Strawberry Shortcake

Ingredients

• 2 lb Strawberries, hulled and sliced
• ½ cup Granulated sugar
• ½ Lemon
• 2 ½ cups All-purpose flour
• 8 tbsp Unsalted butter, frozen
• 1 cup Low-fat buttermilk
• 1 tbsp Baking powder
• ½ tsp Baking soda
• ¾ tsp Kosher salt
• 1 cup Heavy cream
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract

Method

1. Toss the strawberries with half the sugar and the lemon juice and leave them at room temperature at least 30 minutes. They collapse slightly and make their own syrup — that syrup is the sauce.
2. Heat the oven to 425°F. Grate the frozen butter into the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and 2 tablespoons of the sugar. Grating frozen butter gives you flakier biscuits than cutting it in, with a fraction of the work.
3. Stir in the buttermilk until it just holds together. Pat it out, fold it in thirds twice — those folds are the layers — and cut eight rounds.
4. Bake 14-16 minutes until risen and golden. Do not twist the cutter; a twisted edge seals and the biscuit rises lopsided.
5. Whip the cream with the remaining sugar and vanilla to soft peaks. Stop while it still slumps.
6. Split the warm biscuits, spoon berries and syrup over the bottoms, add cream, and lean the tops on at an angle.

Notes

✨ The restaurant touch

Soft peaks, not stiff. Cream whipped to stiff peaks is a frosting; cream at soft peaks folds into the berry syrup on the plate.

🧒 For the kids

Let them mash a few of the berries with a fork. More syrup, and it makes them part of it.

🌿 From the garden

June strawberries from a local patch make a version of this that supermarket berries cannot touch. It is worth planning the month around.

🥡 Leftovers

Biscuits keep a day. Assemble to order — this dessert has a fifteen-minute window and that is part of its charm.

Per serving

Computed from USDA FoodData Central values. A planning tool, not medical advice.