Blueberry & Cherry Rosé Shortcakes with Sour Cream Whipped Cream

Maker: Anita Parris Soule

Anita Parris Soule is a born and raised Virginia girl with a passion for delicious food, beautiful words, and childhood memories. She combines these passions at www.cookonawhim.com, a blog she created in 2013 to share her love of cooking and writing. Her appetite for food, cooking, and all things culinary was inspired early on by her father and has never stopped growing. With a strong French influence, her meals are simple, classic, and unique. She loves baking sweet treats, too—especially on snow days. She lives in the country with her husband, kids, and animals. When she’s not whipping up delicious recipes, she’s outside picking wild flowers, catching fireflies, visiting farmer’s markets, walking through the forest, and taking in all the beauty Virginia has to offer.

Anita is an English graduate of George Mason University. She has been featured on The Feed Feed, as well as written several articles for DCfud, The Fauquier Times-Democrat newspaper, The Brookside Neighbors magazine, and guest-blogged for BeFunky.com in Portland, Oregon.

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A Note from Anita…

Say hello to strawberry shortcake’s grown up, sophisticated, oh-so-elegant cousin. Everyone has had strawberry shortcake—it’s a classic that we all love. But I wanted to mix things up using blueberries and cherries since they’re in season right now, and make something worthy of a Virginia summertime backyard soirée—and what’s more summertime than rosé?

Adding rosé wine to the fruit gives a hint of acidity and amplifies their fruity sweetness—you won’t get a wine taste, just a slightly floral, extra fruity undertone. Then by adding a touch of sour cream (or feel free to use crème fraiche), the whipped cream is given a welcome tanginess to offset the sweet fruit. Save some fresh fruit for garnish, scatter some wild flowers all over the table, and you have the perfect, most beautiful seasonal sweet treat.

Also, the color combo here screams 4th of July! Grab some fresh, local fruit and wine and give these a try.


Ingredients

Shortcakes:

  • 2 cups AP flour

  • ⅓ – ½ cup whole milk (you probably won’t need all of it, save the leftovers for brushing the shortcakes)

  • ¼ cup granulated sugar

  • 1 stick butter (8 tablespoons) diced and very cold

  • 1 tablespoon baking powder (I always use aluminum free)

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste, seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt

Blueberry sauce:

  • 2 cups fresh blueberries (plus a few for garnish)

  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

  • ¼ cup rosé wine

  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch

Cherry sauce:

  • 2 cups fresh sweet cherries, pitted (plus a few for garnish)

  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

  • ¼ cup rosé wine

  • 1 tablespoon corn starch

Whipped cream:

  • 2 cups heavy whipping cream

  • ¼ cup full-fat sour cream

  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste, seeds from one vanilla bean, or teaspoon vanilla extract

Prepare

Shortcakes:

  • Combine milk and vanilla in a glass measuring cup or bowl. Set aside.

  • Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk or stir to combine.

  • Add diced butter, and with your fingers, a fork, or a pastry cutter, cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients until you have a crumbly mixture with very small pieces of butter throughout.

  • Then, slowly pour in the milk and vanilla mixture as you toss the dry mixture with a fork. You may not need the full ½ cup of milk. Reserve a tiny bit of the milk mixture to brush on the top of the shortcakes. You are looking for a mostly damp mixture with just a little bit of dry flour in the bottom of your bowl. You do not want a very wet dough.

  • Next, dump the dough onto a very lightly floured surface and squeeze together, incorporating any dry bits. Press into a roughly 8 inch by 8-inch square—it doesn’t have to be perfect.

  • Now, my trick for super flaky biscuits and scones, take a sharp knife or a bench scraper and cut the dough in half, stack one half on top of the other, then cut this in half, and stack again. You will have a layer of 4 square-ish dough pieces.

  • Squash this down again into an 8 by 8-inch square, keeping the edges as even as possible.

  • Now, with the same knife or bench scraper, cut dough into thirds each way, so you end up with 9 even shortcakes. You can use a biscuit cutter, but I prefer slicing so that I don’t have any wasted dough. Plus, they end up looking so natural and rustic.

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  • Place shortcakes onto a parchment lined baking sheet, brush with leftover milk/vanilla mixture, sprinkle with sugar, and place in freezer for 30 minutes while you clean up, prepare sauces, and whip the cream. The freezing step ensures a good rise and it’s a trick I learned from a few of my very wise biscuit and scone making friends.

  • After shortcakes have been in the freezer for 30 minutes, bake in a 400-degree oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and cooked throughout. I find that once they are nice and golden on top, they are done, but don’t be afraid to peek inside one to be extra sure. No one will know, I promise.

  • Remove from oven and let cool to room temp before assembling.

Sauces:

  • Place all ingredients in a saucepan, (cherry mixture in one pan, blueberry mixture in another) stir to combine, and cook on medium heat until fruits release some liquid and the sauce thickens just a bit. This takes about 5 minutes.

  • You can either make them separately as I have done or toss all ingredients for both sauces in a big saucepan and cook as instructed above.

  • Allow sauces to cool to room temperature.

Whipped cream:

  • Combine cream, sour cream, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl.

  • Either with a whisk or hand mixer, whisk until you have soft peaks. Don’t over mix—you want it soft and billowy. Stash this in the refrigerator until you’re ready to assemble.

Assemble

Split shortcake in half, I use a fork for this to get some nice nooks and crannies. Then add a generous spoonful of whipped cream, a few spoons of each fruit sauce, another spoonful of cream, and top with other half of shortcake. Garnish with fresh blueberries and cherries if desired. This makes a great do-it-yourself dessert too. Just set all ingredients out and let guests build their own shortcake.

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