Kids these days can get antsy, zooming off the walls, getting into a little horseplay. At The Water’s Edge Country Club, youngsters — and their parents — take advantage of a distinctive feature that lets them do just that: horse around. With actual horses.

“It’s one of the greatest amenities that we have here,” says Sam Lester, Manager of the Equestrian Center at The Water’s Edge since 2007. “It’s just a special place for families, kids, members and their guests to come down and just enjoy the outside, be around animals. And it’s an all-around spectacular place to be.”

The only one of its kind among McConnell Golf’s 14 clubs, the center lies nestled on 35 acres of pastureland amid some 75 acres of riding area with rolling hills and fields and 2.5 miles of riding trails.

“It gives us our own unique twist,” says Kathryn Turner, whose children, Karleigh, 12, and Carson, 14, have grown up around the Equestrian Center. She and her husband Jason own a home on the waterfront at The Water’s Edge, which they joined 16 years ago.

The center’s barn, situated a quarter-mile from the golf course, can stable up to 13 horses, with eight 12-foot-by-12-foot stalls, a brooding stall and other amenities to pamper the 12 current equine residents. A riding ring is nearby, while a dressage arena lies farther out, in the pasture.

Horses aren’t the only draw there. Several moms say their children get a kick out of the center’s mammalian menagerie: a Corgi named Gus; the sassy barn cat, Bear; a pot-bellied pig, Petunia; Russell, a spotted pig; and the donkeys, Elliott and Jenny.

Lester and her staff — Kristina Wray, the equestrian assistant manager, and Connie Schmidt, the barn staff member, both of whom have worked there for 10 years — oversee myriad activities.

During the summer, the center offers a three-day camp each week. Open to ages 4 and older, the camps offer lessons in horsemanship and the care and feeding of the mounts.

“I love the horse camps because they make them work. They have to understand the horse, how to clean the horse, feed the horse, shovel poop out of the stalls,” Hope English says of the center, the camps and her children, with a somebody’s-gotta-do it-and-learn-it laugh. “It's very holistic and I love that.”

Hope and her husband, Andy, live in Raleigh, North Carolina. In October 2020, they bought a home at Smith Mountain Lake and drive the two and a half hours to spend six to eight weeks there each summer with their five children.

“I like that there’s more than just horses,” says daughter Mallie, 11, who enjoys the facility along with her sister Campbell, 9. “So if you don't like to ride, which I do, but when my brothers come, they can feed the pigs, they can play with the dog and cat and feed the horses in the stalls.”

Campbell likes all of that, too: the barnyard chores, taking care of the horses and activities such as a horse-brushing competition and plenty of non-equine events.

Those include s’mores by the campfire, bingo, movie night in the barn on the Fourth of July, crafts, birthday parties, paint night and even finger-painting the horses, among so many other activities.

“So it makes it a fun place to go,” Kathryn says.

For Julie Buchanan, the facility provides even more. She and her husband, Sandy, have fraternal twins, Annie and Bebe, 14, who have been going to the Equestrian Center for half their lives.

The girls arrived 10 weeks early. Annie was born with gross motor delays. She had already been doing therapeutic riding in Greensboro, North Carolina, where they live, so they talked about that
with Lester, Julie says.

“She’s been so accommodating and careful and helpful and helped Annie gain her confidence and build her strength. They’re just sweet people that work there.”

Says Annie, “It feels very safe and comfortable. I’m not nervous.”

Bebe agrees: “They’re there to help with a little bit of independence. You can ride the horses around, you can do trail rides, trot around the arena, go get the horses out of the field.”

Hope says Mallie has been talking about becoming a veterinarian, and while the young rider says she enjoys “being able to communicate” with the horse, she adds, “Riding is really peaceful for me.”

Mom couldn’t agree more. With her hockey-team-sized brood involved in soccer, tennis, lacrosse and church activities back home, Hope says, “It’s such a treat to get to go to the Equestrian Center.”
And from atop a 1,200-pound animal loping along the trails and through the pastures, vistas of the hills and the lake are spectacular.

