End of Summer Special Treat

You know I love me some sweets! And I am always up for trying new recipes (sweet or not!) especially when I know the nutritional facts.=) Yes, I'm a looker upper. I always look up the nutritional facts before I eat or cook something. It can be devastating. I used to just look and eat it anyway! I just wanted to know what I was eating... then I would look and decide if it was worth it, if I was upset about something, then in my mouth it went (don't tell me I have food issues=))... and now I look and if the ingredients are not so good, or too high in cals or fat, I put it down. I might frown as I do, but down it goes (see I can be good).

The Hubs loves strawberry shortcake so I had to find a recipe before summer was gone. My Dad was visiting last week and loves it too, so it was the perfect time. I love a good excuse to try a yummy new sweets recipe! And as we all know, when you're with great friends and fun family the calories don't count! [don't tell me it's not true!]

Allrecipes dot com has ratings, nutritional facts, and reviews for all (most) of it's recipes! It's a great site.

So this was the recipe I tried! It's not the traditional soft smooshy little cakes, it's a... sconelike yummy buttery pastrylike cake. And it is yuuuummy!

INGREDIENTS
`3 cups all-purpose flour
`1/4 cup white sugar
`4 teaspoons baking powder
`3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
`1 cup butter - whoa, I know! I cut it down and it was still yuummy
`2/3 cup heavy cream - I saved some more cals and use light Cool Whip!
`1 egg, beaten
`3 cups sliced fresh strawberries - throw in some extras if you have 'em, can't have too many
`3 tablespoons white sugar - I cut out a few granules here too =)

DIRECTIONS
`Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
`In a large bowl, mix flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder and cream of tartar. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives. Stir in cream and egg. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead 2 minutes. Press into a half-inch thick sheet. Cut into squares. Place on baking sheets.
`Bake in preheated oven 20 minutes, or until golden. Sprinkle 3 tablespoons sugar over sliced berries.
`Let shortcakes cool before splitting and filling with sugared berries.

343 calories per serving BUT after cutting down on the butter and sugar, and used light Cool Whip instead of heavy cream, you're golden! Just roll with me on that. It tasted great, we didn't miss anything! Next time I would cut down on the cream of tartar (some reviews say cut it!) and cut a tsp of baking powder.

And because you 86ed all of those extra calories ;),... stack a little vanilla ice cream, then strawberries, light Cool Whip, and top it off with a dollop and a strawberry! Find something to celebrate and enjoy!! And please e-mail me if you have any questions about the recipe!! I used my kitchen LOVE, my Kitchen Aid Mixer with the pastry blade.

*oh and when you have leftovers, 'cause you'll want to =), just pop the shortcakes in the oven for a couple minutes to warm and crisp them back up, then slice 'em, stuff 'em, and enjoy 'em, again =)