Mixed Berry Shortbread Recipes

Recently, while I was having dinner at home at 8:20 pm, I received a call from a restaurant I had a reservation at asking if we would attend the 8 pm reservation, which was definitely Mercury retrograde. I was sure I had booked a room for the next night, but – no – I made a mistake and our reservation was for the same night. (Fortunately, the restaurant had a steady walk-in crowd, so the tables weren’t empty. Still, I felt bad.) We did go the next night, but that same day, I was typing this recipe in and my blogging platform asked me to log in again, which I dutifully did, and then it started deleting the entire post, including the recipe.

When my head was about to explode, I decided to go for a walk and then come back later and rewrite everything from scratch. A few people told me Mercury was retrograde so, of course, as soon as I got back they started work on it upstairs so was jackhammered in trying to fill in all the ingredients in the recipe add-in I was using so the recipes were printable and making sure I had all the ingredients etc in the right places and converted.

At night some other neighbors decided to have a party and they were so loud they could be heard throughout the neighborhood. (That’s all Americans The loudest person in town. ) What made up for it were these mixed berry shortcakes, which we had for dessert that night.

In addition to the unpleasantness of the day, I bought several baskets of strawberries at the market that morning and they were all so ripe that they could not last another day. This is usually when fruit tastes its best and I tend to have a “use it and lose it” mentality whenever I have good fruit in the kitchen, so I decided to whip up a batch of Mixed Berry Shortbread. I also had some handmade butter on hand that was kind of scary and I didn’t know what to do with. I don’t usually mind this kind of thing – non-industrial animal products sometimes have that smell that doesn’t taste good on toast first thing in the morning. So I use it to make shortbread cookies.

What’s special about these shortcakes is the strawberry KulisThe longer an uncooked berry is left, the more juicy it becomes and the more delicious it tastes. It ensures a lot of delicious sauce, which moistens everything, and ensures the cookie underneath the fruit doesn’t dry out, which can happen if you only use sliced berries for shortbread. With this shortbread recipe, you can use any berry mixture you want, but I had all these strawberries and got them macerated as quickly as possible, which I did and then rolled out my cookies and baked them. They weren’t as tall as usual, maybe because of the ranch butter, or something I could blame on retrograde mercury (you can see what they usually look like in my post about peach shortcake), but there were zero complaints about the crunchy topping, including mine, and I stole one when I was rebuilding and rewriting this post. Don’t worry; that unbalanced butter flavor is lost in the mixture.

Kirsch is a clear distillate of cherries that magically enhances the flavors of berries and summer fruits. However, one reader was nice enough to write me that they didn’t find much cherry flavor in the expensive bottle. (She used a good one.) So don’t expect a total cherry on top, but like an unseen force (or planet) deleting a blog post and deleting a recipe and making a reservation on the wrong night, it works in mysterious ways, so I’m rooting for it.

After the day and dessert, hopefully the planets will align in the future for you to make these truly wonderful shortbread cookies, a pile of fresh berries, light whipped cream, and topped with flaky, crunchy cookies. I can’t say it will improve everything in your life, but if the stars align (or don’t), I’m sure this will be a hit with everyone who enjoys it.

Mixed Berry Shortbread

Feel free to mix and match any kind of berries you like. Blackberries, cherries, red currants can all be part of the mix, or feel free to go “classic” and use all strawberries. You are also welcome to adjust the amount of sugar used to sweeten the berries, which may vary based on the natural sweetness of the berries. Kirsch is optional; slightly improves the berry flavor. But if you don’t want to use it, a little blackcurrant cream or lemon juice can also enhance their flavor. If you re-roll the pieces, you may get some extra cookies from the dough. Serve them for breakfast the next morning with some butter and jam, or freeze them for up to two months and use them to make more shortbread in the future.

portion size number of copies

raw material

For shortbread (cookies)

2 1/2 Cup (350g) flour
1 1/2 spoon sugar Add extra sugar and sprinkle on shortbread before baking
2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (preferably aluminum-free)
1 teaspoon Salt
10 tablespoon (5 oz, 140 g) Unsalted butter, cut into cubes and refrigerated
3/4 cup (180ml) Heavy cream or buttermilk
1 yolk Mix with 1 teaspoon cream or milk for glaze

for berries

6 cup (1 lb 4 oz/750 g) strawberry shelled
1 1/2 cup (6 oz, 160 g) raspberry
1 cup (4 oz, 130 g) blueberry
3 spoon Sugar (total)
1-2 teaspoon cherry wine (Elective)

For the whipped cream

1 1/2 cup (375 ml) heavy cream
3 spoon sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

instruct

To make cookies, preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. (You can also make this in a large bowl using a pastry blender.) Add the butter and beat on low speed until the butter chunks are the size of large corn kernels. Add the cream or buttermilk and stir until the dough comes together
On a lightly floured counter, roll out the dough to 3/4 inch (2 cm) thick, then cut out six individual cookies with a 2 1/2 inch (8 cm) cookie cutter, dipping the cutter in flour between each cookie. You can collect the pieces and re-roll to cut out more cookies. Arrange cookies evenly on baking sheet. Brush only the tops of the cookies with glaze, sprinkle generously with sugar, and bake until tops and sides are browned, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.
Place half the strawberries in a medium bowl and add 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon kirsch (if using). Mash everything with your hands until the berries are juicy. Leave for at least 30 minutes. You can stir the berries a few times while they sit, which will encourage them to release more juice.
Slice or quarter the remaining strawberries and combine in another bowl with the raspberries, blueberries, remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, and 1 teaspoon kirsch (if using).
Beat the cream in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or by hand with a whisk until it starts to stiffen, then beat in the sugar and vanilla, continuing to beat until the cream holds its shape.
To assemble the shortbread, cut each cookie in half crosswise and place the bottoms on six serving plates. Spoon a generous amount of the mashed berries and their juice onto the base of each. Place a dollop of whipped cream on the bottom of each cookie, then divide the mixed berries onto each cookie. Finally place the top of the cookie back onto the shortbread.