“You’re just riding through the woods. It’s just peaceful, it’s almost like we step back in time,” she says, adding that the Equestrian Center is a “perfect fit” for her and her hyper-busy family.

Lester says virtually the same thing: “I love every bit of it. Just watching them interact with that animal and watching the animal interact with them would bring a smile to anybody’s face.”

Clearly, Lester loves being around horses — and the families and the children.

“It just makes my heart melt. Everyone that I've had a chance to interact with and talk to and give riding lessons to, they have a special place in my heart,” she says, “and I love them all just like they were my own.”

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Porters Neck Country Club members know they have it all — a memorable, Tom Fazio-designed golf course, a beautiful clubhouse, countless amenities including year-round family activities and enduring fellowship among the club’s vibrant membership. 

And with Porters Neck’s renovation and enhancement of its golf practice facility, long-time member Paul Chase says he feels an even greater sense of pride in his club.

“Now, I feel like our practice facilities elevate the level of the club, with how the facilities look and how they’re perceived by not only our membership but outside folks here in Wilmington,” says Chase. “They come to the club and they’re very impressed with how everything looks now, the facilities.”

The impressive renovations include an overhaul of the short-game area and the addition of a four-hole short course, which opened to members in August 2021.

“Not that you're showing off, but it’s really nice to hear their feedback, to hear positive feedback about what we did and how it turned out,” Chase says. “It's been a really nice improvement to the club over the last year or so.”

Along with the revamped short-game practice area at Porters Neck, McConnell Golf also rebuilt and lowered the entire driving range tee to offer improved visibility from the rear of the tee, sloping it toward the front for better drainage. The short-game area features for game improvement include:

• A 360° area, with a four-hole short course
• A new, 8,500 square foot putting green
• Laser Link rangefinders and target greens on the range with Zoysia definition
• Bunkers around target greens, with solid surface for ball retrieval
• Five new, greenside practice bunkers with concrete shells and new sand around the new short course

“The opportunities that the new area has opened up for instruction has been tremendous,” says Robert Loper, Porters Neck head golf professional.

Chase adds that the new area is much more spacious, too. “There’s a number of chipping greens to play too, there’s a new putting green, so there’s plenty of area for members on the driving range.”

Chase says PNCC’s avid golfing membership has given extremely positive feedback on the new short-game facility. “I just think that the ability to practice now versus how it was previously is a night and day difference,” he says. “I’d say improvement of everyone’s short-game, as long as they go out and use it, is going to be possible.”

Porters Neck member John Pisarek says he’s seen first-hand how the short-game facility can elevate a golfer’s skills. “I played with a higher handicap golfer yesterday who made a difficult chip shot look easy,” says Pisarek, who has been a club member with his wife, Laura, since 2008. “Unsolicited, he said ‘thank the new McConnell short-game ractice area for the ability to hit that shot.’”

Pisarek, a 5-handicap, said the short-game area offers golfers the opportunity to practice every shot they will face on the golf course.

“The short course offers the opportunity to practice chipping and sand shots from multiple elevations, different bunker depths and simulates shots needed not only at PNCC, but any other course that you would play,” he says. He adds that any golfer – from beginner to pro – can improve their game by using the short-game facility.

Chase says his wife, Deehje, and their 7-year-old daughter, Miller, are enjoying the practice area even though they are not yet avid golfers. “We’re up there quite a bit. We like to go out and utilize the range and the short-game area and the practice green to get together.”

“The general takeaway is it’s been an awesome improvement at the club,” Chase says. “Everyone’s really excited about how it turned out.”
 

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No Bake White Chocolate Cranberry Cookie

In the middle of the summer the last thing you want to do is turn on the oven and start to heat the house. That is where these cookies come into play. These cookies are quick and simple to make and are a great cool treat on a warm summer day. I like eating these straight out of the fridge. You can add chopped toasted almonds as an option or even substitute dried cherries instead of the dried cranberries.

