Strawberry Shortcake with Buttery Biscuits
Traditional Southern style recipe for strawberry shortcake served on buttery biscuits. This makes 8 very small square biscuits or 6 slightly larger.
Servings 6 biscuits or 8 very small ones
Cost 5
Ingredients
Strawberries
- 1 pound strawberries, trimmed
- 2 tablespoons sugar, you can use more or less to taste
Biscuits
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (weigh), plus more for the mat (210 grams)
- 3 tablespoons sugar (36 grams)
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 stick salted butter (114 grams)
- ½ cup cold buttermilk or mix ⅓ cup whole milk mixed with 2 tablespoons of sour cream or yogurt, plus extra milk if needed (120 grams)
Whipped Cream
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream (180 grams)
- 2 tablespoon granulated sugar or 4 tablespoons confectioners'
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
Strawberries
- Toss berries with sugar, cover and refrigerate for several hours or until you are ready to make the cakes.
Biscuits
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. -- You will be reducing heat later.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder powder, sugar and salt.
- Grate the cold butter over the mixture, tossing gently as you grate, then stir well until mixture is crumbly.
- Very gradually add about ⅔ of the milk into the flour mixture and stir with a heavy duty scraper until mixture comes together. You most likely will not need all of the milk mixture, so mix only until everything comes together as a scraggly butter splotched dough. You want it to be a little on the moist side at this point because it's going to absorb more flour from the mat.
- Sprinkle a very thin coat of extra flour on the a mat. Scrape the mixture onto the mat and push it all together, then press it down into a ½ inch thick rectangle. With a bench scraper, cake lifter or thin spatula, fold it over on itself and press down again. Repeat this folding procedure 5 times, press down gently after each fold and sprinkling in a little more flour to prevent sticking. The extra flour also helps with structure, so don't be afraid to add it. Also, feel free to use a rolling pin or a wine bottle to roll the dough. I typically don't roll, I just pat.
- Fold the dough over one last time and gently pat it into a rectangle somewhere around 3x6 inches and around 1 ⅓ inches thick. Slide the bench scraper under it and put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes.
- Using a chef's knife, cut straight down to make 6 squares or 8 squares depending on how big you want your biscuits.
- Arrange the biscuits on a small rimmed baking sheet spacing about 1 ½ inch apart. Set the pan in the oven.
- Immediately reduce heat to 375 and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until biscuits are golden.
Whipped Cream
- In a chilled mixing bowl using chilled beaters, whip the cream until soft peaks form. Beat in the sugar and vanilla and beat until peaks are stiff
- Assemble! Slice the biscuit, rub a little whipped cream on the cut side, spoon strawberries over whipped cream, top with more whipped cream and more strawberries or top with the other half of the biscuits.
Notes
You can also make this recipe with self-rising flour. Self-rising flour is pretty salty, so if using self-rising flour omit both the salt and the baking powder and use 1 ½ cups total.