Published May 1, 1997.
When developing our strawberry shortcakes recipe, we decided to go with an egg-enriched biscuit, which, though still very much a biscuit, was finer-textured and more cakelike than other types we'd tried. While we wanted juiciness from the berries in our shortcakes recipe, we didn't want juice only—that is, entirely crushed berries. But neither did we want dry chunks of fruit falling off the biscuit and onto the plate. Our solution was a compromise: Preserve the shape of some berries by quartering them and release the juice of the others by mashing them.
After cutting six perfect rounds of dough, you can reknead the scraps and repeat the cutting process to get one or two more rounds. These shortcakes will be a little tougher and less attractive than those from the first cutting.
If you prefer to make the shortcake dough in the food processor, pulse the dry ingredients to combine them, then add cold butter that has been cut into half-inch pieces and continue to pulse until the mixture looks like coarse cornmeal flecked with pea-sized bits of butter. Pour the mixture into a bowl; stir in the egg and half-and-half with a rubber spatula until the mixture comes together. Continue with step 4 of the recipe instructions.
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