Ingredients:

4 Cups Granulated White Sugar
1 Cup Unsalted Butter, cubed
1 Cup 2% Milk
2 Cups White Chocolate Chips
1 TSP Almond Extract
6 Cups Old Fashioned Oats
2 Cups Dried Cranberries

Directions:

In a large sauce pan over medium heat, combine butter, sugar and milk. Stir and continue to cook until butter is melted and sugar has dissolved.
Remove from heat and add almond extract and chocolate chips. Stir until complexly combined.
Add oats and cranberries and stir until fully coated.
Portion into 1 TBSP spoonfuls onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
Put in refrigerator for 30 minutes, until hard.
Store in air tight container.

 

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After 18 years at The Country Club at Wakefield Plantation in North Raleigh, the REX Hospital Open will return in 2023 to the site that put Raleigh on the golfing map: Raleigh Country Club. RCC, which opened in 1948 just east of downtown Raleigh, is the final design of legendary architect Donald Ross and annually ranks among the state’s best layouts.

The REX Hospital Open is the largest and most successful annual charity fundraiser for the health system and an important stop on the Korn Ferry Tour schedule. During the past three decades, the event has raised more than $10 million for patients, programs and services at UNC REX Healthcare.

In 2023, the tournament’s name will change to the UNC Health Championship presented by STITCH and the total purse will increase to $1 million for the first time. The changes are expected to help increase the tournament’s impact, raise more money for charitable initiatives and attract a broader base of fans from across the state.

Both Raleigh Country Club and The Country Club at Wakefield Plantation are owned by McConnell Golf.

“Our main reason for moving the tournament is to get closer to downtown and attract new fans,” said McConnell Golf CEO John McConnell.

McConnell Golf is the largest owner of premier private clubs in the region with a portfolio comprised of 13 18-hole, private golf courses, one semi-private and one nine-hole course in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

In 2003, McConnell purchased RCC to help preserve golf’s historic place. The McConnell Golf portfolio includes three other classic Ross designs in addition to RCC — Greensboro’s Sedgefield Country Club, which annually plays host to the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship, Country Club of Asheville and Holston Hills Country Club in Knoxville, Tenn., which has played host to the Korn Ferry Tour’s Visit Knoxville Open the past two years.

McConnell Golf is the only individual golf course proprietor in the world that owns four Ross-designed courses. In 2020, McConnell Golf completed a major renovation of its historic RCC golf course, overseen by architect Kyle Franz. The focus of the project was retaining the integrity of Ross’s original design while allowing more challenges for today’s long-hitting players. The RCC renovation cost approximately $5.5 million, funded entirely by McConnell Golf, making it one of largest recent privately funded investments in East Raleigh. There were no member assessments.

Raleigh Country Club boasts a rich history of hosting professional and amateur championships:

• The club hosted an LPGA event from 1966-1974. From 1966-1970, the tournament was called the Raleigh Ladies Invitational. From 1971-1972, it was called the Raleigh Golf Classic and from 1973-1974, it was called the American Defender Raleigh Classic. Judy Rankin, Carol Mann and Kathy Whitworth were some of its notable champions. 
• From 1998 to 2000, RCC hosted the Nike Tour/Buy.com Tour Carolina Classic prior to the move to Wakefield Plantation in 2001. Now the event returns back to RCC in 2023. Winners were Brian Bateman (1998), Vance Veazey (1999) and Mark Hensby (2000). Jimmy Green shot a first round 60 (29-31) to set the old course record in 1998 before finishing second. Green’s scorecard is on a plaque in the RCC Trophy Room.
• The 2008 North Carolina Amateur Championship at RCC was won by Jack Fields on Father’s Day with his father on his bag, caddying. Fields set the then-course record with a final round 63 that included an eagle on No. 8 and double eagle on No. 12. His 3-wood/metal is on display at the home office of the Carolinas Golf Association (CGA).
• The 2013 North Carolina Mid-Amateur Championship at RCC was captured by North Carolina amateur sensation Scott Harvey.
• In addition, numerous McConnell Golf scholarship recipients have come through RCC including Grayson Murray, Carter Jenkins, Ryan Nagy and Blake McShea. RCC’s junior members of note include Cyrus Stewart and Stephen Franken.

