Strawberry Shortcake - John Besh

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This is the dish I created for The Next Iron Chef at the ambassador's residence in Paris. It might look complicated, but when you take each component separately, it's as easy as making biscuits, marinating the berries and freezing a sorbet.

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  • 8

Ingredients

  • FOR THE SAUCE:
  • 1 cup Creole cream cheese or fromage blanc
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream
  • seeds from half a vanilla bean
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • FOR THE BISCUITS:
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons baking powder
  • 1 pinch salt
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • 6 tablespoons cold butter, diced
  • 3/4 cup whole milk
  • FOR THE BERRIES:
  • 2 pints strawberries, hulled and diced
  • 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier
  • leaves from i sprig fresh mint, minced
  • 2 cups watermelon-strawberry sorbet
  • powdered sugar

Preparation

Step 1

1. For the sauce, put the Creole cream cheese, heavy cream, vanilla bean seeds and granulated sugar into a medium mixing bowl and whisk together until well-combined. Cover and refrigerate.

2. For the biscuits, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Combine 2 cups of the flour, the sugar, baking powder, salt and lemon zest in a medium mixing bowl. Using a fork or pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour until the texture resembles cornmeal.

3. Gradually stir in just enough milk for the dough to form a ball. Be careful not to overwork the dough, or the biscuits will be tough.

4. Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface to a 3/4-inch thickness and cut out 8 disks with a 2 1/2-inch cutter.

5. Place the biscuits on a baking sheet at least one inch apart and bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.

6. For the berries, toss the berries, sugar, Grand Marnier and mint together in a medium bowl. Cover and let marinate for at least 30 minutes and up to 6 hours.

7. To assemple each shortcake, spoon 1-2 tablespoons of the sauce in the center of a dessert plate. Cut a biscuit in half crosswise and set the bottom half on the sauce, cut side up. Spoon some berries over the biscuit and scoop some sorbet on top. Dust the top half of the biscuit with powdered sugar and lean it jauntily on top of the berries.

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