Beautiful Strawberry Heart Shortcake

A friend of mine is getting married, the team at work are preparing the nibbles for the event. Decided it hast to be something hearty.., beautiful.. So am pre testing for the big day. Myrtha, nooooo peeeeeeeeping, hahahhahaha

 Ingredients:

500g fresh strawberries, 1 3/4 cups flour, 3 tbsp sugar (1 tbsp for the shortcake, 2 for the strawberry topping), 1/2 tsp salt, 6 tbsp cold butter, 3/4 cup cream

 Instructions:

Rinse the berries, reserving 8-10 small to medium ones with pointy tips. These will be your hearts. Preheat oven to 230°C.

Slice remaining strawberries into quarters and toss with 2 tbsp sugar to coat. Set aside.

  Pour flour into measuring cup, then level off with a knife. 

I’ll repeat it again just in case you missed it the first time: do not level off by shaking or tapping the measuring cup. You’ll get dry nasty muffins, and nobody wants that.

Sift the  flour with baking powder, add salt and sugar. Cut up the butter, which should have been in your fridge all this time, a little bit to get the blending going. Dump into the flour, then use a pastry blender or two knives to blend together. You’re done when there are no remaining chunks of butter in there. Add in the cream, then mix until all ingredients are moistened.

Let that sit a bit while you create your strawberry hearts. Pull off stems, carve out the pit with a paring knife, then slice in half. Shape each half into a heart by carving a V at the notch (where the stem used to be).

Since the berries will be pushed into the dough, the edges don’t need to make a perfect heart, but the V at the top is pivotal.

Scoop two heaving tablespoons of batter into each spot of your muffin pan, then press one of the strawberry hearts into each.

Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool a minute or two in the pan, then transfer to wire rack to cool. Serve to your dearest love with sugared strawberries and whipped cream.