5 large strawberries- slightly dehydrated, hulled & cut into half inch pieces (about a half cup)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp coarse cracked pepper
6 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes, about a half inch
1 cup of half & half or heavy cream       

The day before
-Leave your strawberries in the oven with a pilot over 24 hours to extract some liquid, alternately you can leave then in a sunny spot in the window or in a 200° oven for a few hours just to dry slightly        

How to make
-Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt & black pepper in a medium bowl & set in fridge to chill
- Preheat oven to 400°
- Put the cubes of into the bowl of dry ingredients, using a pastry knife or working quickly with your hands, break up the butter into the flour. Try not to warm the butter too much. Once the butter is in pea or lentil size bits, fold in the strawberries
- Pour about ¾ cup of cream into the bowl & incorporate, add more as needed to pull all the ingredients together
- Once everything is just combined, turn the dough onto a floured surface and either roll or pat the dough into a rectangle that is about ¾ inch thick
- Cut into a dozen rounds or cut into squares, can render up to 16 square biscuits
- Brush the tops with milk or cream and place on an ungreased baking sheet, bake in the middle rack for about 10-12 minutes, rotate the pan once during baking to ensure even coloration
- When biscuits are lightly brown along the edges and/or the bottoms are a rich even brown, they are done

Serving suggestions

These biscuits are wonderful on their own, but if you’d like to dress them up, they’ll happily oblige. I like them with a little nutella. Or for a savory spin, some tangy or honey mustard and thinly sliced ham.

Purchase items in BOLD in-store at Surfas or online at Culinary District! 

For about 2 dozen, 5-inch tortillas1 pound fresh masa (corn dough) for tortillas, from a tortillería
or
2 cups masa harina (dried and powdered masa) 
Heavy-duty, quart freezer bags (a few)  

1. Heat a griddle to medium hot.
2. With fresh masa: The dough is soft and warm. With masa harina: In a mixer bowl, mix the masa harina with 1½ cups tepid water until a dough forms a ball, and the texture is of stiff bread dough. Add another spoon of water to soften the dough if necessary.
3. Using a tortilla press, put half a plastic freezer bag, slightly larger than the diameter of the press, on the bottom part of the press with the opening to one side.
4. Pull off a ping pong ball-sized piece of masa and roll it into a ball. Cover the masa with another half bag, with opening on the same side as the other bag. Lower the top of the press and gently push on the handle—less hard for thicker, smaller tortillas. Open the press. For thinner tortillas, turn the tortilla (and bags) 180 degrees, and push again.
5. Open the press. The tortilla will have plastic stuck on the top and bottom. Peel away the top plastic, then flip the tortilla over into your other hand and carefully peel that plastic away. If dough sticks to the plastic it is too moist. Return to bowl and either knead in more masa harina, or let the dough rest 10 minutes, uncovered, to dry out a bit.
6. With a sweeping motion lay the tortilla gently on the griddle to avoid air pockets. The tortilla should make a small sizzle. After 30 seconds, when it starts to unstick and looks speckled brown underneath, turn the tortilla over. Cook for 30 seconds. Turn over and cook 30 seconds more. Thin tortillas will puff (if it doesn’t, press down slightly on the tortilla with a spatula). Don’t overcook! Remove the tortilla to a napkin-lined basket to keep warm. If this first tortilla has cracks along the edges the dough is too dry, so knead a little more water in before continuing with the others.
7. To work fast, divide the masa into balls on a baking sheet and cover with a moist towel to keep them from drying out. Continue making the remaining tortillas, stacking them in a cloth napkin-lined basket to keep warm.

 Reheat a tortilla on a griddle, directly on a gas burner, or microwave a wrapped stack.

Purchase items in BOLD in-store at Surfas or online at Culinary District! 

1 ¾ cup masa harina
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons hot tap water

1. Heat two griddles to two different temperatures – one over medium heat and the other over medium-high heat. 
2. Cut two squares of plastic to cover the plates of a tortilla press.
3. Knead the masa harina with just enough water to make it soft (like cookie dough) but not sticky.
4. Open the tortilla press and lay one square of plastic on the bottom plate.  Scoop out a piece of dough about the size of a ping-pong ball, roll it into a ball and center it in the plastic.  Cover with the second sheet of plastic wrap.  Close the press and use the handle to flatten the ball into a disk.  Open the press and peel off the pieces of plastic wrap. 
5. Lay the tortilla onto the cooler griddle.  Bake for 15 to 30 seconds – just until the tortilla releases itself from the griddle.  Flip to the hotter griddle and bake until brown underneath – 30 to 45 seconds.  Turn once again, leaving it on the hot side and bake for another 30 to 45 seconds.  At this point the tortilla should puff up.
6. Transfer to a cloth-lined basket and continue making tortillas, stacking them and keeping them covered.