Strawberry shortcake is summer dessert at its most elemental and perhaps its finest. It's completely dependent on the quality of your berries; they should be rich and juicy. We feel that the best shortcake, however, also depends on the quality of the biscuit. There is a lot of bad shortcake out there - imposters like sponge shells and cakes stand in for what should be a plain, tender biscuit with only a hint of sweetness.
The best biscuits give a modest base for the rich cream and strawberry to sink into. This is our favorite recipe for shortcake biscuits, giving a soft, flaky base that is just sweet enough for the gorgeous berries in the markets.
D.I.Y. Strawberry Shortcake
Biscuit
2 cups cake flour
3 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
2/3 cup cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
Strawberries
1 quart strawberries
1 lemon, zest & juice
1/4 cup sugar
Cream
2 cups whipping cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar (or to taste)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch of salt
Heat oven to 400F. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment. Sift the dry ingredients for the biscuits together, then cut the butter in and work in with your fingers until it's in pea-sized lumps. Beat the egg with the cream and vanilla and add. Work in just until the dough comes together. Turn out onto a floured countertop and cut into rounds. Bake for 10 minutes or until just barely golden.
Hull and chop the strawberries and macerate for at least an hour with the lemon zest and sugar.
Beat the cream until it holds soft peaks. Add the sugar, vanilla and salt.
To serve, split each biscuit into two and layer with strawberries and cream.
Leave out the egg and your biscuit would work for me. Then, not quite so much sugar and instead of lemon, the tiniest bit of good balsamic vinegar--a couple of drops to enhance the strawberry flavor; you definitely don't want to taste any vinegar.
view A Nony Mous's profile
By the way, adding balsamic vinegar to berries is not new--I learned this from my Sicilian grandmother many, many years ago. (wish there was an edit button for our comments)
view A Nony Mous's profile
I'm drooling over this gorgeous photo, Faith. Thank goodness I also happen to be working my way through a bowl of freshly picked strawberries with orange cake and vanilla ice cream. Next on the strawberry menu is shortcake, and yours sounds wonderful! : )
view Farmgirl Susan's profile
i actually made this recipe, and it was very good. the berries were a bit sweet for my liking (and i used less sugar than the recipe calls for!) my guests loved it and had seconds.
my only suggestion would be to be a little more detailed in the biscuit portion of the recipe: knead dough after turning out? how long? flatten to what thickness? how? with a rolling pin or hands? (i think it's important to try to keep the dough as cold as possible, right? so maybe i should not have used hands to flatten out dough?) cut rounds of what size?
i didn't grow up in the US and this was my first attempt at strawberry shortcake, so it was a little confusing.
also, the recipe does not specify how many portions it makes, so this was also a mystery.
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