Strawberry Shortcakes: The Perfect Serving Vessel

As my roasted rhubarb vanilla ice cream churned away in my ice cream machine, I knew I had to figure out the perfect way to serve it. I also knew that I had leftover half-and-half from making the ice cream that I needed to use up.

The New Basics Cookbook didn't let me down. When I opened it up, I found their new basic (sweet) biscuit recipe, which not only sounded delicious but would allow me to use up the remainder of my half-and-half. A win-win situation indeed.

The biscuits came together in a flash (less than five minutes from starting the process to putting them in the oven), and I whipped up a quick strawberry topping with chopped strawberries and a sprinkling of sugar.

A sweet biscuit, topped with a scoop of roasted rhubarb vanilla ice cream and chopped strawberries. Perfection.

New Basic (Sweet) Biscuits
Taken from The New Basics Cookbook, which has never proven me wrong

This recipe is supposed to yield 8 sweet biscuits, but I ended up with 7 and a little extra dough to snack on. If you don't have a biscuit cutter of the appropriate size, just use a drinking glass. Dip it in flour first to keep it from sticking in the dough.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
3/4 cup half-and-half
a little melted butter and extra sugar for sprinkling on top

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

In a large bowl, toss together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces, and cut it into the flour. You could use two knives, a pastry blender or your finger tips to do this. Cut butter in until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Add the half-and-half, and stir gently until the mixture forms a mass. Gather it into a ball.

Turn the mixture onto a lightly floured surface. Knead it for about 30 seconds, and then pat it out to form a 3/4-inch-thick rectangle. Using a 2 3/4-inch cookie cutter (or an upside down water glass!), cut out 8 circles. Use up all the dough.

Brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter, and sprinkle them with additional sugar.

Arrange the biscuits about 1 inch apart on a baking sheet. Bake until puffed and golden, about 12-14 minutes. Transfer the biscuits to a wire rack and allow them to cool.