Wednesday, June 14 is National Strawberry Shortcake Day, and few things say summer like fresh strawberries on sweet biscuits topped with whipped cream. In June, the star of the show is definitely fresh picked local strawberries. While I will admit to purchasing grocery store strawberries in January when I really need a taste of summer, they cannot compare to local in season berries. Local strawberries burst with real strawberry flavor. My favorite strawberries come from the farm where my mother-in-law grew up. For many years she has been kind enough to pick and freeze these berries for me to use in baked goods, jams and jellies.

Perhaps the best thing about strawberry shortcake is how simple it is.

The Berries

Strawberry shortcake is the classic, and at this time of year strawberries can’t be beat. Shortcake can be made with any fresh fruit, however, and I strongly encourage you to make use of whatever looks best to you. In August, this becomes a blackberry or blueberry dessert for me!

The Whipped Cream

I won’t fault you for breaking out the Cool Whip or can of Redi-Whip if you want to keep it simple. For some people, Cool Whip is simply nostalgic, and that’s OK. I would encourage you, however, to take the time to whip up some fresh cream. Honestly, freshly whipped cream is the best. Whichever you select, I insist you top your shortcake with mountains of it!

The Shortcake

Cake style, or biscuit style? Many people like a sponge cake based strawberry shortcake. Others prefer a shortcake made with something more like a biscuit. I am team biscuit. Or “scone” as my Australian friend called it when I served it for dessert last week. My friend commented that homemade “scones” tasted so much better than the store bought shortcakes. He’s right! And, these biscuits are so simple to make.

Here’s What You Will Need:

I apologize for the lack of picture here, but it’s pretty straight forward. And this is why you should be making your shortcake biscuits from scratch: simple ingredients. For the shortcake you need flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, butter, and buttermilk. Buttermilk might require a trip to the store, but everything else is found in a reasonably well stocked pantry. Beyond that, select berries, and top with cream.

Let’s Make Shortcake Biscuits!

Again, simple ingredients, but let’s walk through the process. As I mentioned, I served strawberry shortcake to guests recently, and while everyone agreed that homemade is best, one friend wondered if this was something she could make in a kitchen that may not be as well equipped as mine. Yes! Biscuits can be made with a bowl, a spoon, and your hands. I sometimes use a food processor as a shortcut, but this is a luxury, not a necessity. This is something I made when I was a twenty-something living in a tiny studio apartment with no real kitchen tools.

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl or food processor and cut in pieces of butter. If using a machine, pulse for 20-30 seconds to blend. If working by hand, rub the butter into the flour until you have a crumbly mix. Then you will stir in the buttermilk. Dump the shaggy dough onto your floured countertop and work it by hand to bring it all together into a dough ball.

Use a rolling pin to shape your dough ball into a rectangle. Sprinkle some flour onto the dough and get ready to do some folding. Notice the dough has specks of butter of varying sizes. This is a good thing!

Fold the dough rectangle into itself by thirds like you are folding a letter for an envelope. (Wait, does anyone still use snail mail?)

Using the rolling pin again, roll the folded dough into a rectangle. It should measure close to 12×8 at about 1 inch thick.

I have a 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter that works really well, but use a table knife if you have to. Cut the dough into whatever shape and size strikes your fancy. I was able to get 12+ round biscuits in this batch.

Scoop together any dough scraps so you can cut out more biscuits.

Arrange the cut dough into a baking pan. See Pro Tips for more advice on this matter.

For the prettiest biscuits, brush the tops with some extra buttermilk or cream.

Again, making it pretty, sprinkle the tops with some coarse sugar.

Bake until golden brown and delicious!

Pro Tips:

Place the biscuits close together in a baking pan. They should almost touch. This keeps them from spreading too much. I used to bake my shortcake biscuits on a cookie sheet and wonder why they spread so much… I now use a 9×13 baking pan when making this recipe.
The recipe below will have a suggestion for the amount of sugar to use for the berries. This is only a suggestion. Fresh, in season berries have a lot of natural sweetness and don’t need much sugar. In the summer, I use the sugar just to help draw out some juice that soaks into the biscuits. Adjust the sugar based on your personal sweetness preference and the ripeness of the berries used.
No buttermilk, no problem. I prefer the taste of a buttermilk biscuit, but you have options. One is to use an equivalent amount of cream and squeeze in a bit of lemon juice to create a faux buttermilk. Or, you could just use cream. The biscuits have enough baking powder that they will rise even if you don’t add an acid. I added baking soda and buttermilk to this recipe because, like I said, I prefer the flavor, and it gives it just a little help with the rise.
Keep it cool! The best biscuits are made with cold butter. This is the main reason I use a food processor. While I think I get good results by using my hands to rub butter pieces into the flour, my hands are kind of warm. If you make these by hand and find the butter is getting soft, give the dough a chill before baking. I opted to chill the dough in the refrigerator for about 15-20 minutes after cutting the biscuits and placing them in the baking pan.

Strawberry Shortcake

Print Recipe

A classic summer treat made with fresh berries, whipped cream. and lightly sweetened shortcake biscuits.

Author: Darla McVay

Ingredients

Units Scale

Fresh Berries of your choice. In season is best! For this recipe I used 2 pints of berries sweetened with 2 Tablespoons of sugar.

For the shortcake:

3 cups flour

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 Tablespoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 cup cold butter, diced

1 1/4 cup buttermilk

optional 2 Tablespoons buttermilk or cream for brushing on the tops of the biscuits, and coarse sugar to sprinkle on top before baking.

Optional freshly whipped cream: For this recipe I use 2 cups of heavy whipping cream with 2 Tablespoons of sugar.

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Instructions

Slice berries into a bowl and add sugar. Toss the berries to coat.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Cut in the cold butter and blend to form a crumbly dough. You should have a mix of very small bits of butter as well as some that are slightly larger. To this mix, stir in the buttermilk to create a shaggy dough. Using your hands, bring the dough together into a ball. For complete directions in shaping and cutting the dough see the instructions above. Brush the tops of the shortcake biscuits with additional buttermilk and sprinkle the tops with coarse sugar. Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown.

For the optional whipped cream, use a hand mixer or stand mixer or whisk and mix the cream and sugar until it reaches the consistency you desire for the ideal strawberry shortcake!

Enjoy!

Make the most of fresh berries while you can! And for some other fruit based desserts you might consider trying my Sunshine Lemon Bars, a Fresh Fruit Tart or another recipe that is perfect for early summer, my Raspberry Rhubarb Meringue Tarts.

Also, I strongly encourage you to eat this for breakfast! It’s just as much a breakfast as the strawberries and cream waffles I enjoy at a diner, and these can’t be beat when the berries are in season and the biscuits are fresh. I made up a batch for my kids to have for breakfast today. As my Australian friend reminded me, they are practically scones.