Now, Raleigh Country Club prepares for the next chapter of its professional championship golf history.

“We look forward to an outstanding event this year, as we begin preparations for some exciting changes to the tournament in 2023,” said Dr. Wesley Burks, CEO of UNC Health. “We believe these updates will mark a new start for one of North Carolina’s top professional tournaments, benefitting both golfers and fans alike, while supporting health and wellness in the Triangle region. As someone who loves watching and playing golf, this is a week I look forward to each year.”

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Quite often I find myself telling people, “I spend more time with my dog than I do my family.” I do not say it out of pride or in an attempt to slight my family, it’s just a statement of fact. I love my wife and kids. The time I spend with them is precious, but it’s tough to compete with the availability of Pepper. Pepper is my 7-year-old Brittany, and she comes to work with me at Brook Valley Country Club every day. She’s ready to roll first thing in the morning, she’s with me all day, and she sleeps on my bed at night. Pepper and I have a special relationship. However, we are not alone in the world of McConnell Golf as “working dogs” are more prevalent in our organization than you might realize.

As you may know, where there are geese on a golf course — there are people wishing they were gone. They are a nuisance to golfers and golf course maintenance personnel alike. Geese feed on insects and other invertebrates and cause a fair amount of destruction to turf in the process. In addition to the damage they cause from feeding, they tend to leave behind unwanted and messy “fertilizer.” Since they are a federally protected species, they are not easy to remove or relocate. What is legal and acceptable, without special permits, is what officials refer to as harassment. It’s exactly what it sounds like, keep them agitated and harassed until they decide to move on to another location. To accomplish this, some courses use green lasers, others use noise makers, or cutouts of coyotes and alligators. All these tactics are helpful, but nothing will harass a goose like a well-trained dog.

I cannot tell you about goose dogs without sharing how I started in the goose chasing business. My experience with dogs predates Pepper and McConnell Golf as my uncles were avid upland bird hunters, who loved quail hunting. Around the holidays every year, I would get the chance to go out in the field with them and be a part of the hunt. I loved to watch their Brittany Spaniels work a field.

The dogs would run hard at first in excitement, then they would settle down to a trot and get to work. They seemed to methodically divide the field up in sections where they knew quail had been and would keep checking back with us to make sure we were close. This was serious work for the dogs, and you could tell it was what they lived for as they loved the thrill of the hunt. Eventually, when they would wind a bird and lock up, every muscle in their bodies seemed to clinch as they went completely rigid, and their noses were pointing right where we could find the birds. They would stand like a statue until the birds were flushed. If you’ve never seen a pointing breed work, I assure you it is an impressive sight to see. A dance choreographer could not create more beautiful movements.

I will never forget those hunts with my uncles. One thing I did not realize at the time was how much I was learning to work with dogs. I was learning how a well-trained dog will work for you, how an untrained dog can be a liability, and how to trust a great dog’s nose and intuition. My uncles taught me how to treat a dog with respect and showed me a working dog can be a member of the family and still do their job. They also showed me a good dog needs a little discipline, a lot of consistency, and even more encouragement. I know all this now but back then, all I wanted was my very own Brittany.

It took some time for my working dog training role to take place. After getting a college education, a new bride, a cross country move, and a career change, I finally got my very own Brittany named Katie. From the time my wife and I picked her up as a puppy, not a moment was wasted. We did not have children yet, so Katie had our attention. For the first two years of her life, she and I spent 10 hours a week training. We went everywhere together and by the time she was 3 years old, Katie knew more than a dozen commands, and was becoming a force to be reckoned with in the bird field.

