Strawberry Shortcake

Ingredients
16 oz fresh strawberries, washed, stems removed and sliced
2 cups whipped cream (My homemade whipped cream recipe is coming soon!)
Optional: Some decorative coarse sugar to sprinkle on top
For the shortcakes:
2½ cups all purpose flour PLUS extra for rolling out the dough
3 tsps baking powder
1 tsp salt
¼ cup sugar
¾ cup (1½ sticks) cold butter, cut up
¾ cup milk




Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Combine dry shortcake ingredients in a medium mixing bowl using a whisk.
Cut in the butter using a pastry blender or 2 forks. The butter and dry ingredients should start to combine and be about pea sized. You can use your hands to break apart the butter but try not to over mix.
Gradually add the milk to the mixture and combine with your hands or a wooden spoon to form a dough. The dough is supposed to be crumbly so don't over mix.
For best results, at this point, after the dough has come together I chill it in the fridge for about 10 minutes.
Take the dough from the fridge and drop it onto a floured surface. Sprinkle a little flour over the dough.
Roll the dough out into the shape of a rectangle about ½" thick. Sprinkle with a little flour.
Fold the square of dough in half and roll it out to about ½" thick again.
Fold over one last time and roll out to ½" thick. Sprinkle with a little flour.
Using a square cookie cutter (I used a 3.5" cutter) with ruffled edges, cut out the shortcake and place them onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Leave at least 1" of space around each one.
Bake for about 15-18 minutes or until tops are slightly golden.
Optional - Brush melted butter over the tops of the biscuits once they come out of the oven.
Allow shortcakes to cool on a wire rack before assembling the shortcakes.
To assemble the shortcakes:
Onto a plate place one of the shortcake layers.
On top of this, place slices of fresh strawberries and top with whipped cream.
Place the 2nd layer of shortcake on top. Add sliced strawberries and top with whipped cream.
Optional: Sprinkle with coarse decorative sugar for a nice sparkly presentation. :)</script></script>



source : http://dishesanddustbunnies.com/