Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake

All of my favorite fruits are in season, but in particular strawberries, apricots and peaches.  The best strawberries, of course, are the ones that I have picked myself.  There's a million and one delicious uses for farmers' market strawberries - one my favorites is a strawberry salad with goat cheese and hazelnuts.  But I just love strawberry shortcake as a sweet treat.  In the past, I have always made a traditional strawberry shortcake with a plain scone or shortcake.  But this time I decided to go the chocolate route for a fun variation - I made chocolate strawberry shortcakes with chocolate shortcakes which was delicious! I adapted from this recipe for the shortcakes.  For the topping, I did not mix the strawberries with a load of sugar as is commonly done - it's too much especially with the natural sweetness in the berries this time of year.  Instead, just serve the strawberries with a bit of lemon juice, nice and fresh.  Add a tablespoon of sugar, if you prefer, but not more. Some whipped cream is essential but you really don't have to make your own - I didn't - some store bought whipped cream will work just fine.

Chocolate Strawberry Shortcakes (shortcake portion derived from this recipe)
Makes 6
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 T dutch process cocoa
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 T butter, cut into pieces
3 oz semisweet chocolate chips
2 large eggs
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
extra sugar for sprinkling
1 quart strawberries, sliced
1 tsp lemon juice
whipped cream
1 T sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  To make the shortcakes, mix the flour, sugar, salt, cocoa and baking powder.  I used a mixer to blend in the butter.  Then I mixed in the chocolate chips, one of the eggs, the heavy cream and vanilla.  I prepared the dough on a baking sheet into about 6-7 rounds. This is very similar to the types of rounds that you would make if you were making scones.

Next, put the rounds in the freezer for twenty minutes.  Glaze with the remaining egg and top with some sugar.  Bake until firm for about twenty minutes.  Then allow to cool.

For the strawberry topping, combine the sliced strawberries (use farm fresh, seasonal strawberries if you can - they make this dessert what it is) with the lemon juice and a tablespoon of sugar if you prefer.  Top the chocolate shortcakes with the strawberries and the whipped cream.