Katie would stay on point until I released her and would retrieve to hand, heel, wait for approval, and then go right back to hunting. The more we challenged her with new tasks, the more she delivered. She learned quickly how to retrieve from land or water, and she could track game, sit calmly in a blind and even open doors in our home.

When we got Katie, I was an assistant superintendent. Five years later, I was given the opportunity to step into a superintendent role. The course that hired me had a terrible goose problem, and guess who had a chance to learn a new skill? We added a few commands to Katie’s repertoire, and just like that, we had a goose dog! It took me and Katie nearly two years of harassing those geese every day, and then they were gone. They rarely came back, and if they did, Katie was on the job immediately.

Katie and I worked for four different golf courses throughout her life. During the winter months, we got paid to guide quail hunts at local hunting preserves. For two summers, a municipality hired us to chase geese out of a city park. She and I made a great team and when she was in her prime, we had so much fun. We learned a lot together on and off the course. However, sadly, her working days were over by the time she was almost 12. You could tell she was really slowing down, and that’s when she passed the torch to our new puppy, Pepper. 

Other than making an appearance at training days with Pepper, Katie lived the last four years of her life in comfort. She spent most of her days holding down her bed in my office, or the couch at home. Before she left us in the spring of 2020, she was two weeks away from her 16th birthday. There are a lot of people who miss her, nobody more than me, but her spirit lives on. Some people even mistake Pepper for her. While they are the same breed and have similar markings, Pepper is not nearly as talented. However, to be fair, I have not put as much work into her training. She does mind her manners, knows a few commands, and chases geese for Brook Valley. Her specialty is snuggling with my wife and kids, and she loves the work!

McConnell Golf’s canine program started at Raleigh Country Club in 2004 with a border collie named Quinn. We currently have three trained border collies that were purchased for geese chasing, and they are based at Porters Neck Country Club, Providence Country Club and The Country Club at Wakefield Plantation. In addition to Brook Valley, Country Club of Asheville has a family dog that is trained to help chase geese. “Not only are these dogs a great help with the geese, they help with morale of the superintendent and maintenance crews,” says Michael Shoun, vice president of agronomy at McConnell Golf. “What other job can you bring your best friend to work with you every day?” 

Several of the McConnell Golf dogs came from a similar background to Pepper, and the ones I have met are amazing. The dogs all have a story, like Providence’s superintendent, Mark Scott. Scott’s 3-year-old Border Collie Sis herds geese away from the course. “One of our agronomy team’s greatest assets is Sis,” says Scott. “She loves to run and is always ready to work when she needs to. The geese don’t stand a chance because of how quick she is on the course. Sis really is a great dog, and the rest of the team likes having her around as well.”

Sis, like Chris Parham’s Border Collie Euro, was purchased from a company called Flyaway Geese out of Stanfield, North Carolina. Flyaway Geese breeds border collies to ethically and skillfully assist with geese removal nationwide. Euro’s first stop at a McConnell Golf course was Providence. “When I moved to Porters Neck, I asked if Euro could transfer as well,” says Parham. “He got the ‘OK’ to become a beach dog here in Wilmington. He loves chasing geese! When he’s not running through the sprinklers on the golf course, you can find him hanging out in my office or on our utility cart. He also loves to ride on the boat with my wife Lynn and I.”

One might say McConnell Golf has geese covered from the mountains to the coast as Will Laine, the assistant golf course superintendent at Asheville also has a canine assistant. Charlie, Laine’s 4-year-old Goldendoodle, has been at CCA for about a year. During the day, he enjoys greeting members on the course, and some of them even put treats in their golf bags for him or buy a snack for him at the turn. “He loves chasing geese off the No. 4 fairway, sticking his face in front of irrigation sprinklers, cooling off in the creek on No. 10 and playing in the snow,” says Laine. “Charlie can also locate moles underground and pull them out before they damage turf. Having him run the golf course with me every day is not only great for the course, but great for his health and the morale of our maintenance staff.”

