Cornmeal Shortcakes with Peaches, Mint & Soured Cream

From the blog For Love of the Table

1 recipe soured cream

1 recipe peaches & mint

6 Cornmeal shortcakes

Place the soured cream in a bowl with the reserved 1/3 cup of the syrup from the peaches. Whisk until the cream begins to mound in the bowl. Taste. Add some sugar (anywhere from 1/2 to 2 T.) if the cream is not sweet enough for your liking. Briefly whisk to obtain soft peaks. Don't over whip. Chill until ready to use. If stored for more than an hour, it will probably need to be rewhisked to restore soft peaks.

Cut 6 of the shortcakes in half horizontally and place the bottom halves on individual plates. Spoon some of the peach purée over each. Spoon a large dollop of the soured cream over this and then ladle some of the peaches, along with some of their juices, over the cream, letting some of the fruit fall onto the plates. Drizzle some more of the purée over the peaches if you like. Place the shortcake tops back on and serve. Serves 6.

Soured Cream:

1/4 c. Sour Cream

1 c. Heavy Cream

1 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice

At least a day before you plan to serve the shortcakes, combine the sour cream, heavy cream and lemon juice in a small bowl. Whisk until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature until thickened slightly--anywhere from 12 to 24 hours depending on the warmth of the room. Chill the soured cream until ready to use. (It will become very firm when chilled.)

Cornmeal Shortcakes:

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 c. stone-ground cornmeal

1 T. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

1/4 c. sugar

4 T. cold butter, cut into 8 pieces

3/4 to 1 c. heavy cream, plus more for brushing

Turbinado sugar for sprinkling

Combine the flour, cornmeal baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl. Whisk to blend well. Add the butter and rub it in to the dry ingredients using your hands or a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Stir the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula while pouring in the cream. Continue to stir and pour, using just enough cream to form a soft dough.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly just to bring the dough together. Pat the dough into a circle 1-inch thick. Transfer the disk to a parchment lined sheet and chill until firm—at least half an hour. Using a sharp knife, cut the circle into 8 wedges. Place the wedges an inch or so apart on an un-greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush each wedge with some cream and sprinkle generously with the raw sugar.

Bake at 425° until golden brown and springy to the touch—about 12 to 15 minutes.

Note: The shortcakes may be made, formed and topped with cream and sugar the night before. Keep them in the refrigerator overnight. It is not necessary to bring them to room temperature before baking—they may be place directly in a preheated oven from the refrigerator. They may also be frozen raw and baked from frozen—reduce the oven temperature to 375° and increase cooking time to 20 to 25 minutes.

Peaches & Mint:

1 1/2 lb. ripe peaches (see notes)

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. water

18 small mint leaves

Peel the peaches. Halve, pit and slice the peaches about 1/4-inch thick and place in a heatproof bowl.

Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer, swirling the pan to dissolve the sugar completely. Pour the hot syrup over the peaches and stir a few times to make sure the peaches are completely coated by the sugar syrup. Chill the peaches until ready to serve...up to an hour or two.

When ready to serve, spoon out 1/3 cup of the syrup from the peaches and set aside to use for sweetening the soured cream. (See notes.)

Lift out a quarter of the peaches and purée—in the food processor or blender...or, use an immersion blender. Set aside.

Finally, tear the mint leaves with your hands and add to the peaches. Let stand for a few minutes before using.

Note:

If your peaches are not quite ripe, you may want to simmer them for a minute or two in the simple syrup. To do so, use a wide, shallow pan to make the syrup. Then, add the peaches and return to a simmer. Let the peaches simmer gently for a minute...maybe two...and then transfer to a bowl and chill.
If you don't want your soured cream to have a pale pink cast to it, then hold back 1/3 cup of the simple syrup when you pour it over the fruit. Use this plain simple syrup (chilled) to sweeten the cream.

(Recipe adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques, by Suzanne Goin)

http://www.forloveofthetable.com/2016/09/suzanne-goins-cornmeal-shortcakes-with.html

As published on forloveofthetable.com