Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Rinse strawberries, slice off stem, chop in small pieces and place in mixing bowl with about 2 tablespoons of sugar. Depending on your taste and the tartness of the berries, you may add more or less sugar. Cover and place in refrigerator until ready to use.

For the shortcakes, sift dry ingredients and add to food processor. Pulse a couple times and then add the 1/2 stick of butter into the dry mixture. Pulse several times until blended. Now add the cubes of chilled butter and pulse again until you see pea sized chunks of butter.

Empty mixture into mixing bowl and add the egg and half and half and stir until dough is sticking together.

Turn out onto floured surface and knead about 5 times and form into round disk. Press gently and form into larger round that is about one inch thick. Cut out small circles with a cooking cutter or cup. Dip cutter in flour beforehand to prevent dough from sticking.

Place cutout circles on parchment-lined baking sheet.

Beat egg white with a little water and brush tops of shortcakes with it before baking. Sprinkle a little sugar over the tops if you prefer.

Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the tops are light golden brown. Remove from oven and cool completely. Note: you can make these the day before, cool and store covered. I did this for the second batch and I actually liked the texture better.

For the whipped topping, add whipping cream to a mixing bowl with sugar and beat until stiff peaks form (about 4 minutes). Add the mascarpone and beat for another minute until blended.

Assembly

Slice each shortcake in half. Place sliced shortcake on serving plate, spoon strawberries over the bottom half, spoon on the whipped topping, drizzle some more strawberries over that layer and then top with the the other half.

Enjoy!