Margaritaville...........Not!

As you can see from my pics on South Mountain last week, the green season in the Valley of the Sun is over except for a few feeble brushes of color from the ocotillo and saguaro cacti. My outdoor adventures are going to have to move north shortly as we are now facing triple digit temps this week.

So.........a cool dessert to help fight off the heat. Strawberry Margarita Shortcake. No, it doesn't have any tequila in it for two reasons. One, I don't drink anymore and two, just the smell of tequila makes me heave due to an unfortunate incident involving a margarita, a fried calamari sandwich and a drive up Waimea Canyon with a driver who had no freakin' clue how to drive curves. But, that's another story.

Here's the recipe............

Strawberry Margarita Shortcake


Shortcake
2 cups of flour
1 T. baking powder
¼ cup of sugar
½ t. salt
½ t. baking soda
½ cup of buttermilk
½ cup of cream
6 T. of cold butter
Zest of 1 orange


Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and soda in a mixing bowl. Cut in ½ of the butter with a pastry blender and then using your hands rub the butter into the flour mixture until it’s the texture of fine meal. Add the remaining butter and cut in with the pastry blender but leave it in larger pea size pieces. Toss in the orange zest and add the liquid. Blend just until everything is moist. You want the dough to be of a consistency that will drop from a spoon onto the baking sheet, so depending on the humidity you might have to add a little more cream. Drop onto a buttered baking sheet and sprinkle the top of the shortcakes with turbinado sugar. Bake for 8-12 minutes until golden brown on top and bottom.


Strawberry Topping

2 pints of strawberries sliced
Juice of one lime
Sugar to taste
Pinch of salt

Mix the sliced strawberries with the lime juice, sugar and salt and let macerate for at least 30 minutes.

Slice the shortcake in half and spoon the strawberries on the bottom half. Top with crème fraiche sweetened with some sugar.