I tried to resist writing a post about Strawberry Shortcake. It’s been done to death and yet here I am punching away at my keyboard. I can’t help it. Since childhood, the sight or even the scent of a real shortcake renders me captivated.
I’m very particular as to how I like my Strawberry Shortcake built.
The cream has to be full fat, whipped almost to butter and ever so slightly sweetened with sugar; no sweetener substitute.
The strawberries must be hand-picked, local, at room temperature, quartered not crushed and again sweetened perfectly with white sugar to render a delicate syrup that will soak into the shortcake.
The ‘short’ part of the strawberry shortcake has to be a biscuit. Angel food cake is not short and no replacement for me.
A buttery, flakey, fresh biscuit is the only choice if you’re building the perfect Strawberry Shortcake.
Lastly, the build; start with a shallow serving dish. This allows the strawberry syrup to spread out so that only the bottom half of your biscuit soaks in the juice. You think I’m kidding. I promise I take Strawberry Shortcake very seriously.
Place the bottom half of a biscuit in the shallow dish then spoon a generous portion of prepared strawberries and syrup over top. Next a big dollop of whipped cream into which sits the top of the biscuit. Another dollop of whipped cream with a garnish of whipped cream and a sprig of fresh mint.
The food blogger in me toyed with the idea of flavouring the whipped cream with an herbal infusion, adding mascarpone to the biscuits and even roasting the strawberries with balsamic vinegar. All of the embellishments would have been fun but when you wait a whole year for a real Strawberry Shortcake why mess with perfection?
STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE
makes 12 cakes
preheat oven 450*F
SHORTCAKE:
1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
½ cup cold butter, divided into eights
2/3 cup milk
THE STEPS:
- Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar and place in large mixing bowl.
- Using a pastry blender cut in butter until it resembles a coarse meal. You can see in the photos that I didn’t use a pastry blender to cut in the butter. I didn’t have one at the farm so I used a cheese grater with super cold butter. works like a charm!
- Add milk and stir until JUST combined.
- Place dough on a floured board and knead 5 times then roll to 1″ thickness.
- Cut cakes and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Place in oven on bottom rack and bake 10 – 12 minutes on until golden.
- Top with sweetened strawberries and whipped cream.
THE LOVE: To one pint of whipping cream, I use ¼ cup of sugar. To one quart of fresh strawberries, I use ½ cup of sugar. Adjust to your own taste.
My girls will be here in 10 days. They’ll have missed strawberry season. When you can’t have just picked then just picked and frozen is the next best thing!
Recipes are for sharing and I love it when you share mine.
Thanks for reading.
Ingredients
BISCUIT SHORTCAKE:
1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
½ cup cold butter, divided into eights
2/3 cup milk
2 quarts fresh strawberries
1 cup granulated sugar
1 quart whipping cream, really cold
Instructions
Shortcakes
- Preheat oven to 450*F
- Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar and place in large mixing bowl.
- Using a pastry blender cut in butter until it resembles a coarse oatmeal.
- Add milk and stir until JUST combined.
- Place dough on a floured board and knead 5 times then roll to 1" thickness.
- Cut cakes and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Place in oven on bottom rack and bake 10 - 12 minutes on until golden.
- Top with sweetened strawberries and whipped cream. See Note.
Strawberries
- Rinse strawberries if necessary, to remove any earth from the fruit
- Hull the strawberries, cut into quarters and place in a medium sized mixing bowl.
- Sprinkle strawberries with sugar and gently toss with a spoon to evenly distribute the sugar.
- Allow berries to sit for at least 30 minutes to allow the strawberries and sugar to form a syrup.
Whipped Cream
- I whip my cream until it almost resembles butter for Strawberry Shortcake. Whip your cream as you like it.
Notes
THE LOVE: To one pint of whipping cream, I use ¼ cup of sugar. To one quart of fresh strawberries, I use ½ cup of sugar. Adjust to your own taste.
