Strawberry and Blueberry Shortcake: Creating Summer Memories With Your Kid

July is peak strawberry season, and there's nothing better than spending an afternoon in the kitchen with my son making something that tastes like summer.

Here's what happened: I pulled out my Peace Dough Whisk to mix the shortcake batter (yes, it works for way more than just bread dough), and my son watched as I mixed it. Then he asked if he could try.

And that's when it hit me: this is the moment I want him to remember. Not me stressing about getting it perfect, but me sharing a tool that actually works. A kitchen that feels calm. A recipe that comes together easily because the equipment doesn't fight back.

The shortcake recipe is honestly magic. It uses sourdough discard (finally, a good use for all that starter you discard every week), and the result is tender, slightly tangy, perfectly crumbly shortcake that holds up under a pile of macerated strawberries and fresh whipped cream.

We made homemade whipped cream from scratch. Heavy cream, a little sugar, and a hand mixer. My son took turns whipping it with me, and we talked about how cream turns into something completely different when you beat it. He found this deeply interesting and also slightly suspicious.

Then came the assembly. We halved the shortcakes, added whipped cream, piled on the fresh strawberries, and topped it all off with more cream and berries. He insisted on adding extra strawberries. I let him.

When we sat down to eat it on the back porch in the July heat, with bare feet and cold shortcake, he said, 'This is the best thing ever.' Not just the taste. The whole thing. The making of it.

That's what this is really about. You use up sourdough discard that you'd otherwise throw away. You mix it with simple ingredients. You spend forty-five minutes with someone you love. And you end up with something that tastes like summer and feels like a memory.

The Peace Dough Whisk made the mixing part so smooth that I actually had energy left over to enjoy the process instead of just enduring it.

Make this with someone. Make it more than once. Make it your July tradition.