shortcake season

Today I went to a little luncheon for my French teacher. I was asked to bring dessert, so I decided to make shortcake, a typical summer dessert. The weird thing was my biscuits spread (hee hee. That sounds funny, doesn’t it? “Dude, my biscuits spread!”). See?

But they still tasted pretty yummy. I used a recipe from the latest Bon Appetit, but instead of using blueberries as called for, I used poached bing cherries.

CHERRY SHORTCAKES adapted from Bon Appetit July 2004
Cream:
1 cup chilled whipping cream
1 cup sour cream or creme fraiche (my store was out of creme fraiche)
Poached cherries:
1 pound Bing cherries, pitted
1/8 cup sugar
1/8 cup black cherry concentrate (like the cherry juice concentrate. You can find this at health food stores)
Biscuits:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 T baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
3/4 stick chilled, unsalted butter, cut into little chunks
3/4-1 cup chilled buttermilk
2 T whipping cream
Turbinado/raw sugar
For the cherries, combine the cherries, sugar, and concentrate in a heavy saucepan. Cover and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the cherries are tender, about 15 minutes. Refrigerate until chilled.
For the cream, beat the cream and the sour cream or creme fraiche until peaks form. You can make this 6 hours in advance. Cover, chill, and rewhisk before using.
For the biscuits, preheat oven to 350F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat (love these). Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, and salt in a large bowl and whisk to blend. Add the butter and cut it in or rub it with your fingertips until you get a nice coarse meal. Pour in 3/4 cup of the butttermilk and toss with a fork until you get moist clumps. Add more buttermilk if the dough doesn’t come together and is too dry. Gather the dough into a ball and turn out onto a lightly floured board. Pat it down until it’s about 3/4″ thick. Cut out biscuits and place on the prepared sheet. Brush with the cream then GENEROUSLY sprinkle with the raw sugar (this really makes it).
Bake the biscuits about 20 minutes or until they are golden brown. Cool on a rack for 30 minutes.
To serve, slice biscuits in half. Plop a big spoonful of the cream stuff onto the bottom half, spread some of the poached cherries on top, then cover with the top of the biscuit.