The blackberries this year are amazing and they have been ripening faster than we can eat them. I’ve already made a batch of my favorite blackberry jam, made blackberry ice cream and have been eating them by the handful for breakfast or while working around the garden. My tongue is probably purple by now.
I was thinking about a flavor of ice cream to make so I could serve lots of fruit or some sort of fruit tart with it and thought buttermilk would be interesting. I love crème fraîche ice cream because of the tang which offsets the sweetness of dessert. After a quick search, I stumbled across Alanna’s of The Bojon Gourmet recipe for buttermilk ice cream. I made a few changes and was delighted with the flavor of the ice cream. Then I found Tieghan’s of Half Baked Harvest recipe for peach and thyme shortcakes and the wheels in my head started turning. I had a few peaches that needed to be eaten, some buttermilk leftover from the ice cream and lots of blackberries.
These shortcakes are a breeze to make and delicious! I love them because they are hardly sweet at all and nice and fluffy. I just dropped the dough on the sheet as mentioned in the recipe, but if you want nicely shaped shortcakes, I’d suggest forming them a little with your hands. Do not overwork the dough or else you’ll get hockey pucks!
Peach and blackberry shortcakes with buttermilk ice cream
Shortcakes from Half Baked Harvest
- 260 g flour
- 1 Tbs sugar plus extra for topping
- 1 Tbs baking powder
- 110 g cold butter, grated
- 175 ml buttermilk, plus extra for brushing
Preheat to 200°C. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and butter in a bowl with your hands. Do not overwork. Add the buttermilk and gently stir with a spoon until combined. Again, don’t overwork. Drop the dough onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and shape if desired. Brush with buttermilk and sprinkle a bit of sugar over the top. Bake for 15-20 min. Makes 6 shortcakes.
Let the shortcakes cool, then cut in half and top with fruit of your choice. Strawberries, blackberries, peaches, blueberries (or a mixture) are all good choices. Top with a dallop of whipped cream or buttermilk ice cream.
Buttermilk ice cream adapted from The Bojon Gourmet
- 300 ml cream
- 100 g sugar
- 4 egg yolks
- 300 ml buttermilk
- 1 Tbs vanilla extract
In a saucepan, combine the cream and sugar. Bring to a bare simmer over medium heat, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar.
Meanwhile, place the egg yolks in a medium bowl. Slowly add about a tablespoon of the hot cream mixture to the egg yolks, stiring constantly. Add the egg yolks pot with the cream mixture and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens slightly. Immediately stir in the buttermilk to stop the cooking, then strain the mixture through a mesh sieve and into a bowl or jar. Cover and chill the mixture until very cold, at least 4 hours or overnight.
Churn the mixture in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
