Kim Laidlaw’s Home Baked Comfort is filled with sweet and savory ideas to bring a true sense of comfort from you kitchen to your table. If that is, you wait for the dish to be transferred out of the kitchen. In this case, I don’t think the results will travel that far.
Cornmeal does transform a dish. That cornmeal flavor seems to linger in the back of your throat longer after you’ve chewed and swallowed. Here, just a ¼ cup added to conventional flour is the right proportion to give you tender fluffiness — when combined with buttermilk, baking powder, and baking soda.
Somehow we all gravitate to a combination of cornmeal and blackberries. In her Baker’s Note, Kim says that if you want to revert to good, old, wonderful standard strawberry shortcake, leave out the cornmeal and go back to 2 full cups of flour.
I have an alternative idea: keep the cornmeal and use both blackberries and strawberries. You can find early blackberries and strawberries in abundance now at your grocery store or, if you are lucky, at an early farmers market.
Lastly, Kim uses Chambord with the blackberries or Grand Marnier with the strawberries. You can still do that but add some liqueur as well to the whipped cream, along with vanilla, to give your dish an aromatic lift. You can enjoy your dish even before that first bite.
Blackberry Cornmeal Shortcakes
Yield: serves 6
Ingredients:
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup fine cornmeal
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar plus ¼ cup
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup [4 ounces] unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 4 cups [1 pound] blackberries, halved if large
- 1 tablespoon Chambord [optional]
- Whipped cream for serving
Preparation:
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and 1 tablespoon sugar until blended. Add the buttermilk and butter and toss gently with a fork or rubber spatula until the flour is just moistened and the ingredients are blended.
Drop 6 equal-sized dollops of the batter onto the prepared pan, spacing them well apart. Bake until the shortcakes are puffed and golden, 15-18 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly.
While the shortcakes are baking, in a bowl, toss together the blackberries, ¼ cup sugar, and Chambord, if using, crushing a few of the berries. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled or until serving.
Split the shortcakes in half horizontally. Place the bottom halves on plates and spoon on some of the blackberries and juices. Top with big dollops of whipped cream, then the tops of the shortcakes, and dig in.
BAKER’S NOTE FROM KIM:
If (like me) you can’t resist strawberry shortcake, you can easily turn these into the classic version. Omit the cornmeal and use 2 cups flour for the biscuits. Instead of blackberries, substitute the same amount of sliced strawberries tossed with Grand Marnier.