The other night we had just finished dinner and the girls were asking for dessert. Looking around I realized we had some whipping cream, short bread cookies I had baked the night before and some fresh strawberries from our CSA so in 15 minutes I had a lovely desert that they dubbed a Strawberry Sunrise. This dessert is so super simple to make but it will take a little longer than 15 minutes if you don’t have shortbread cookies on hand. (The shortbread and whipped cream recipes are below)
For the shortbread cookies combine 2 sticks of butter softened with a 1/2 cup of sugar in a mixing bowl and cream them together. Once they are nice and whipped and smooth then add 1 1/2 cups of white flour (I’m sure you could use wheat but I didn’t) and mix until combined. The dough with be super crumbly and not really cohesive but it will stay together when you squeeze it. Once the dough is at this state lay out a piece of plastic wrap and dump the crumbly dough in the center and then wrap it up pushing it together as you go. Once it’s all in one big lump put it in the fridge to chill for an hour. When the hour is up roll the dough out to a 3/8 inch thickness and then cut with cookie cutters. Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown on the bottom. These cookies won’t spread out so you can place them fairly close together on the cookie sheet. Once out of the oven cool them on a cooling rack to keep them crisp.
Once you have your shortbread cookies the next step is to chop up the strawberries. This is where I employed my helpers. I gave them some not so sharp knives and let them go to town. The kids had those strawberries ready to go in no time. While they were chopping away I made the whipped cream. I used 1 pint of heavy whipping cream, 4 tbs of powdered sugar and a dash of vanilla extract. I combined them in my mixer and then whipped it on high until they reached a stiff peak.
Once the whipped cream was done, the strawberries cut and the shortbread cooled plate them together and you have a super simple sweet dessert.
