Easy Homemade Strawberry Shortcake

Skip the store-bought and make strawberry shortcake completely from scratch. With only a handful of basic ingredients, you can make tall fluffy sweet biscuits. Layer them with juicy strawberries and 3 ingredient fresh whipped cream for a totally unforgettable summer dessert. Everyone needs this recipe!

Today is real food and real flavor brought to life without any peanut butter swirls, caramel drizzles, rainbows, chocolate chunks, candy bar pieces, sprinkles, or unicorn magic. Strawberries + sweet biscuits + whipped cream. Every summer has a different song anthem with the latest chart-topping hit, but the summer dessert anthem stays the same year after year. And that dessert we just can’t get out of our heads, tastes delicious any time of day, and soothes our summertime soul is most definitely strawberry shortcake. ♥

Here’s What You Don’t Know About Strawberry Shortcake

Completely homemade strawberry shortcake is easier than you think. Skip the store-bought biscuits and toss the packaged whipped cream that’s loaded with who-the-heck-knows-what. Instead, have fun making strawberry shortcake at home. The biscuits come together with butter, flour, sprinkle of sugar, and milk. Load them up with juicy strawberries and homemade whipped cream that, again, is so simple. If you can reach for store-bought whipped cream in the dairy aisle, you can make fresh whipped cream at home.

I hope I’m not overwhelming you with all this homemade goodness– I promise it’s all VERY easy. And that’s what summer is about, right? Simple, happy, pure homemade goodness that celebrates the season’s fresh flavors.

Fresh Strawberries for Strawberry Shortcake

You only need two ingredients for the strawberry filling: sugar and fresh strawberries. Chop up the strawberries and mix with a little sugar. The sugar helps strawberries release all their delicious juices, which will seep down into the sweet biscuits and whipped cream. (Aka the best part about strawberry shortcake!) I recommend mixing the strawberries and sugar together before you make the biscuits; this gives the strawberries some time to juice up.

Moving onto the biscuits!

Homemade Sweet Biscuits in 4 Steps

Homemade biscuits are one of life’s greatest treasures. The strawberry shortcake biscuit recipe is similar to my homemade biscuits, but we’ll add a little sugar since it’s dessert. Let’s make the biscuits in 4 easy steps.

1. Cut cold butter into dry ingredients– you can use either a pastry cutter or food processor


2. Add milk and stir.


3. Cut into shapes.


4. Bake.

How to Shape Biscuits

Use a biscuit cutter to shape the biscuits.

My #1 tip for shaping biscuits: Do NOT twist the cutter. Firmly press the cutter down into the biscuit dough. Twisting the cutter into the dough will seal off the biscuit edges, preventing the biscuits from rising.

Did you know that biscuits rise even taller when they’re touching? They help lift one another up, so press them snug together before baking. You can bake the biscuits on a lined baking sheet, cast iron skillet, or round cake pan. A brush of heavy cream and sprinkle of coarse sugar gives the sweet biscuits a delightfully crisp top.

Homemade Whipped Cream

Just 3 ingredients here: cold heavy cream or heavy whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla extract. The colder the heavy cream, the more volume your whipped cream has. Unlike store-bought whipped cream, you can control the amount of sugar. I prefer lightly sweetened whipped cream with strawberry shortcake, so we’ll only use 2 Tablespoons. And another thing! Homemade whipped cream tastes 100x better than store-bought. It’s refreshing, creamy, and pillow-soft.

With its light and billowy texture, whipped cream is the perfect topping for pies, cakes, cupcakes, cheesecake, trifles, and so much more!

Let’s Assemble Strawberry Shortcake

After the biscuits bake, it’s time to assemble the strawberry shortcakes. Strawberry shortcake is fantastic with warm biscuits, cold strawberries, and cold whipped cream– but you can also wait for the biscuits to fully cool.

