I originally planned to have this up by the Fourth of July, but between my camera dying and Ginny’s surgery it just wasn’t going to happen.  🙂  Oh, well; better late than never, right?

These are an easy, quick delicious dessert.  My mother likes to eat hers with vanilla ice cream, strawberries, and blueberries; Ginny and I prefer whipped cream to ice cream.  Either way, they’re at their very best first thing out of the oven, and almost as good if you microwave them a few seconds to perk them up later on the same day.  I’d tell you how they are on the second day or later, but they’ve just somehow never lasted that long.  🙂

And now, back to our show.  🙂

Shortcake

Yield:  8 individual shortcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup dough mix
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 tsp guar gum
• 1 T baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 T sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Farenheit.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, with the paddle attachment, briefly cream the softened butter.

2.  Meanwhile, in a separate, medium-to-large mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (dough mix, xanthan gum, guar gum, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt).

3.  Add the dry mix, milk, and vanilla to the stand mixer bowl.  Combine at low speeds until the milk starts to integrate, then higher and higher speeds as a very soft, very sticky dough starts to form.  Run the mixer on high for a while to make sure there aren’t any lumps.

4.  Lightly grease a cookie sheet.  Without using your hands (sticky dough!), scoop eight roughly equal lumps of dough onto the cookie sheet like drop biscuits.  Bake in the preheated oven 15-18 minutes, or until lightly browned and no longer doughy in the middle.

5.  Serve and enjoy!  These are best warm, so dig in.  😀