Traditional Strawberry Shortcake Recipe

There are many iconic American desserts, like lemon meringue pie, Toll House cookies, cherry pie, peach cobbler ... The list goes on and on, but how many desserts can you name that have their own namesake cartoon complete with TV show, dolls, and tons of other merch? There's only one we can think of, and that would be strawberry shortcake. While Strawberry Shortcake the character might be cloyingly sweet, her eponymous dessert is biscuit-based, so it's not nearly as sugary as many other fruit desserts.

While many shortcut recipes for strawberry shortcake make do with canned biscuits, Angela Latimer of Bake It With Love likes to keep things traditional by making her own buttermilk biscuits. Once you've baked the biscuits, though, the rest of the recipe couldn't be easier: Simply split the biscuits, top them with sliced strawberries, and pile on the whipped cream. This makes for a simple yet practically perfect summertime dessert.

To make strawberry shortcake, you're going to need strawberries, of course, and fresh ones really are the only kind that will work. You're also going to need some lemon juice and sugar to add a little extra flavor to the berries. The biscuits themselves are made with unsalted butter, which needs to be straight out of the fridge rather than at room temperature. You'll also need all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda (yes, both of those not-quite-identical products), more sugar, a pinch of salt, and some buttermilk. (You can make an easy DIY substitute for the buttermilk by adding one and a half teaspoons of white vinegar or lemon juice to a half-cup measure, then filling it with milk.)

For the whipped cream topping, Latimer went with Cool Whip, but she says you can also use aerosol whipped cream. If you can spare a few minutes and have an electric mixer on hand (or really, really strong arms and a whisk), you can also whip your own cream, or try whipping canned coconut milk to make a tasty plant-based "cream."

Start by washing the strawberries, then remove the hulls and cut them into thick slices. Put the strawberries in a bowl big enough to hold them with some room to spare, then mix in the lemon juice and one tablespoon of sugar until the berries are well-coated. Place the bowl in the fridge to chill until the shortcakes are ready.

Before you move on to the baking, Latimer has one more tip: "I suggest cubing the butter when starting your strawberries, then returning it to the refrigerator until ready to use."

Before you begin the dough-making, go ahead and preheat the oven to 425 degrees and grease a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper or a Silpat. Since there's no need to rest or chill the biscuit dough, it will be ready to go as soon as you finish mixing.

Now whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, the remaining two tablespoons of sugar, and salt together in a medium bowl. Why a whisk? Latimer says this tool is needed to distribute the ingredients evenly throughout the flour. Remove the cubed butter from the fridge and cut it into the dry ingredients using a pastry cutter, a fork, or a food processor. Latimer shares that you can also "go old-school and use a pair of your butter knives in a criss-cross motion to cut the butter in like I did back in my high school days."

However you cut the butter in, once it's done, it should be crumbly and form pea-sized lumps. Now stir in the buttermilk to make a thick, sticky dough. Add more buttermilk if needed, a tablespoon at a time, to achieve the right consistency for biscuit dough. If your dough is very dry, Latimer says you can add up to a quarter cup more buttermilk.

Drop spoonfuls of the biscuit dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Latimer says you should make six or seven biscuits, explaining that "Any more or less will change the baking time needed." Bake the shortcakes for 15 to 18 minutes until the bottoms are light golden in color. The tops should be starting to turn golden as well. Remove the biscuits from the oven, and let them cool completely before you begin adding the toppings.

If you plan to use Cool Whip to make the strawberry shortcakes, take it out of the freezer and let it thaw while the biscuits are cooling. If you're going to whip your own cream or coconut milk, now would be a good time to do that as well. If you're using aerosol whipped cream, you get to skip this stage of the prep work.

After the biscuits are cooled and the cream's all set to go, you may begin to assemble the strawberry shortcakes, but only do so right before you're planning to eat them. Slice each biscuit in half, then top the bottom half with the sweetened sliced strawberries and the whipped cream. Drop the top half of the biscuit in place, then your strawberry shortcake is ready to eat. If you really want to go all out, though, Latimer says you can make additional layers to create a double-decker dessert.