1. Crave Strawberry Shortcake.
2. Decide that’s what’s for lunch. Think of options. Think of rolling pins and biscuit cutters.
3. Feel lazy.
4. Wash, hull, and slice up some strawberries. How ever many you’d like.
5. Throw them into a saucepan set over medium-low heat. Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon, take out the seeds, and let simmer, stirring occasionally, until it’s the way you like it. Remove from the heat and let cool.
6. Meanwhile, brush 1 t neutral oil over the bottom of an 8” round cake pan and slide it into a cold oven. Turn the oven up to 425 degrees.
7. In a large bowl, whisk together 2 c (250 g) all-purpose flour, 3 t baking powder, 1 T sugar (2 if you like it sweeter), and ½ t fine sea or table salt.
8. Take one stick of unsalted butter from the fridge. Dice it up into ½” cubes and toss them about the flour mixture. Start doing that wonderfully pleasant thing where you rub the fat into the flour, slippery discs of butter meeting puffs of white. Think about nice things and keep doing this until the mixture is mostly mealy with a few pea-sized lumps of butter.
9. Stir in 1 c (240 g) heavy cream with a wooden spoon. When that gets too annoying, use your hands to gently combine.
10. Carefully take that hot cake pan out of the oven and dump in the dough. Wet your hands, shake them off so they’re not dripping, and use your now dampish hands to press the dough about just a little bit trying to get it into all areas of the pan. Try not to burn your fingers. Fail.
11. Put the pan back into the oven and bake for 17-20 minutes until the top is golden brown.
12. Let cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes then remove to cool completely. Some of it may fall apart. Put those bits in a bowl for later.
13. Glug cold heavy cream into a large bowl. How much? Depends on how much whipped cream you want. Whip the cream, spooning in some confectioners sugar if you’d like.
14. Now that we are here, you’ve got a few options. Spoon some strawberries and whipped cream into the bowl of bits that fell away. That didn’t happen? Tear off a chunk of the biscuit and berry and cream away. Or, go the way of the gluttonously lazy (me) and put the entire biscuit on a nice plate. (I said gluttonously lazy, not boorish.) Spoon some strawberries and cream over one corner, however vast desire takes you. Eat with relish.
15. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat
16. What remains will keep for another day, maybe two, covered tightly in foil. Freezes well. Just defrost and warm in a 350 degree oven for 10 min or so.