Brown Sugar Shortcake with Grilled Fruit and Lime-Scented Goat’s Milk “Crème Fraîche”

Brown Sugar Shortcake with Grilled Fruit and Lime-Scented Goat’s Milk “Crème Fraîche”

Anne Milton
August, 2010

For Shortcakes:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup loosely-packed brown sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
Generous 1/4 teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/4” dice and chilled in freezer
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, thoroughly chilled
1 Tablespoon light brown or raw cane sugar (for sprinkling)


For Topping:
4 oz plain mild goat cheese (the creamier the better)
2-4 oz goat milk yogurt or kefir
Blue agave nectar or maple syrup to taste
1 or 2 limes, zested and juiced

For Fruit Garnish:
1 pineapple, peeled, cored, cut in rings and grilled
1 mango, peeled, pitted, thickly sliced and lightly grilled
2 cups blackberries or black raspberries


To make the shortcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 375˚
2. Line a baking sheet with cooking parchment.
3. Sift together flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt, rubbing any lumps of brown sugar through sifter by hand if necessary.
4. Place dry ingredients in food processor bowl and process for 20 seconds or so to blend completely.  Add frozen butter all at once.  Run processor in bursts of about 10 seconds at a time until butter is finely cut up and uniformly distributed.  Put mixture in a bowl.
5. Add 1 cup chilled cream and stir gently with fork until evenly distributed.  Pinch a tiny piece, and if it doesn’t hold together, add a little more cream.  Stir just until dough is moistened and starting to clump together.  Do not over-mix!
6. Turn dough out onto a large piece of plastic wrap.  Without working the dough too much, pull sides of plastic wrap up around it and gently gather dough into a ball, then pat it into a rectangle roughly 8x6” and 3/4” high.  Using a sharp knife dipped in flour, cut dough in 8 or 10 rectangles.
7. Set the biscuits on the baking sheet.  Brush lightly with a little of the remaining cream, then sprinkle with light brown sugar.  Bake immediately for 18 minutes, or until tops are golden brown and the insides are set.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To make the topping:

1.  Crumble goat cheese into a bowl.  Whisk in yogurt or kefir until all lumps are gone, adding enough to make mixture the consistency of sour cream.  Whisk in lime zest and a few drops of lime juice.  Sweeten to taste with agave nectar or maple syrup.
2. Chill thoroughly.

To assemble:

When ready to serve, split shortcake biscuits horizontally and place bottom half on each plate.  Arrange pineapple and mango, topped with berries, on top of and around shortcakes, and drizzle with lime juice.  Top with generous spoonfuls of the goat cheese mixture.  Place second shortcake half attractively on top, and sprinkle with remaining light brown sugar.

Makes 8-10 servings

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