Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake is such a delicious, old-fashioned dessert for warm spring and summer days. Homemade, sweetened biscuits are split and filled with whipped cream and macerated strawberries for a wonderfully classic treat.

Homemade Strawberry Shortcake

• You will never go back to those store-bought yellow sponge cakes after tasting this homemade version!
• The biscuits can be frozen to be defrosted and warmed up later. This makes it a great make-ahead dessert for holidays like Easter, or for a special day like Mother’s Day. Just whip some cream and slice some strawberries when you’re ready to serve your defrosted biscuits.
• This is a wonderfully classic and old-fashioned recipe that reminds me of summers spent on my grandparents’ farm – those childhood memories are so precious to relive through food!

Ingredients you’ll need

Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities!

Ingredient notes

• Butter: Your butter must be cold from the fridge. If you need to use margarine for any kind of reason, you must use stick margarine. A spread will not work in any way.
• Heavy cream: I like adding a bit of heavy cream to the biscuits, because it makes them extra-rich and decadent. Feel free to substitute this with more buttermilk if you don’t have any cream on hand.
• Buttermilk: While it is possible to create a quick and easy buttermilk substitute by stirring 1 teaspoon white vinegar (or lemon juice) into regular milk, I highly recommend buying actual buttermilk for this recipe. Both the taste and the rise of the biscuits are far superior when made with real buttermilk.
• Coarse sugar: I use coarse brown sugar for a sparkling, golden finish on the biscuits. Feel free to use regular coarse sugar.
• Whipped cream: When I’m making strawberry shortcake from scratch, I tend to feel I need to go all out and make homemade whipped cream. Feel absolutely free to use store-bought whipped cream, if you want to save some time!
• Strawberries: I really enjoy the classic recipe here, with strawberries just gently macerated with sugar. My kids love it when I make my homemade strawberry topping to go with the shortcake! And I have to admit, the extra jammy sauce is nice here ?

How to make Strawberry Shortcake

1. Start by macerating the strawberries. This just means you wash, dry and slice your berries; then stir them together with a little sugar. Refrigerate them until you’re ready to assemble the shortcake.

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2. For the biscuits, combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. I like to use a whisk for this to make sure the baking powder is evenly distributed.

3. Add the cold butter and cut it into the flour using a pastry cutter or two forks (a potato masher works in a pinch, too). Your butter should be fully cut into the flour, so you should have a bowl full of a crumbly mixture.

For best results, chill this for 10 minutes in the refrigerator.

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3. Next, blend the buttermilk, heavy cream and egg. Pour into the dry ingredients while stirring with a wooden spoon. Only stir until moistened, do not over-stir! Biscuit dough needs to be handled very gently and mustn’t be overworked; otherwise they will come out flat and tough.

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4. Tip out the dough on a generously floured work surface. You’ll also want to flour your hand. Pat it into a 1 ¼ inches thick rectangle (about 8×8 inches in size) and cut out biscuits using a 2 ¼ – 2 ¾ inch biscuit cutter.

Note: Do not twist the biscuit cutter! Dip it in flour before cutting each biscuit so it will easily slide out of the dough again. Only move it up and down, never twist, else you will seal the edges and the biscuits may not rise.

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5. Arrange the biscuits in a buttered skillet (mine is 10 inches in diameter) or on a lined cookie sheet. They should be touching each other lightly to help each other rise.

Brush the tops with heavy cream and sprinkle with coarse sugar, then bake until deep golden.

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6. Allow the biscuits to cool in the pan for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool for about 10 minutes in total. Split each biscuit and fill with whipped cream and your macerated strawberries. Serve immediately.

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Recipe tips

• Make sure to use cold ingredients for the biscuits. Only remove the buttermilk, butter, cream and egg from the fridge right before making the biscuit dough. Using chilled ingredients, working fast and keeping the dough cold is absolutely important to yield fluffy biscuits.
• Chill the butter/flour mixture. I highly recommend chilling the flour/butter mixture for 10 minutes before proceeding with the recipe. This will help the butter to firm up again (it softens somewhat as it is worked into the flour) to yield fluffier biscuits. I also much prefer chilling at this stage vs chilling the finished dough, because in my experience the biscuits come out taller when handled and baked quickly once the dough comes together.
• Do not twist the cutter when cutting biscuits. You only want to move the cutter up and down, do not twist it when cutting the biscuits. It helps to dip the cutter in flour before each biscuit, as they will release easier/without twisting. This ensures the edges don’t twist and seal, yielding taller biscuits.
• It helps to let the biscuits touch as they bake. They support each other and help each other come out taller. Don’t worry if you’re a beginner and your biscuits get a little wide vs very tall; you can still easily break or cut them apart and unless something went horribly wrong, they are still perfectly delicious to fill and eat.
• Only chill the biscuits for around 10 minutes after baking; they taste best served warm. Do not let them sit in the skillet or on the cookie sheet for more than a few minutes, or they will soften and get soggy on the bottom. You’ll want to move them to a cooling rack (as they bake closely together, I usually just place the cooling rack over the skillet and then carefully invert to remove them all; then quickly flip to cool a little more before splitting them to serve).

Freezer tips

I do not recommend storing the biscuits for more than a few hours; they are absolutely best eaten warm straight out of the oven. At the very least, eat them on the same day as they are baked.

They can, however, be frozen. Allow to cool to room temperature, then pack up in a freezer bag and label with the name and date. Freeze for up to 3 months.

To defrost, allow to sit in the bag on the counter for 15-20 minutes, then remove from the bag and place on a wire rack on the counter. Allow to defrost for several hours, until no longer frozen in the middle. Warm in bursts in the microwave before serving with whipped cream and strawberries.

PS If you try this recipe, please leave a review in the comment section and add a star rating in the recipe card – I appreciate your feedback! Follow along on Pinterest, Facebook or Instagram.

Printable recipe

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