Summer Shortcake (and Favorite Summer Books)

Jun 12

Jun 12 Summer Shortcake (and Favorite Summer Books)

I often wonder how summer will feel for my girls while they are growing up. For me, it is the first peaches of summer, warm nights playing outside with friends, and looking for things to do around the house. It's the time of intensely doing, looking up in a moment of boredom, and then diving back into play.

Stone fruit. Summer flowers. Dogs barking in the neighborhood. Long afternoon shadows as the sun sets later and later. Riding bikes in the street. All signs of summer for them when I asked. And, of course, lots of picnics! Our signature dish to bring to a picnic this summer will be Summer Fruit Salad with homemade biscuits. We made our biscuits extra flaky and delicious with fairlife ultra-filtered whole milk. It tastes so much better than other brands or buttermilk and I love that it has 50% more protein, 50% less sugar and 30% more calcium than regular milk, and is lactose-free.

We have tried many biscuit recipes but this one is Elodie's favorite (and she is a biscuit fan!)

Summer Biscuits:

Ingredients//

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 stick of cold, unsalted butter

1 cup fairlife ultra-filtered whole milk

Prep:

Wash hands! Sift flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl.

Cut butter into pats and add to flour mixture until it feels pebbly. Who needs a food processor when you have clean little hands? The girls love to feel the flour and butter.

Add fairlife ultra-filtered whole milk and stir with a fork until it forms a rough ball.

Transfer to a well-floured surface and pat it until it's a one inch thick rectangle.

Cover with a tea towel and let rest for 30 minutes.

Then preheat oven to 425.

Cut dough into biscuit shapes using a floured glass or a biscuit cutter. Place on a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.

Summer Fruit Salad:

Apricots, Peaches, Nectarines, Cherries, Plums, the more the merrier! There is no exact ratio for this. You got it!

We had on hand apricots from our tree, nectarines and strawberries for our salad.

Chop fruit into bite sized pieces.

One tablespoon fresh mint.

Stir fruit and it should get a little juicy.

Spoon on to a biscuit with a dollop of whip cream or ice cream. Garnish with a sprig of mint and a berry.

Enjoy!

I also tried this Stone Fruit Compote and it was delicious for a bit more sweetness.

I always love to tie in a book to our baking activities and today's book was The Flower Fairies of the Summer by Cicely Mary Barker. The girls love pulling out our summer books (I put them away when the season is done so that they feel fresh and new each year!) We also love Midsummer Tales of Tiptoes Lightly, Summer by Gerda Muller, and Summer Story (Brambly Hedge) by Jill Barklem.