Dogs have a way of bringing joy and comfort to most everyone around them. In the busy, hectic, and sometimes stressful life of a golf course superintendent, a dog can be a great companion. While they may not always have a busy season on the course, sometimes their job is to put a smile on someone’s face for a moment. For as long as I am a superintendent, whether there are geese to chase or not, I will always have a dog at my course. Mark Twain could not have said it better, “If there are no dogs in heaven, when I die, I want to go where they went.”

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McConnell Golf’s eight properties offer some of the best tennis facilities and USTA-certified professionals in the region. Meet the four newest pros who are bringing a breadth of experience
to the club’s courts.

ADVICE FROM THE PROS
• Why take up tennis? Because, according to Tito Poplawski, “the sport is engaging in so many different ways; it’s exercise, fun, social and even therapeutic.”
• Best tip for beginners? “Take it little by little every day,” says Beck Bond. “Tennis is not a sport you are going to master in a week or a year; it is a sport of a lifetime.”
• Best tip for competitive players? Tennis can be a very solitary sport, says Jacob Fuqua, and competitive play can be “rough” at times. The solution, says Fuqua, is to lean on teammates for support and encouragement.
• There’s no such thing as a loss. “Focus on how you are playing and have a goal for the match (make more balls in play, play aggressively),” says Caitlin Whoriskey. “If you can come off the court and say you did what you had in mind, then count it as a win.”

CAITLIN WHORISKEY
ASSISTANT TENNIS PROFESSIONAL AT THE COUNTRY CLUB AT WAKEFIELD PLANTATION

Caitlin Whoriskey’s long list of tennis achievements includes being named a three-time NCAA Division I All-American while at The University of Tennessee and playing Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Now Whoriskey wants to use her experiences to coach players at The Country Club at Wakefield Plantation where she became an assistant tennis professional in May 2021.

Whoriskey says she focused on the “finer details” in her practices and matches, and she continues to “perfect the little things” as a coach. “My favorite part of the job is when I get out on the court
with a member and they finally get the hang of a particular shot,” says Whoriskey, “and they are just beaming with excitement and satisfaction.”

WP member Bobbi Ingold says Whoriskey’s focus on the details has greatly improved her daughter Traci’s skills. “Caitlin breaks down the fundamentals for Traci and talks to her about point strategy,” says Ingold. “Traci has improved her footwork, groundstrokes, volleys and serve since working with Caitlin.” Ingold, who played tennis at Georgia Tech, says she was very picky when choosing a coach for Traci. “We have worked with several pros in the Raleigh area and Caitlin is by far the best,” Ingold says.

Along with coaching, Whoriskey’s duties include running tennis clinics, tournament events and club socials.

BECK BOND
DIRECTOR OF TENNIS AT PROVIDENCE COUNTRY CLUB

Beck Bond began playing tennis at just 3 years old, and he’s been playing ever since. “It [tennis] is something I truly love and am passionate about,” Bond says. Bond had a very successful tennis career at North Carolina State University and coached at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte before becoming director of tennis at Providence Country Club in May 2021. Bond says his years of competitive play and his time as a coach prepared him to work with players at all levels at PCC. “I get to pass along my knowledge of the sport I love to eager members wanting to better themselves and their tennis games,” Bond says.

Joan Bullard, a PCC Interclub team member, appreciates the experience Bond brings. “His clinics are very informative, and he quickly taught us a great deal from the moment he stepped on the court with us,” Bullard says. She says attendance at Interclub clinics has grown with Bond at the helm. “He’s been a breath of fresh air at PCC,” Bullard says.

Along with coaching and running clinics, Bond oversees the day-to-day tennis operations for the club, and manages his staff.

JACOB FUQUA
TENNIS DIRECTOR AT HOLSTON HILLS COUNTRY CLUB

Jacob Fuqua says the best part of his job as tennis director at Holston Hills Country Club is the relationships he’s formed with members and staff. When Fuqua became tennis director at HHCC in June 2021, he says he was “immediately welcomed into their membership family.” He adds, “The tennis membership here is such a close-knit group and I absolutely love that. The amount of support I get from them is truly overwhelming.”

