Summer is my favorite season. Summer brings all of my favorite fruits and vegetables into season and strawberries happen to be one of my favorite fruits! Where I grew up we had the most wonderful strawberry stands that were only open a few weeks out of the year and they had the most delicious, sweet, and gorgeously red berries. I still try to make it back home at least once during this time of year because you can’t find better strawberries than these, I could (and have) eat a whole flat, no problem. These beautiful little ruby gems inspired this Strawberry Shortcake. In one of my previous restaurants, we served a shortcake very similar to this one. This is where I learned the magic of a lemon sugar biscuit!
This Strawberry Shortcake isn’t your traditional sponge cake. This is a flakey, buttery biscuit topped with a generous helping of lemon sugar! I challenge you to find a better vessel for strawberries than a lemon sugar biscuit, I don’t believe it exists ;). To offset the extra sweet strawberries and lemon sugar crust, I like to fill my shortcake with whipped crème fraiche rather than regular whipped cream. Now, regular whipped cream is fantastic in this, don’t get me wrong, but something about the little bit of tanginess you get from the crème fraiche just really makes it sing.
I know this recipe looks a bit long and intimidating, but it really only breaks down into three simple things: biscuit, strawberries, and whipped cream. When you say it like that it doesn’t seem so bad!
To start, you will want to make your biscuits. Start this process by zesting your lemon into the sugar and give that a mix, this releases all the delicious and fragrant lemon oil into the sugar and creates a delicious lemony crust for our biscuit. Next you’ll want to make your biscuit dough! Combine all of the dry ingredients into a bowl and then add in your cold butter ( I cut my butter into extra small cubes, about 1/2-1 cm cubed) and mix that together. Add in the wet ingredients and mix gently until it forms a dough. For extra flaky biscuits, make sure not to over mix, you want to fold all the ingredients together until it barely sticks, it might still look a bit dry and you should be able to see the little cubes of butter. Next, flatten out your dough into a square that is about 1-11/2 inches thick (I use my hands for this) and cut into four equal pieces. Place your biscuits on a lined Baking Sheet, I always use these silicone liners, so that they are just barely touching each other. Pack all of the sugar onto the top of your biscuits and bake for 11-15 minutes until they have risen and are golden brown!
The strawberries and whipped cream are a little more self explanatory, if your strawberries are nice and sweet and juicy, you shouldn’t need to do anything other than slice them up but if they need a little help just add a little bit of sugar and a splash of vanilla to bring out those natural flavors! For the whipped cream, simply add all the ingredients into your mixing bowl and whip until soft peaks form. If you like your whip to be a bit sweeter, feel free to add more sugar! I tend to like mine barely sweetened because you get so much sweetness from the strawberries and biscuit.
Now we get to assemble our shortcake! Slice your warm biscuit in half and put a generous dollop of the whipped cream onto the bottom of the biscuit. Next, put your sliced strawberries onto the whipped cream. You measure these with your heart and I tend to add a LOT of strawberries to mine! To help it stay in place I add another small dollop of whip onto my strawberries then top with the biscuit. You can garnish with a bit of chopped mint for an extra added flavor and color contrast, or just dig in!
Enjoy your summertime treat!
Strawberry Shortcake
Equipment
- Stand or Hand Mixer
Ingredients
Lemon Biscuit
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 lemon, zest
- 2 cup flour
- 2½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 6½ tbsp butter, cold and diced
- ¾ cup buttermilk
Whipped Cream
- ¾ cup heavy whipping cream
- ½ cup creme fraiche
- 2 tbsp powdered sugar
Strawberries
- sliced strawberries measure with your heart
- 1 tbsp sugar optional
Instructions
For The Biscuits
- Preheat your oven to 425°F
- Combine the first two ingredients, sugar and lemon zest, in a small bowl and set aside.
- Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 tbsp sugar in mixing bowl.
- Cut your butter into small cubes, about 1 cm cubed and mix with the flour mixture. if the butter is too large go ahead and break them apart with your fingers, but don't handle the butter too much, you want it to stay cold.
- Mix the buttermilk into the wet ingredients, be careful not to overmix! You should still see chunks of butter and the dough should just come together.
- Turn out the dough on your work surface and, using your hands, flatten out into a square or rectangle shape about 1 inch thick.
- Cut your dough into 4 equal pieces and place on a lined baking sheet so that the edges are just barely touching each other.
- Take your lemon sugar and separate evenly on the four biscuits, packing it on with your hand so it is evenly spread and tightly packed.
- Bake your biscuits for 11-15 minutes until golden brown. Cool on the sheet pan you baked them on, the butter will soak back into the cooked biscuits.
Creme Fraiche Whipped Cream
- Make sure all ingredients are very cold. Combine heavy cream, creme fraiche and powdered sugar in the bowl of your mixer.
- With the whip attachment, whip the mixture until soft peaks form, should take just a few minutes.
Strawberries
- If you have fresh, ripe strawberries, you won't need any sugar, but if they are out of season or not as sweet as you would like, mix them with a bit of sugar and set aside for a few minutes to macerate.
Assembly
- Cut your biscuit in half, put a scoop of whipped cream on the bottom half, as many sliced strawberries as you want, one small dollop of whipped cream on top of the strawberries, then the top half of the biscuit. Garnish with mint and lemon zest!
*This post contains affiliate links. If you click and purchase, I make a small commission!*
Just like my grandmother used to make, thanks for the walk down memory lane 😍