Classic Strawberry Shortcake, made with fresh strawberries, homemade biscuits, and whipped cream is the easiest and most perfect summer dessert!
Never again will you make strawberry shortcake with store bought pound cake. Once you make these simple sweet biscuits, this will be your favorite strawberry shortcake recipe!
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STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE RECIPE
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If there’s one dessert I’ll never get tired of…
a dessert that I could eat an obscene amount of and not get sick…
a dessert I can justify as healthy because it contains fresh fruit…
it would have to be homemade Classic Strawberry Shortcake.
Homemade Strawberry Shortcake Biscuits
These sweet biscuits are completely unlike flaky biscuits made with butter. You know – the kind that you love to smother with country sausage gravy for a sinful hearty breakfast.
The fat in these shortcakes comes from heavy cream instead of butter. The trick to any biscuit, whether you’re using butter or heavy cream, is to avoid over mixing. As soon as the dry ingredients are able to hold together enough to hold their shape on a baking sheet, they’re done.
If you love homemade strawberry shortcake but don’t have heavy cream on hand, you can always use buttermilk and make a buttermilk graham cracker shortcake!
How to make strawberry shortcake:
Classic homemade strawberry shortcake is a three step process that involves making the sweetened strawberries, the shortcake biscuits, and the whipped cream.
- To prepare the strawberries you’ll combine them with sugar and lemon zest and allow them to macerate for at least an hour. More info on how and why to do that is below. The strawberries can be prepared up to a day in advance.
- To make the biscuits, you’ll combine the heavy cream with the sifted dry ingredients and mix just enough so that they hold together. You’ll bake them on a baking sheet and allow them to cool before splitting open. I think they taste best on the same day that you cook them.
- To make the whipped cream, combine cold heavy whipping cream with confectioner’s sugar and beat on high speed with an electric mixer. Unless you plan on making stabilized whipped cream by adding a bit of gelatin dissolved in water, you’ll want to hold off on making the whipped cream until you’re about to serve your strawberry shortcake.
Pictures like the one below leave me speechless. Partly because I cannot find the words to describe such beauty, partly because I’m salivating so much that I’m finding it difficult to talk.
Why is this the best strawberry shortcake recipe?
This is very different than the shortcake I enjoyed growing up. In my youth, processed convenient foods filled every kitchen in the country. Remember Hungry Man TV dinners? Yeah, they were my favorite. I wouldn’t touch one now.
Our version of strawberry shortcake was a slice of Sara Lee pound cake smothered in those frozen strawberries packed in sweetened (very sweetened) juice with as much Ready Whip as my plate would hold.
Now, don’t get me wrong – that was freaking delicious. But this recipe is for a homemade shortcake biscuit which is very different than processed pound cake. It’s not nearly as sweet and is indeed very biscuit-like.
Plus, one cannot beat fresh strawberries – especially ones like these. Look at that deep red! I no longer buy whipped cream in a can anymore. Only the real stuff that gets whipped fresh exists in my house!
How to prepare strawberries for homemade strawberry shortcake:
- I always prefer to use fresh strawberries if they’re in season. I’m of the opinion that it’s better to indulge in any kind of recipe when the produce in season. It’s usually worth the wait.
- To properly macerate the strawberries, you must first remove the stem and then slice them. Then, you’ll want to combine them with sugar and lemon zest and allow them to macerate in that sweet citrus juice for at least an hour. I will often allow them to macerate overnight to properly develop their flavors.
- Unless your house is extremely cold, you will need to refrigerate the strawberries to prevent them from spoiling.
Talk to me about those strawberries!
Now, there’s really only a few weeks out of the year where I can make such an exquisite looking short cake because Hood strawberries, unlike ever berries, only have a single harvest season and once they’re gone – they’re gone.
There will be other berries throughout this season and throughout the country if you’re not fortunate enough to reside in the great state of Oregon like I do, but none that are as deep red, sweet, and perfect as these Hoods.
