller, the shorter the baking time), pressing down firmly. Just like with biscuits, don't twist the cutter, or they won't rise to their fullest. - Bake for 12-15 min -- it's a bit tricky to tell doneness since they're so dark, but as long as they look firm, they should be fine. Even if they're a bit soft in the middle, I still like 'em.
Depending on tastes, I found you can vary the amount of cocoa powder: when I first made them, I dumped a bit in, mixed, said, that's not dark enough, and dumped in more. So 1/2 c is kind of a guess. Anyway, these are pretty deep deep cocoa-y, such that I love 'em, and Steven's not crazy about them (he's a milk chocolate kind of guy). You'll need a bit more liquid -- but it's just like making biscuits. It also works really well to halve the recipe (just approximate half an egg :-). And see, I messed with a recipe, and it worked!!! I was so pleased with myself. Also, it's low in sugar.
Also also, you could probably easily use half white whole wheat flour, since the chocolate is so predominant. Feel free to share, although the credit for the plain scone recipe is from King Arthur Flour (they rock). And please give Heather a biiiig hug for me!!!!!