Taking Feijoa Shortcake by Storm

A friend recommended that I try to make feijoa shortcake with some of our surplus fruit here at Struan Farm, and with heavy rain, high winds and thunder earlier this week I decided the time had come to do that. Of course the power went out once or twice just to make things exciting!

I tried two different recipes, one Feijoa Shortcake as well as a second one for Feijoa and Apple Shortcake since we have quite the surplus of both apples and feijoas right now. Both were similar in terms of the basic ingredients and technique. The former used more fruit while the latter had considerably more butter and flour. Butter is creamed with sugar, then egg and vanilla are mixed in, along with lemon zest in one case. Sifted flour and baking powder are added and everything mixed to form a dough. Most of this is then put into a lined tin before the fruit is layered on, with reserved dough dotted on top. There are some differences between the two recipes but these are the basics. 

The Feijoa Shortcake recipe, which has more fruit, looks far moister than the Feijoa Apple Shortcake. If I were to make it again I'd use only one lemon rather than two to reduce the amount of juice. I did bake the juicier cake longer to try to address that, fearing too much liquid.

Based on appearances alone, I'm tempted more by the Feijoa Apple, which looks simpler. Both are meant to be served warm with yogurt, cream or ice cream (basically the dairy product of your choice). I haven't sampled them just yet, the juicier Feijoa Shortcake is waiting for John's return in the fridge since I didn't want to risk pulling the bottom of the pan off, while the Feijoa Apple has gone into the freezer for grandkids and/or guests.

As you might imagine I'm wanting to sample them (purely in the interest of research of course); however New Zealand's well known social science study, "The Dunedin Project," has reported that learning to accept delayed gratification is meant to be a good thing, it evidences personal control that helps us later in life. I'll accept the science on that and patiently wait with fork poised.

Comments

[Jen Yates]

Both look yummy. However, in the interests of approaching 'later in life' I say, Go for it! Dig that fork in! :)