August 1st Celebration ~ Lemony Strawberry Shortcakes

We enjoyed a few delicious Dungeness crabs for dinner, as we do every year to celebrate this little anniversary. It marked 14 years since we moved into our current house together, and 17 years since I have lived in Seattle! After dinner, we needed something sweet to top off the night :).  I decided to make lemony strawberry shortcakes since Washington strawberries are wrapping up for the season. I found a recipe for the biscuits from Bon Appétit magazine, and then tweaked it to make it a bit healthier. I replaced half of the all-purpose flour with whole-wheat pastry flour and I also replaced the butter with melted Earth Balance buttery spread. Very summery and fresh with a little twist of lemon.

Lemony Strawberry Shortcakes

Adapted from Bon Appétit magazine

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup low-fat buttermilk

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) Earth Balance buttery spread, melted, cooled

2 quarts fresh strawberries

Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon peel and salt in large bowl. Whisk buttermilk and melted butter in medium bowl to blend. Add to flour mixture and stir just until moist dough forms. Drop 8 dough mounds (about 1/3 cup each) onto nonstick baking sheet. Using lightly floured hands, gently pat biscuits into neat 2 1/4-inch-diameter round about 1 1/4 inches high. Bake until biscuits are golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Cut warm biscuits in half horizontally. Place bottom halves of biscuits on 8 plates. Spoon strawberries over. Place top halves of biscuits over everything and serve.

We paired our dinner with 14 Hands Merlot to compliment our 14th anniversary. We first tried the wine around the anniversary of our first date back in April (also 14 years ago), and it has since become our house wine for the year. Local, delicious, and inexpensive :). Perfect combination!