Classic Strawberry Shortcakes Recipe
Tender golden shortcakes that taste like sweet biscuits piled high with mountains of juicy, red strawberries and strawberry syrup with pillows of fresh whipped cream on top are just what your cookouts and backyard get togethers need.
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Servings: 6 shortcakes
Calories: 696kcal
Ingredients
Fresh Strawberry Sauce
- 2 pints strawberries, halved, then sliced
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
Shortcakes
- 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour (White Lily Flour recommended)
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled
- ½ cup heavy cream, chilled (or whole buttermilk)
- extra cream for lightly brushing tops of biscuits
- turbinado sugar for sprinkling
- lemon zest
- extra flour for dusting
Homemade Whipped Cream
- 1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
- zest of ½ lemon
Instructions
Fresh Strawberry Sauce
- In a large bowl, mash about ⅓ of the sliced strawberries with a potato masher. Add the rest of the berries and sugar. Stir well. Cover and set aside.
Shortcakes
- Preheat oven to 425℉.
- In a large glass bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar with a fork.
- Grate the butter into the flour mixture using a box grater or other type of grater. Use a fork to toss and mash the butter into the flour.
- Make a well in the bottom of the butter & flour mixture and add the heavy cream to the well. Use your fork to lightly mix the ingredients to together to create a shaggy/ loose dough.
- Turn the loose dough out onto a floured surface. Gather up the dough pieces and press together, turning it over 1-2 times and gently/ lightly patting it down into a rectangle. Cut the rectangle into quarters. Stack the quarters on top of each other. Pat down into a rectangle again. Cut into quarters. Repeat process one more time, patting dough into 1- 1 ½ inch thick rectangle.
- Dip a 2 inch biscuit cutter into flour. Press cutter straight down into the dough WITHOUT twisting. Place biscuits on a baking sheet 1-2 inches apart. Re-group the dough scraps into a rectangle and cut biscuits until all the dough is used.
- Freeze for 15 minutes. Remove from freezer. Brush tops with extra cream, sprinkle with turbinado sugar and lemon zest. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.
Homemade Whipped Cream
- While the biscuits are baking, whip cream with a mixer at high speed until soft peaks begin to form. Add sugar, vanilla, and lemon zest and finish whipping until you get stiff peaks. Set aside.
Assembly
- Cut open your shortcakes and lay them open faced on a serving plate. Add a spoon or two of whipped cream on the bottom half of the shortcake, then a spoon or two of strawberries and their syrup on top of the cream, letting the syrup run down the sides. Place the top of the shortcake on the berries (don't press) and repeat with more cream and more berries.
- Garnish with fresh mint and a bit of lemon zest.
Video
Notes
- Fluff, Spoon, Level. When measuring flour, I “fluff” the flour in the canister to “unpack” it. Then I use a spoon or a small measuring cup to lightly “spoon” the flour out of the canister and into the measuring cup I’m using. Lastly, I “level” it off with the back of a knife for the best measurement possible without weighing it.
- Level All of Your Ingredients. To make sure you’re not adding too much or too little of an ingredient you should always use the back of a knife to level off dry ingredients in measuring spoons AND cups.
- Don't overwork the dough. To create light and tender shortcakes you need a light touch. This is a pastry, not a bread that requires kneading.
- Additionally, the heat from your hands will melt the butter in your dough when it's handled too much. It's important that the butter melt in the oven (not on the counter top) where it will create little air pockets in the dough that will push the dough up, creating tall, pillowy biscuits.
- Use chilled butter and heavy cream (or buttermilk) to get the best rise.
- Chill your cut biscuits in the freezer to make sure that butter is as cold as can be when it goes into the oven.
Nutrition
Calories: 696kcal | Carbohydrates: 62g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 48g | Sodium: 372mg | Sugar: 29g