Recipes & Food Styling

Star-Stack Strawberry Shortcake

Visiting “Strawberry Fields” in Central Park in New York City is a magical experience. It is a lovely space that is located footsteps from where John Lennon lived. If you can’t make a spiritual journey further than your own county, go strawberry picking! This year, I showcased my fresh-picked berries from Tom’s Farm Market in Huntley in a Star-Stack Strawberry Shortcake. I got inspired to make this years ago from watching Gale Gand making something similar in the kitchen with Julie Child. I love watching those old shows on YouTube! This dessert is layers of strawberries, macerated with sugar (desired amount) & layers of fresh cream. To make the cream, I used a hand mixer to beat a small carton of heavy whipping cream with sugar (desired amount).  Between each layer of berries & cream is a star-shaped piece of pie crust. I made tiny stars for the top. I used a ruler to guide my knife to cut star shapes out of pie dough. I baked the stars on a parchment-lined cookie sheet in the over at 375 for about 20 minutes. I used a whole wheat pie crust, which made the crust light & crispy. The little pops of wheat provided another wonderful layer of crunch & texture with the strawberry seeds.