strawberry

Sweet and juicy strawberries and a big scoop of vanilla ice cream sandwiched in between light and fluffy shortcake.

Ok you guys. RUN to your nearest farmers market and buy as many cute little baskets of strawberries as you can carry back to the car!!

We bought our first batch of farm fresh strawberries last weekend in NC, so I know we are on the cusp of massive amounts of strawberries being all over the place. Can. not. wait. I loooooooove strawberry season. Like, fiercely.

And, because I care about you, I wanted to be sure that you had this recipe for old fashioned strawberry shortcake before your kitchen is overflowing with sweet, juicy red berries.

I know that the grocery stores all want you to think that strawberry shortcake is those like sponge cake cups that you can buy right by the strawberries in the produce section.

But that’s actually false. That’s sponge cake.

Strawberry short cake isn’t made with an angel food cake loaf either.

That’s angel food cake with strawberries on top.

Strawberry shortcake, REAL strawberry shortcake, is made with incredibly soft, fluffy, flaky biscuits that melt in your mouth with every bite.

And it’s ah-mazing. And way better than using  sponge cake or angel food cake. I promise.

You can certainly make the biscuits that require rolling and cutting, like these. But I think it’s even easier and just as delicious to make a good batch of drop biscuits.

A while ago I posted about these biscuits that are made with whipping cream instead of butter or shortening. I was shocked that you could make a biscuit so tender and flaky without using butter! But it turns out, YOU CAN! And that’s how these shortcakes are made.

You only need a very few simple ingredients:

• all purpose flour
• baking powder
• a little bit of sugar
• heavy cream

And that’s it!

The trick to making great biscuits with heavy cream is basically the same as when you’re using butter: take it easy.

Making biscuits is all about being gentle with the dough or else it’s going to get hard and tough. Add the cream gradually, and gently mix BY HAND with a wooden spoon or spatula. And stop mixing way before you think you should.

You’re not looking for a smooth, elastic dough here. In fact, these should be really lumpy, even crumbly. Your dough should look something like this when it’s time to stop mixing:

Not over mixing the dough is absolutely crucial in achieving a soft and tender biscuit.

Once the dough looks like that, you can scoop the dough (about 1/4 cup) and drop it on to a lined baking sheet.

While these are baking, go ahead and slice the strawberries.

Add some sugar and let them sit for about 30 minutes.

Now it’s time for the magic.

Traditionally, you eat strawberry shortcake with whipped cream. But I think it’s better with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream! As it melts, it soaks right into the biscuit and all over the berries, and it is utterly sinful.

You guys. I’m telling you, this is your new favorite recipe for this spring and summer! Hoard those strawberries and then invite everybody you know over for short cake!!

And here’s a tip for using frozen strawberries instead of fresh (because if you’re like me, you buy out all the strawberries when they’re so good and freeze them for later): make this strawberry sauce to go with your shortcakes instead of macerated berries! So, so good.

Enjoy!