Assembling the strawberry shortcakes is the fun part! You can totally set up a “strawberry shortcake bar” where everyone makes their own stacks. Who doesn’t love a DIY dessert bar?! And you could definitely add blueberries to the sweet strawberries for a patriotic treat in the summertime. 🙂

I recommend going heavy on the whipped cream dollop because you know it’s the best part!

More Easy Summer Desserts

• Key Lime Pie – only 3 ingredients in the filling!


• No Bake Cheesecake


• Peach Cobbler – with homemade biscuit topping


• Fruit Pizza


• Lemon Blueberry Cake

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Easy Homemade Strawberry Shortcake

★★★★★
4.9 from 12 reviews

• 
  Author: Sally


• 
  Prep Time: 30 minutes


• 
  Cook Time: 15 minutes


• 
  Total Time: 1 hour


• 
  Yield: serves 10-12


• 
  Category: Shortcake


• 
  Method: Baking


• 
  Cuisine: American

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Description

Skip the store-bought and make easy homemade strawberry shortcake instead. You’ll be surprised how simple it is to make homemade biscuits and whipped cream!

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Ingredients

Strawberries + Whipped Cream

• 6–7 cups quartered strawberries


• 1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons (75g) granulated sugar, divided


• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract


• 1 cup (240ml) heavy cream

Biscuits

• 3 cups (375g) all-purpose flour* (spoon & leveled)


• 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar


• 2 Tablespoons baking powder (yes, Tablespoons!)


• 1 teaspoon salt


• 3/4 cup (180g) unsalted butter, cold and cubed


• 1 cup (240ml) buttermilk*


• 2 Tablespoons (30ml) heavy cream (or buttermilk)


• coarse sugar, for sprinkling

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Instructions

1. Start with the strawberries: Stir the strawberries and 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar together in a large bowl. Cover and set in the refrigerator until ready to use. This time allows the strawberries to release their delicious juices.


2. Make the biscuits: Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Mix the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl or in a large food processor. Whisk or pulse until combined. Add the cubed butter and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter or by pulsing several times in the processor. Pulse until coarse crumbs form. If you used a food processor, pour the mixture into a large bowl.


3. Pour buttermilk on top. Stir everything together until just about combined– do not overwork the dough. The dough will look like shreds and be very crumbly. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and gently mold it together in a ball using your hands. Gently flatten until it is evenly 1/2 inch thick. Cut into 3-inch circles. Re-roll any scraps until you have about 12 biscuits. (I didn’t re-roll my scraps– that’s why you only see 9!)


4. Arrange in a 10-inch cast iron skillet or close together on a lined baking sheet. (Make sure they’re touching– see photo above.)


5. Brush the tops with 2 Tablespoons heavy cream (or buttermilk) and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake for 15 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown on top. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before assembling.


6. Make the whipped cream: Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the heavy cream, 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar, and vanilla on medium-high speed until soft-medium peaks form, about 3 minutes.


7. Slice the biscuits in half and layer with strawberries and whipped cream. Serve immediately.

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Notes

1. Make Ahead Instructions: Each part of this recipe can be prepared ahead of time. Make the biscuits up to 3 days in advance and store covered tightly at room temperature– or freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw completely before using. Prepare the strawberries in step 1 up to 1 day in advance. Prepare the whipped cream up to 1 day in advance. Store both in the refrigerator.


2. Special Tools: KitchenAid Stand Mixer | Colorful Whisk | Glass Mixing Bowls | Biscuit Cutter | Pastry Brush | Silpat Baking Mat | Baking Half Sheet


3. Flour: Starting with cold flour is a handy tip! If you can remember, place the flour in the freezer 30 minutes before beginning.


4. Buttermilk: If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, you can use soured milk. Add 2 teaspoons of white vinegar or fresh lemon juice to a liquid measuring cup, then add whole milk until it reaches 1 cup. Give it a stir, let it sit for a couple minutes, then use in the recipe.

Did you make this recipe?

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