Strawberry shortcake and peppered vanilla ice cream

Posted by Dana McMahan on March 23, 2008

Pepper on ice cream? Mais oui!

Last week in Paris I enjoyed an amazing 10-course dinner at Hidden Kitchen. The next-to-last course was a strawberry shortcake on a vanilla semifreddo with black peppercorns. Who would've thought it? But it worked -- incredibly well. And the shortcake, really a crunchy sweet biscuit, was a revelation (I always pictured those spongy yellow things when I thought of shortcake). So that dessert went to the top of my list of dishes to recreate once home.

Dessert for Easter dinner was a perfect opportunity to try it out myself. I found a shortcake recipe on Pinch My Salt and whipped these treats up in no time. Granted my shortcakes weren't as pretty as those at the Hidden Kitchen, and I used Ben and Jerry's organic vanilla ice cream instead of a Parisian-sourced semifreddo, but I was quite pleased with the results. This will definitely go on the "company" list.

For the berries:
Slice a carton's worth of strawberries and sprinkle liberally with sugar. Set in the refrigerator and allow the sugar and strawberry juice to magically create a syrup.

For the shortcake:
1 ½ C. all-purpose flour
1 ½ t. baking soda
4 T. sugar
1/3 C. butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 C. cold milk + 1/2 t. pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Whisk together flour, baking soda, and sugar in a medium bowl
Using a pastry blender or your fingertips cut the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse crumbs.
Add milk and vanilla to flour mixture and stir until just combined.
Form into four biscuits and drop on an ungreased baking sheet.
Bake 12 – 15 minutes at 425 degrees.
Remove biscuits to a rack and let cool for a few minutes.

Spoon a heaping scoop of ice cream into 4 small dishes. Grind some black peppercorns over ice cream. Top with strawberries. Break biscuits into two pieces each and place on either side of ice cream.

Bon Appétit!

TAGS: Dessert, Ice Cream, Shortcake, Strawberry
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