Chocolate Strawberry Shortcakes

I was really excited when I saw that this month's We Should Cocoa Challenge is strawberries. I love strawberries especially in the summer.  I've been watching quite a bit of Top Chef Canada recently and one of the wins was with a strawberry shortcake.  I decided immediately that I wanted to make a chocolate strawberry shortcake for this month's challenge and almost ran out of time but I'm glad I made it! The dough was very easy to make but it took a while to roll and cut the dough, bake and then assemble the shortcake.  It was well worth it though as it was really delicious - chocolatey goodness in the shortcake which is a little heavy with the light freshness of fresh strawberries and cream. Perfect for summer. 

 mixing ingredients for dough

 freshly baked 

 to assemble 

 voila! 

Makes approximately 21

400g plain four

60g cocoa powder

4 teaspoons baking powder

120g unsalted butter, diced

120g caster sugar 

2 large eggs, beaten

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

10-12 tablespoons of milk

450g fresh strawberries

300ml double cream, whipped

icing sugar to taste (for the cream) 

• Preheat the overn to 230C. 
• Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder into a bowl.
• Add the butter and rub in with the fingertips.
• Stir in the sugar.
• Beat the eggs with the vanilla extract and stir in.
• Add enough milk to form a soft, but not sticky dough. 
• Knead gently until smooth. 
• Flour a work surface.
• Roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thick. 
• Cut out rounds with a cookie cutter, rekneading and cutting the trimmings as necessary. 
• Place on a lined baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes until risen and the bases sound hollow when tapped. 
• Transfer to a wire rack to cool for 5-10 minutes.
• Hull and slice the strawberries.
• Whip the cream with icing sugar if desired. 
• Place some cream on the base of a shortcake, top with slices of strawberries and top with another shortcake. 
• Top with some cream and decorate with another strawberry slice on top.