what to do with leftovers...

at the end of last summer, i hosted an afternoon tea which i tried to recreate in all its british cuteness...except that the tray i bought off ebay and the hot water pot i ordered didn't show up until AFTER the tea party. oh well...c'est la vie! quintessential to an afternoon tea is the scone. so sunday morning found me sweating in a hot kitchen in the middle of an august summer in nyc furiously trying to put together the recipe for scones. (classic...it was the last thing i put on my list to make since the recipe looked so simple.) and then i ran out of cream...
God bless good friends! E brought over a carton of heavy cream before everyone started showing up and thank gawd this recipe comes together so quickly. if they came out well, it'd be icing...if not, at least there were cucumber and salmon sandwiches to eat instead. beautiful and rustic with a rich taste from the cream...these scones were as good to eat as they were easy to make! classic skimmy...i had lots of leftovers. =)and quite a few strawberries in the fridge...so i used the cream scones as a base and made strawberry shortcake! Y U M...i prefer the scones to traditional biscuits because instead of upping the sugar to make the "cake" part sweet, these had the addition of cream to make the dessert taste decadent and rich (as dessert should be!) but not too sweet.

strawberry shortcake (makes 4)

macerating the strawberries

1 cup strawberries, cleaned
1 tablespoon sugar
juice of half a lemoon

1. remove the hull from the strawberries and cut in half (or 1/4 if they are large). place them in a medium-sized bowl.
   
2. let sit for 20 minutes.

cream scones
(from baking from my home to yours by dorie greenspan)
note: dorie adds currants to the recipe, which i omitted.

1 large egg
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 cups flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces

1. preheat oven to 400 degrees. line baking sheet with silicone mat or parchment paper.
2. stir the egg and heavy cream together in a small bowl and set aside.
3. in a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
4. drop in the butter into the flour mixture and using a pastry blender or your fingers, blend in the butter pieces until small pebbles form. (you will have a mixture of different sizes.)
5. add the heavy cream and egg to the flour mixture and stir quickly with a fork just until the dough comes together (which will be sticky).
6. gently knead the dough by hand or spatula while still in the bowl (about 8 to 10 times).
7. place dough on floured surface and divide the dough in half. set one half aside.
8. pat the dough into a rough circle until about 5 inches in diameter. using a pastry cutter, score the dough creating 6 scones. (repeat with other half of dough.)*
9. place on baking sheet and bake for 20-22 minutes until golden on top. transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool for 10 minutes.

*at this point, the scones can be frozen and wrapped airtight. no need to defrost - just add 2mins to the baking time.

whipped cream

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup confectioner's sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. whip all the ingredients together using a mixer until soft peaks form.
2. adjust sweetness to taste.

assemble the goodness and enjoy!