bon appétit strawberry shortcakes.

summer is here, baybeeeeee.

this recipe comes straight from bon appétit magazine! well, from their amazing simple cooking resource site called basically. i LOVE how each step in a recipe is written out, followed immediately by a video of what that step should look like IRL. this is super helpful so you don’t have to scroll up and down to find a photo of what your food should look like in the moment.

damn. i thought i had just invented something but after a 2-second google search, it’s already a thing. i was thinking of a rubber thimble-like cover for your finger while you’re cooking or baking so you don’t have to wash your hands every time you go to touch your phone or scroll on the recipe and not cover the phone in flour or various goo. turns out this is called a finger stylus. eff. i’m always thinking i’ve come up with an invention, but alas, it already exists. also…..lol, i guess one could just use a regular pen stylus in this situation. i’m just hyper paranoid about washing stuff off my hands i guess. what a time suck! ok clean phone screen rant over.

soooo, i’ve been wanting to make really good strawberry shortcakes, and figured i’d just leave this one up to the experts. i decided to take photos because those pretty berries were calling to get their picture taken!

the one thing i changed here was adding blackberries & mint to the berry mixture :) because, summer mint obsession.

the shortcakes are freaking amazing and just shortcake perfection. super layered and buttery, with a touch of crispety sugar baked on top.

prepping these berries brought me straight back to the days when i worked at burgerville in high school. in the summertime, they have a different seasonal fresh berry each month, and we’d have to come in super early to prep the strawberries (and also the walla walla onion rings). that was my first real job, and i loved ittttt.

i had thought that working in “fast food” was going to be super gross & weird behind-the-scenes, and i bet some places are - but lemme tell ya that BV is too legit to quit in this department. every process back there was super clean and not gross, and the way they cooked the food was, as it should be - cooked to order. anyhoos, i was pleased even as a high school punk that my establishment of employment was on the up and up and super legit. and such good food, by the way. a pnw classsssssiq.

it was actually so much fun working there with mostly people my same age. it was kinda just like hanging out with my friends and slinging milkshakes while we were at it. getting in early in the summer to prep berries and onion rings was FUN and chill. p.s. those delicious walla walla onion rings are truly each hand-dipped by a human - i know this because i hand-dipped many, many onion rings back in those days.

back to the shorty cakes, WHOA YUM. so so so glad i made this recipe from bon app. pete and i both thought the addition of blackberries and mint was delightful, however i could have gone for just a plain strawberry shortcake after all. keep it classic, ya know?

i watched molly baz make this shortcake recipe (in their ‘shortcake’ highlight) on instagram (twice) and i wasted no time getting after it myself.

the addition of sour cream not only in the shortcake, but in the whipped cream = genius. adding something quite tangy to something that’s usually soo sweet was a great idea... in fact, i’d probably leave out 1 TB of sugar in the whipped cream if i made this again, because there’s sugar in every component. but for the sweet-toothed general masses, follow the recipe exactly.

the beauty of this not being my own recipe is that i don’t have to type it all out now. heheHHeeHEHHHhhhhh.

find the bon appétit shortcake recipe here!!!

the biscuit/shortcake part is amazeballs on its own (or with more buttah, lolll yummm) so no part of this will go to waste if you use up all the berries.

or vice versa, just use the berries & cream if you don’t want to eat the biscuit.

berries & cream, berries & cream, i’m a little lad who loves berrrrrrrieeeeessss & creeeeeeeeeam. still funny.

high kick!!!!!!

thanks, bon appétit. you rock. never change. keep in touch. HAGS. have a great summer.

qp

easy strawberry cheesecake pockets.

with chocolate, if you please!

wowwweeeeeeeee i have been in the depths of winter hibernation and have forgotten how to exercise this creative outlet of mine. in the midst of general busyness/business/darkness/laziness, i haven't been in the recipe making zooone. well, at least not to the point of photographing them properly - because it's dark & gloomy as shit out!

also that thing called christmastime happened, peter & i went on a long trip to europe,  and we both turned 30.  evidently we spent the entire month of january recovering from all of that, lol. woopsie.

to lift myself outta my winter creative funk and get back into the habit of challenging myself to make random recipes and take real photos (in daylight), i threw something together with a few ingredients i happened to have on hand. frozen strawberries from last summer, a bar of dark chocolate, frozen phyllo pastry dough, brown sugar, & cream cheese.

and it worked! i quickly put something together, it tasted good, and i didn't completely forget how to use my camera. [lolz jk i've actually been using my camera a ton this winter, just not for a lot of food purposes - but it still it feels like working a different muscle when you switch from shooting portraits to landscapes to objects to food, etc etc. 

while i do not think these little treats (or the photos) turned out to be the most beautiful thing in the world, it still legitimately feels like i came out of a hibernation and took my first few wobbly-bambi-leg steps back into just making stuff for the hell of it. and it feels durn good!

p.s. calling these things "pockets" is kinda grossing me out..... but at the same time i don't feel like using some crazy long-winded 'chocolate strawberry cheesecake phyllo dough crispy thingydoodah' title either.  so - stick that in your back pocket.  BYE!

Easy Strawberry Cheesecake Pockets

Makes 6 Triangles

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 roll phyllo pastry dough - actually only about 6 sheets (you can re-roll the sheets you don't use and freeze with the other roll that comes in the box of 2)
• 4-6 large strawberries, sliced
• 1/2 a chocolate bar of your choice (I used 1/2 of a Lindt 70% Cocoa Excellence Bar), chopped
• 4 oz. cream cheese (I used about 1/2 of a block of lite cream cheese for this)
• 1/3 cup brown sugar, for sprinkling

Instructions-

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a baking sheet lightly with cooking spray. Layer one sheet of phyllo dough at a time, giving a light spray (or brush on melted butter or coconut oil if you're an overachiever) of cooking spray on each layer. I used about 6 sheets in this recipe.

Use a pizza cutter or sharp knife to cut the large rectangle into 6 equal squares. Carefully place a dollop of cream cheese in a corner (but about 1/4 inch away from the outer edge) and sprinkle with a bit of brown sugar. Add some sliced strawberries and another sprinkle of brown sugar (you want the sweetness to be a bit layered and evenly dispersed). Add the chopped chocolate and more brown sugar if you desire.

Fold the empty corner of each square over the toppings to form a triangle and press down gently to flatten. Lightly spray (or brush with butter or oil) over the tops. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the pastry dough has started to brown and crisp. Remove from oven and cool for a few minutes on a cooling rack, but serve them warm! They are okay to eat once cooled for 1 day. Warm & fresh is best!

Note: You can use white sugar or whatever sugar you prefer - I generally think granulated white sugar gives a "higher" sweetness whereas brown sugar or coconut sugar gives a "deeper" sweetness, if that makes any sense.  granulated white is more of a "sickly sweet" (sometimes) versus "rich sweetness" of brown or coconut sugar, in my mind...

& happy february!

qp