Reduced-fat strawberry shortcakes

Preparation

Baking Directions:

Traditional strawberry shortcake may be loaded with fruit, but that does not make it good for you.

We wanted to cut down on the fat and calories from this over-the-top dessert — without sacrificing flavor.

Test Kitchen discoveriesReducing the butter in our shortcakes cut down on calories but dried the cake out.

A little skim milk supplied moisture and added just five calories per shortcake.

In traditional shortcake, when the bits of butter melt, steam escapes, which puffs the shortcake up and out.

Even though our recipe contained less butter, we were able replicate this effect by melting the butter we did use and allowing it to cool before whisking it in with the milk and yogurt.

The melted butter clumped into droplets, which in the oven acted like the butter particles in the original recipe.

Real whipped cream has no substitute, but it also accounts for about 200 calories per saving.

Replacing some of the heavy cream with Greek yogurt reduced the calories without sacrificing a luscious, airy texture.

Traditional recipes have 680 calories, 37 grams of fat, and 23 grams of saturated fat per serving.

Our changes brought the numbers down to 420 calories, 16 grams of fat, and 10 grams of saturated fat.

Let the berries and accumulated juices soak into the shortcakes for a short time.

Method:Macerate fruit: Crush 2 cups hulled berries in large bowl with potato masher.

Stir in 4 cups sliced berries and sugar and let sit at room temperature until sugar has dissolved and berries are juicy, about 30 minutes.

Make dough: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees.

Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in small bowl.

Whisk yogurt, milk and butter in large bowl until smooth.

Stir in flour mixture until combined.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth, 8 to 10 times.

Form shortcakes: Pat dough into 8-inch circle about 1/2-inch thick.

Using 3-inch biscuit cutter dipped in flour, cut out shortcakes and transfer to prepared baking sheet.

Gently pat dough scraps into 1/2-inch-thick circle and cut out additional shortcakes.

Bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes.

Cool cakes about 10 minutes.

Assemble: With electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream, sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form, about 2 minutes.

Gently fold in yogurt.

Halve shortcakes and evenly divide berry mixture among shortcake bottoms.

Dollop whipped cream over berries and replace shortcake top.

Serve.