Alex Guarnaschelli’s Strawberry Shortcake: ‘It’s Got a Little Surprise’

Food Network star Alex Guarnaschelli’s Strawberry Shortcake dessert features juicy strawberries, fluffy whipped cream and light, melt-in-your-mouth biscuits. It’s the perfect ‘spring is finally here’ treat!

Guarnaschelli’s shortcake features citrusy liqueur and zest

There’s nothing like strawberry shortcake to welcome spring. As the Alex vs. America star wrote of the treat on her website, “I love that the strawberry plant is a member of the rose family. To me, this dessert never gets anything but better every time I make it.”

She adds a tip for making the most of not-quite-ready berries: “I love when there are strawberries from the local market but stirring in some jam to underripe strawberries can also be delicious!”

This dessert calls for two pints of “washed, hulled, and split” strawberries, granulated sugar, and orange liqueur such as Grand Marnier. For the shortcake, you’ll need all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, ground cinnamon, salt, lemon zest, salted butter, heavy cream, and vanilla extract.

You can find the complete recipe, video, and reviews on Food Network’s site.

Alex Guarnaschelli’s dessert includes a surprising ingredient

In the Food Network video, below, for this recipe Guarnaschelli says of her shortcake, “You have the cake, you have the cream, you have the fresh fruit — and it’s got a little surprise. It’s just texturally heavenly.”

To start, the chef says to get the strawberries macerating in sugar and the orange liqueur. “Macerating … softens it, but it also allows the fruit to release their own juices,” she explains.

The shortcake’s dried ingredients are stirred together in a bowl. Then butter is worked into the mixture: “You’re going to break that butter up and just knead it into the flour, until it becomes crumbly and integrates.”

Now for the surprise part of the recipe: “Instead of adding raw yolks, you’re going to add two hard-boiled egg yolks. It doesn’t weigh down the flour and you’re going to get a lighter, fluffier shortcake but with a lot of deep, eggy flavor.”

Cream and vanilla are added to the mixture “until the dough becomes a somewhat homogenous ball.” The ball of dough is formed into an about two-inch-thick shape at which point, “you want to cut squares that are about two by two inches.”

Put them on a baking sheet and bake in a 375-degree oven for about 12 minutes. Once they’re done, allow them to cool for about an hour. Cut the shortcakes in half “to create a top and a bottom.”

Spoon some of the strawberries and their juice on the bottoms of the shortcake biscuits. The Food Network personality notes that, for serving the dessert, a scoop of raspberry sorbet can be placed on the berries, topped with whipped cream, and then even more strawberries. Cap with the shortcake tops.

Reviewers gobbled up Guarnaschelli’s strawberry shortcake recipe

Home cooks were delighted with the chef’s strawberry dessert, some expressing relief that the boiled egg yolks didn’t take away from the treat’s flavor.

“I have never seen the addition of hard boiled egg yolks to any recipe. [I] wonder what that does to make this recipe a keeper. I wonder if that addition would benefit other recipes for cakes or cookies, etc.,” one reviewer wrote.

Another fan of the recipe added, “Absolutely Delicious! I always make strawberry shortcake for my mother on Mother’s Day. Tried this one this year and everyone raved. Both parents said it was the best they have ever had. Could eat the biscuits alone they were so good.”