That’s because if you finish your food first, you’ll be assured of seconds. In our family we kids perfected the art of eating quickly with strawberry shortcake. If there was one food we dreamt of, fought over, couldn’t get enough of, it was strawberry shortcake. Made with biscuits. And real whipped cream. Sigh. There is no more of a perfect dessert than this. Which is why, when my mother asked me to make something for her book club meeting, and with big, juicy, sweet strawberries showing up in the markets all over town (even at a street vendor on the corner of my block), that I couldn’t wait to make these mini shortcakes. I don’t take credit for the idea, or the name for that matter. We were served mini strawberry shortcakes at an event for Ruth Reichl when she was in town recently, and my pals Garrett and Amber took one look at them and called them “sliders”. Why a slider? Because like a burger slider, you can hold them in your hand to eat. They are perfect little finger food shortcakes. Shortcake biscuits are typically very crumbly; the crumbles just absorb all of that extra juice from the strawberries. But with sliders, you don’t want them to crumble. So the solution is to add an egg to dough, to give the biscuits a little more structure, and to knead them just a few turns more than you would normally. Make a well in the large bowl of the flour mixture and pour the cream mixture into the center of it. Use a fork to mix until the dough is evenly moistened. The dough mixture should look shaggy. If the dough is too wet to handle, sprinkle on more flour (up to 1/2 cup more) to the mix. Knead the dough with your hands 8 turns or so to create a ball. Use a 1 1/2-inch diameter biscuit cutter (or a juice glass) to cut out round biscuit shapes from the dough. (It helps to dip the biscuit cutter in some flour before each cut, so that the dough doesn’t stick to the form.) Place rounds on a baking sheet, space about 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart from each other. Chill for 10 minutes in the refrigerator before baking. Let sit until the sugar dissolves and the strawberries release their moisture. Sprinkle the sugar and vanilla over the cream. Continue to whip until it is thick and holds its shape. Cover with plastic wrap and keep chilled until it’s time to assemble the mini strawberry shortcakes. Place a strawberry slice or two on each bottom, and place a dollop of whipped cream on top of the strawberries. Then place the top biscuit piece on top of the whipped cream. Voilá! You have your slider. Alternatively, you can serve them without the top. Strawberry Shortcake here on Simply Recipes Whipped cream technique from David Lebovitz’s latest Ready for Dessert: My Best Recipes
