Summer Time and the Eating is Easy

Strawberries - buy one get one. That's a no-brainer.

Seeing them at the market and heading off to a birthday party down in Long Valley at the weekend, I had the inspiration to make a strawberry glacé pie. I had not made one this season. It is super easy and perfect summer food.

Well... then I got sidetracked with a trip to the farmers market and making gazpacho so I didn't get the crust and strawberry goo made the night before. I figured I'd get up early the next day. And I did, BUT, well, by the time I had coffee and emptied the dishwasher and thew in a load of wash, and finally finished pa-diddling around and read the recipe for the crust; I realized it so wasn't going to happen. I was planning on a buttery tart crust. It needed to rest in the fridge for a few hours before I could roll and bake. And, of course, the glacé needed to sit overnight to firm up.

While pacing the house in a funk considering and rejecting the yellow spongy cakes next to the strawberries at the store as well as angel food cake (which really is a good alternative), I hit upon actual short cake. I hadn't made them in years.

I pulled out the Silver Palate cookbook, actually sifted the ingredients, cut in the butter and added heavy cream instead of light (Seriously light cream? What is the point? If you are cutting calories then you should not be having cream at all.) The recipe calls for a 3 inch rounds; I used a wine glasses. Close enough. They only took 10 minutes to bake. I cut and juiced the strawberries while they were baking.

I would say they were a hit or at least there was nothing left. The only thing better would be to have the cakes hot, split open with some butter before the berries and whip cream were shoveled on.