I hereby declare that I am willing to sacrifice up to three gained pounds for the pure satisfaction of getting to enjoy as much strawberry shortcake as the Hood growing season will allow!
Classic Strawberry Shortcake
Ingredients
strawberries:
- 1 pint strawberries hulled and sliced
- 1-2 tablespoons confectioner's sugar amount depends on sweetness of berries
- 1 tsp lemon zest
shortcake:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
whipped cream
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon confectioner's sugar
Instructions
-
Combine strawberries, sugar, and lemon zest. Allow them to develop flavors in refrigerator for at least an hour, up to overnight.
-
To make shortcake, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Add heavy cream and mix until just combined. Mixture will be very thick. Form two large rounds or four small rounds on an ungreased baking pan (I used a cooking stone) and bake until golden, 15 to 20 minutes. For added crunch and sweetness, you can sprinkle large decorator's sugar on top of the biscuits, if you have some available, prior to baking. Allow to cool once removed from oven.
-
To make the whipped cream, combine the heavy cream and sugar and beat with whisk attachment on high speed until soft peaks form, about 4-7 minutes.
-
To assemble shortcake, split biscuit in half. Layer with strawberries in the middle and on top and then top with whipped cream. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Recipe makes 4 servings. Either make two large biscuits and serve half a biscuit or make 4 small biscuits and serve entire biscuit (as shown in pictures).
This post was originally created in May 2016 and has been updated with more fun facts and tidbits for your reading pleasure.
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I am going to make this for Christmas dessert for my boyfriend! I wish Hoods were in season (I’m from/live in Oregon, too, yay!) but I’m sure this will still turn out great! Love that this is without angel food and on real biscuits like it should be!
Just made this for Mom’s birthday! SOOOO DELICIOUS. Even the biscuits alone are perfection. Thank you for this easy recipe!
I don’t understand these instructions: “Form two large rounds for four small rounds on an ungreased pan (I used a cooking stone) and bake until golden,” What do you mean?
Thanks for the comment. That is confusing! What I meant to say was form two-large or four-small rounds. I’ll update the recipe now.
Recipe still needs to be updated.
Gah! What is wrong with my brain? Fixed!
I’m getting ready to make these biscuits as it’s strawberry season right now. I don’t have heavy cream. Will half & half work?
You really need the fat. I’m thinking half and half would work if you didn’t use as much and then added in a few tablespoons of melted butter. Will you let me know?
Can you make ahead and save a day or
2. Making for Easter and need to make
a bunch. Thanks
You bet! You can either make the biscuits the day before and keep them in an air tight container or you can make them anytime and freeze. I wouldn’t make the strawberries more than a day in advance though. Hope that helps!
The shortcake seems very similar to our Australian Scone. A cheats Scone is All purpose flour 1 cup of lemonade 1 cup of heavy cream.
Lemonade? I’ve never heard of that tip! I’ll have to try it!
Made this tonight. We absolutely loved it! It was not overly sweet, although we loved that about it. My husband said it was the best strawberry shortcake he’d ever had. The biscuit was so delicious!! I will figure out ways to incorporate the biscuit in other meals. 🙂 Thank you for sharing!!
Thank you for such a great comment! So glad you enjoyed. Krissy
How many biscuits does this make? ☺
Either 2 large or 4 small.
Just took these out of the oven and they smell SO good! Strawberries are cut and ready. Now I just have to wait til it’s time for dessert…🤤
I’ll rate it a 5 based on look and smell. I’m sure the taste will be equally as good! 🌟
Making this for my moms 81st birthday tomorrow! I’m so excited to take them to her. She said her mother in law always made them years ago.
I made this for the first time. We liked the biscuit part quite a bit. However we found the strawberries had far too strong of a bitter citrus flavor. It’s possible that my lemon zest included too much pith, but it’s also possible that the phrase “zest from one lemon” leaves too much room for variation, and that the directions would be helped by indicating the specific volume of zest required.
Hi Christian, I suppose lemon zest is much like salt in that there’s a lot of personal preference involved in desired quantity. I’ll update the recipe with an amount though. Thanks!