The Best Strawberry Shortcake - Once Upon a Chef (2024)

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Sunny days call for homemade strawberry shortcake—a perfect blend of juicy fresh strawberries, rich buttermilk biscuits, and whipped cream.

What You’ll Need To Make Strawberry Shortcake

• All-purpose flour: Provides the structure for the biscuits, serving as the base of the dough.
• Cornstarch: Used alongside flour to soften the proteins, yielding a more tender biscuit.
• Baking powder and baking soda: Leavening agents that help the biscuits rise, making them light and fluffy.
• Granulated sugar: Sweetens the biscuit dough, strawberries, and whipped cream.
• Cold butter: “Cut” into the biscuits so that when baked, the cold pieces create steam pockets that rise, leading to a flaky, rich texture. Using unsalted butter allows you to control the saltiness of the biscuits.
• Buttermilk: Adds a slight tang and moisture to the biscuit dough, contributing to the tender texture and rich flavor. If you’d rather not buy a whole carton for this recipe, see my post for how to make buttermilk using milk and lemon juice or vinegar.
• Turbinado sugar: Sprinkled on top of the biscuits before baking, providing a sweet, crunchy crust.
• Strawberries: The fruit component of the dish, offering fresh, juicy sweetness and vibrant color.
• Seedless raspberry jam: Enhances the strawberries with additional sweetness and gloss, adding depth to the berry flavor.
• Heavy cream: Whipped into cream for filling the shortcake, adding a rich, luxurious element to contrast with the freshness of the berries and the texture of the biscuits.
• Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Make the Biscuits

Begin by making the biscuits. These are a lightly sweetened version of my Southern-style biscuits. True Southern biscuits typically call for White Lily flour, a low-protein flour primarily available in the southern US states that makes for ultra-tender, melt-in-your-mouth biscuits. I can’t find White Lily flour easily where I live, so my secret is to add a little cornstarch to the flour to get the same effect.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, granulated sugar, and salt.

Add the pieces of cold butter.

Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with pea-sized clumps of butter within.

It should look like this.

Add the buttermilk. (Note: If you’d rather not buy a whole carton of buttermilk for this recipe, it’s easy to make your own. Simply add 2-1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice or white vinegar to a liquid measuring cup. Then add milk to the 3/4-cup line and let sit for 10 to 15 minutes, or until slightly curdled and thickened.)

Stir with a rubber spatula until the dough comes together into a sticky, shaggy mass. Do not overmix.

With lightly floured hands, form the dough into 8 craggy-looking balls and place on the prepared baking sheet. (They should be bigger than golf balls but smaller than tennis balls.) Don’t worry about making them perfect — it’s better if they are a little rough around the edges. Sprinkle the tops with the turbinado sugar.

Bake for 13 to 15 minutes, until the biscuits are golden. Set aside to cool.

Step 2: Prepare the Strawberries

While the biscuits cool, prepare the strawberries.

Put one-third of the berries in a medium bowl and, using a potato masher or a fork, mash them into a chunky purée.

Mix in the remaining berries, along with the raspberry jam and granulated sugar.

Let the berries sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes, until saucy.

Step 3: Prepare the Whipped Cream

Meanwhile, make the whipped cream. In an electric mixer or by hand, whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form, then sprinkle the sugar over the cream and beat until soft peaks return. Do not overbeat.

Step 4: Assemble

Using a serrated knife, split the biscuits in half horizontally and transfer the bottoms to 8 dessert plates. Spoon about three-quarters of the macerated berries and their juice evenly over the biscuit bottoms. Let some of the berries spill out onto the plate. Top with a generous dollop of whipped cream and cover each with a biscuit top. Spoon more berries and cream over each shortcake and serve immediately.

Frequently Asked Questions

Strawberry Shortcake Video Tutorial

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