Strawberry Shortcake Biscuits Recipe

What makes this strawberry shortcake the BEST is its flakey buttermilk biscuits, sweet homemade stabilized whipped cream, and fresh strawberries. This recipe comes together in less than 25 minutes!

Ingredients

Equipment

These tools will save you a lot of time and make this super easy. A kitchen scale, a sharp metal cutter about 4"-5" round, a cheese grater, and a pastry brush.

Why use a kitchen scale? Read more about using a kitchen scale for baking in this blog post.

Protip - Use a kitchen scale to weigh all your ingredients in one bowl. Shred cold butter directly into the bowl for easy measuring and cleanup! 

How to Make Strawberry Shortcake

To Make Strawberry Filling

The strawberry filling is incredibly easy. So easy, there are only three steps. Perfect for home cooks!

Protip - Use the freshest strawberries you can find. Locally grown strawberries will taste MUCH better than the ones at the grocery store (unless they are sourced locally). 

Step 1 - Cut off the tops of your strawberries then slice them into fourths (or smaller pieces if you desire).

Step 2 - Place strawberries, lemon juice, and sugar into a bowl and stir until sugar is evenly distributed onto the strawberries.

Step 3 - Walk away! The sugar will draw out the moisture from the strawberries and turn the juice into a thick syrup.  So easy!

How To Make The Sweet Biscuits Step-By-Step

Strawberry shortcake would not be complete without the biscuits! Shortcake refers to the way butter is cut into flour and "shortens" the gluten to make a tender, fluffy "cake".

These biscuits are extra-large so they make the perfect-sized strawberry shortcake for one.

Step 1 - Add your flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl and whisk to combine.

Step 2 - Place the whole bowl onto the scale and press the tare or zero button to remove the weight of the bowl. Make sure the mode is set to ounces (or grams if that's what you're using). Start shredding in your COLD butter until you reach the right amount.

Step 3 - Toss the flour and butter together quickly to coat all the butter with the flour mixture. Quickly begin breaking the butter pieces into smaller pieces with your fingers until the mixture looks like chunky sand.

Protip - If your hands are very hot, place them in ice water for one minute, dry them off quickly, and then rub the butter into the flour. You can also use a fork. 

Step 4 -  Combine the milk and lemon juice (or use buttermilk). Make a well in the center of your butter/flour mixture and add in your cold milk/lemon juice or buttermilk and lemon zest.

Step 5 - Make a "claw" with one hand and begin mixing the flour into the milk until no dry flour remains. The dough will look chunky and rough, this is normal!

Step 6 - Dump the biscuit dough onto the counter and smoosh it together into a roughly round flat shape about 2" tall.

Step 7 - Take half the mass of dough and fold it over onto itself. This will be really rough at first.

Push the dough down until it's 2" tall again. This is one "turn". This is what develops layers of butter in our dough and causes them to puff up!

Step 8 - Rotate the dough 45º and fold the dough over again and press down. This is turn 2. Repeat this step until you have made 4 or 5 turns. The dough will look slightly smoother and more combined after turn 5.

Step 9 - With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the biscuit dough out until its about 1" tall.

Step 10 - Use a metal cutter to cut out your biscuits. I get about 4 biscuits.

Pro tip - Press your metal cutter straight down and lift straight up to keep your biscuit layers intact. If you twist at all, you will seal the layers shut and your biscuits won't rise. 

I press together the leftover dough to cut two more. They won't be as pretty but they still taste good!

Step 11 -  Arrange your biscuits onto a baking sheet with some parchment paper on top to prevent sticking. I leave about ¼" space between the biscuits to help them rise higher! Biscuits like to be close to each other.

Step 12 - In a medium bowl, whisk together your egg and 1 tablespoon of water. Brush the tops of your biscuits with the egg wash. This promotes browning. *see notes*

Step 13 - Sprinkle the tops of the biscuits generously with sanding sugar or granulated sugar.

Step 14 - Bake biscuits for 25-30 minutes or until they are golden brown on top. I use a thermometer to check the internal temperature. Biscuits are done at 205ºF-215ºF. No one likes under-baked biscuits.

Place the biscuits onto a cooling rack before assembly.

How To Make Stabilized Whipped Cream

Step 1 - Place the gelatin into the water and let it absorb while you start whipping the cream.

Step 2 - Place your cold heavy whipping cream into the stand mixer with the whisk attachment.

Step 3  - Whisk on medium until soft peaks form, and you're just starting to see lines in the whipped cream. Add in your powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Mix on low until combined.

Step 4 - Melt the gelatin in the microwave for 10 seconds. The gelatin should look clear. If it's not, warm it for another 5 seconds. Don't overheat it. Add in the teaspoon of heavy cream and stir lightly to combine.

Step 5 - While mixing on low, pour in your gelatin and mix until you reach firm but smooth peaks. Not crumbly or chunky. Now you have stabilized fresh whipped cream!

Pro tip -  Check out my blog post to see more ways to stabilize whipped cream with cream of tartar, pudding mix, and more. 

Assembling The Strawberry Shortcakes

Time to put our delicious strawberry shortcakes together!

Step 1 -  Use a knife to split the biscuits in half.

Step 2 - Scoop a big helping of those juicy strawberries onto your biscuit. All that syrup is going to soak into the biscuit and will taste amazing.

Step 3 - You can use a piping bag with a 1M piping tip or just use a spoon to layer up some of your whipped cream on top of the strawberries. I like to add about ¼ to ½ cup of whipped cream.

Step 4 -  Place the other half of the biscuit on top, top with whipped cream and a strawberry, and serve!

Because we have used stabilized whipped cream, you can make these strawberry shortcakes up to 24 hours ahead of time and place them in the fridge to be served later. You can also make the biscuits recipe ahead of time and assemble them the next day so that the strawberries don't make them soggy.

Related Recipes

Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits
Bacon Cheddar Chive Biscuits
How To Make Buttermilk
Strawberry Cinnamon Rolls
Strawberry Cake With Strawberry Buttercream 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Have you made this recipe? Leave me a review below! 

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