Florida’s Official Dessert Recipe
|MM Cloutier
Move over, key lime pie.
If you’re surprised that strawberry shortcake is the official state dessert of Florida, you’re not alone.
Two years ago this month (March 7, to be exact), some of us might have been busy eating key lime pie (the official state pie, by the way) when Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law designating strawberry shortcake as the official dessert of Florida. .
The good news? Now is the perfect time to enjoy a strawberry shortcake: The five-month harvest season for Florida-grown strawberries continues through April as part of the majority of the nation’s strawberries grown during the winter.
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Although the traditional dessert is not often seen these days in Palm Beach on restaurant menus (Swifty’s at the Colony Hotel, however, served a much-anticipated version in February for Valentine’s Day), it was a dessert popular on the island in decades past. , a point of reference from which to draw inspiration.
It is described as a “shortcake base – resembling a cookie with a touch of cake – (with) a layer of sweet strawberry slices and a dollop of whipped cream” in the 2022 bill designating the dessert of the State of Florida.
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For a fancier version, try the strawberry shortcake recipe once served at a now-famous restaurant on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach.
It was one of many desserts enjoyed at Petite Marmite, which was located in an old arcade on Worth Avenue, near where Via Bice is today. Its beloved founding owners Constanzo “Gus” and Geraldine “Gerry” Pucillo sold it in 1983 after nearly 40 years in business. It closed in Palm Beach in 1989.
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Here is the recipe for strawberry shortcake from the cookbook “Recipes from the famous Petite Marmite”.
Ingredients:
6 eggs
6 ounces of sugar
7 ounces cake flour
4 ounces of butter
Heavy cream (for the whipped cream)
Fresh strawberries
Method: Beat 6 whole eggs with 6 ounces of sugar over low heat (in a saucepan) until hot. Place in a blender, beat until lightly peaked, then add 7 ounces of sifted cake flour and 4 ounces of melted butter.
Pour into a well-buttered 9-inch cake pan and bake at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes.
Cut the cake into three layers and fill between the layers with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. Top the cake with whipped cream and garnish with strawberries.