HHCC member Laila Yoder says it was easy to welcome Fuqua into the tennis family. The Interclub group can be a bit rowdy, explains Yoder, and Fuqua brings the perfect blend of “energy” and “cheek” to manage the group. A bonus, Yoder says, is Fuqua’s accessibility. “When I have matches to play, I can text him for helpful hints on how to play particular opponents and he gets back to me pretty quickly with strategies even though I’m not in a lesson.”

A few of Fuqua’s many job responsibilities include teaching tennis, planning all tennis events, and maintaining the courts and tennis center.

TITO POPLAWSKI
DIRECTOR OF TENNIS AT COUNTRY CLUB OF ASHEVILLE
“Having this job is something I’ve dreamed about since I was a teenager,” Tito Poplawski says of his role as director of tennis at Country Club of Asheville. Poplawski, a former high school tennis state champion who went on to play at Lees-McCrae College, began playing tennis at CCA when he was 13 years old. At 16, he started working at the CCA tennis pro shop. “The country club has played an important role in my passion for tennis, and I want to provide the same experience for tennis and pickleball players,” Poplawski says. “It inspires me to keep the facility a fun and exciting place to play tennis and pickleball.”

CCA member Anne Russo says Poplawski’s enthusiasm for tennis is “infectious.” Russo, who started playing tennis two years ago, regularly does group lessons with Poplawski. He also coaches her three children. “He’s patient, kind and encouraging with both children and adults,” she says.

Poplawski’s many responsibilities include programming clinics and events, maintaining the tennis facilities, and managing his staff. He says the members’ enthusiasm for the sport is very rewarding. “There are so many great families and people who want to share their passion for tennis,” Poplawski says. “It is a pleasure to work with them.”

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Strawberry Shortbread Cookies

When I think of May, I think of my mom and celebrating Mother’s Day. I can remember my mom going to local farms to pick some of the biggest and juiciest strawberries off the vines and letting me snack on a few while she picked them. Later she would make her version of strawberry shortcake using the naturally sweet strawberries, cool whip and buttery shortbread cookies. I’ve found this recipe that has all the flavors in one bite. I hope you all enjoy!

Cookie Ingredients:

4 Ounces Granulated Sugar
8 Ounces Unsalted Butter, room temperature
12 Ounces All-purpose Flour
½ TSP Kosher Salt
½ Ounce Freeze-dried Strawberries

Strawberry Glaze Ingredients:

¼ Cup Chopped Strawberries
1 Cup Powdered Sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Place the sugar and the freeze-dried strawberries in the bowl of a food processor and process until freeze-dried strawberries are pulverized, about 30 seconds.
Place the butter, strawberry-sugar mixture and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and mix on medium speed until smooth about two minutes. Stop mixer, scrape down the bowl and add all the flour at once. Mix on low speed until all the flour is combined. The dough will be crumbly at this point. Increase the mixer speed to medium and mix until the dough has completely come together, about two minutes.
Turn dough on to lightly-floured table and divide into four equal parts. Take each portion and roll the dough into 1½-inch thick logs. Refrigerate for two hours overnight.
Cut logs into desired thickness and place on sheet pan with parchment paper.
Bake the cookies for 8-12 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
Take the cookies out of the oven and allow them to cool for about five minutes on the cookie sheet before moving them to a cookie rack to completely cool.
The shortbread cookies can be stored in an airtight container for one week.

Strawberry Glaze:
Combine the chopped strawberries and powdered sugar in the bowl of a food processor and process until no bits of powdered sugar or large chunks of berries remain. At this point, the glaze is ready for the cooled cookies.
If you want a thicker glaze, add powdered sugar ½ cup at a time until it is the desired consistency. If you want a thinner glaze, add chopped berries, two tablespoons at a time.

 

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