I think this rustic, coarse, only slightly sweet biscuit-type cake base saturated with sweetened sliced strawberries and lots and lots of sweetened whipped cream is just about perfect.

If you like sweet, soft, cake-y strawberry shortcake—the highly processed “cake” found in produce sections of large American supermarket markets everywhere—then this is not the recipe for you. But, if I could convince you try this slightly sweetened biscuit-like base, I think you might be converted 🙂

This is my own recipe—no sources—and I’ve spent years developing it. Truth be told, I only figured out the perfect base about a decade ago; before that, I used the recipe off the Bisquick box! And I am so glad to be done with that! To me, the Bisquick base was really too salty, and it had a slightly metallic flavor to it, too.

Here’s how to make Strawberry Shortcake, a truly American dessert, the right way!

To make individual shortcakes, cut dough with a round biscuit cutter, and then bake and assemble as described. The recipe below makes one very big Strawberry Shortcake, or 8 rather large individual ones.

Strawberry Shortcake

INGREDIENTS

For the Shortcake Base

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• 3 tablespoons butter, chilled or frozen, cut into cubes or grated
• 1 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 375°.
2. Spray a pretty 8 or 9″ diameter pan with nonstick spray for baking—you will be baking and serving the strawberry shortcake in the same pan, that’s why I specified a pretty pan. If you don’t have a pretty pan, don’t stress, just use the best one you have 🙂 I use a quiche pan, but if you don’t have one, a pretty pie dish will work, too.
3. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in large bowl to blend.
4. Add in butter—cut it in, if you know how, or just grate it in. Frozen butter grates just like cheese! Trust me, it works like a charm!
5. Using fingertips, rub butter into dry mixture until a coarse meal forms.
6. Make well in the center of the flour mixture.
7. Add buttermilk, stirring with a fork—yes, a fork! Gradually stir dry ingredients into milk to blend. Keep using the fork until the dough clumps together.
8. Using floured hands, shape dough into ball, and transfer into the prepared pretty pan.
9. Using fingertips, stretch dough to fit pan.
10. Bake until golden brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes.
11. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then transfer to rack to cool completely.
12. While shortcake is baking, wash slice and sweeten the strawberries.

For the filling

• 2-3 baskets strawberries OR as many as you have or want, really 🙂
• sugar to sweeten berries to taste
• 1 pint whipping cream
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• ¼ c. sugar

1. Rinse, drain, stem, and then slice the berries vertically—depending on the size of the berry, you can probably get 2-5 slices from each berry.
2. Sprinkle sliced berries with sugar, to taste.
3. Let sit for awhile to sweeten and stir before using.
4. Up to one hour before serving, whip cream, vanilla and sugar until thick and creamy. Use immediately, or refrigerate until ready to assemble.

To assemble Strawberry Shortcake

1. Remove shortcake from pan and carefully split in half horizontally. If the bottom half splits, it’s no problem; if the top half splits it’s a bit more of a challenge to cover—but don’t stress!
2. Place bottom half of shortcake back in pan. Top with ½ of the sliced and sweetened strawberries.
3. Top berries with half of the whipped cream, smooth out to level.
4. Replace the top half of the shortcake, pressing slightly.
5. Top with remaining berries and all of the juice.
6. Pipe remaining whipped cream decoratively around the edge of the shortcake and serve immediately—leftovers don’t keep well.

Shortcake and strawberries can each be made early in the day, but the actual assembly should be done as close to serving time as possible.

I hope you enjoy my take on this classic dessert! Thanks for dropping by!