The devil went down to Georgia

I really wish Mother Nature would make up her mind what season it is here in central Texas.  Saturday morning when I got up, it was in the mid-20s.  Today it was about 75ºF.  Tomorrow night it'll be below freezing again.  I'm so ready to be done with the temps in the 70s for a while.  The calendar almost says December, and I want it to feel at least a little like Christmas is approaching.  So I'm doing what I can to get into the right frame of mind.  I have some pretty snowflake earrings, and a string of Christmas lights necklace.  (Both get lots of comments from my customers at work.)  And I started pulling out the wrapping paper to use as backgrounds for my blog photos. =)

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is a little seasonally confused, too.  Tania of Love Big, Bake Often (who currently lives in Savannah) picked Devilish Shortcakes for us to make.  I typically consider shortcakes to be a summer dessert, and wouldn't think to make them at the end of November.  But these aren't typical shortcakes--they're chocolate!  And since I love chocolate with berries (especially raspberries), this recipe sounded like a winner regardless of what the calendar says.

Shortcakes are basically biscuits, and not all that hard to make.  You mix together dry ingredients (including cocoa powder for these chocolate ones), rub in butter, add wet ingredients & gently mix.  I added about 1/3 cup (70g) of mini chocolate chips before I added the wet ingredients.  I only made half the recipe, and formed my shortcakes using my #16 (1/4 cup) disher.  I got eight, and baked them for about 15 minutes.

For serving, I went with some organic raspberries that I picked up at Central Market.  I thought I was going to have to go with frozen berries, but these looked really good (and while they were a bit more expensive than frozen, they weren't totally outrageous).  I mixed the berries with some raspberry fruit butter that I thinned with a little water and a couple splashes of framboise.  And to boost the chocolate flavor, I made a quick sauce by melting together some chocolate and cream, and adding some vanilla and dark rum.  Naturally, there also had to be some whipped cream.

The verdict?  To be honest, after reading the comments on the P&Q from Nancy and Caitlin, I was a bit worried.  By themselves, the shortcakes seemed somewhat dry and not very sweet, even with the added chocolate chips.  But put together with the saucy raspberries and with an extra hit of chocolate, this was a very tasty dessert.

If you'd like to give these shortcakes a try for yourself, you can find the recipe on Tania's blog.  And to see what everyone else thought of this week's pick, check out the Links.