All well-behaved strawberries deserve to be embraced by sweet, fluffy shortcake. Here's how to make that happen.

The key to a perfectly tender, fluffy shortcake is sitting in your fridge right now, and it might surprise you. The secret comes to us courtesy of James Beard — you know, just the father of American cooking, NBD — who learned it from his mother: hard-boiled egg yolks.

It might sound weird, but crumbly cooked yolk adds just enough richness without weighing down or gumming up the works. This also means the dough is more forgiving, so you don't need to worry that you'll overwork it.

Yes, there's one extra step (boiling a few eggs), but it's worth it. Plus, you get a healthy pre-shortcake egg white snack out of it. So what are you waiting for? Put the kettle on!

First things first: Get the best strawberries you can find.

Yummy, juicy local berries are just starting to hit markets on the east coast in late May/early June, so keep your eyes peeled.

Via: food52.com

And here's everything else you'll need:

For the shortcakes:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small cubes

2 hard-boiled egg yolks, pushed through a small mesh sieve (see our favorite way to hard-cook eggs)

3/4 cup heavy cream, chilled

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the strawberry filling:

3 pints fresh strawberries, washed, hulled, and halved or quartered, depending on size

2 tablespoons sugar

For the whipped cream:

1 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon sugar

Via: food52.com

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