Buttermilk-Biscuit Shortcakes With Strawberries Recipe (2024)

Delighted to see this; at 76 I have made scones thousands of times, and my tip is; skip the little "cutout' thingies.- so much trouble!.... so - when the dough is spread and rolled to a 1/2" circle on the countertop, just take the sharp knife and cut pie-style into segments. Eight just four cuts. Nothing left over to be gathered, re-rolled and recut. This will save so much time and effort! And the pie-shaped wedges are so easy to eat as well.

I like the sweet biscuit dough. I'm not so keen on cooking the berries and creating a jammy fruit topping. I slice up the berries, mash a few if they're not berries that slice (like blackberries). I stir in a teaspoon of sugar for each person I'm feeding, and then let them sit about half an hour. There's juice galore and a fresh spring taste - no boiling; no syrup; no almost jam.

Thanks for the tip about freezing cut-out biscuit dough!

Gosh, it's so wonderful to see such excellent writing within the recipe. I love syrup that bubbles exuberantly!

For maximum height when using buttermilk & soda, allow the cut biscuits to sit on baking pan, lightly covered, for 30 - 45 minutes before baking. This allows the first chemical rising to occur. In the oven the heat triggers the baking powder for a 2nd rise. (Same for Cornbread) Also, place biscuits next to each other & touching on the baking sheet, not spaced apart. It keeps the sides active & allows them to support each other as they rise. Make sure your baking powder is fresh.

I wouldn't worry about it. The amount of sugar called for is not going to make these biscuits very sweet, plus you'll have the sweetened berries and whipped cream. In y experience, the "real" buttermilk makes things slightly richer and complex, so go for it.

Kate's makes a real, actual buttermilk, not the cultured milk product that is ubiquitous. Does anyone have a sense that the recipe should change in any way if you use this real buttermilk? The Kat's seems more sour, add more sugar?

I made these this morning. They were delicious, and enjoyed by all. Sadly, mine did not rise very much, so I just used one biscuit as the bottom half and one biscuit as the top half. I think I might have rolled the dough too thin. My yield was 15, and should have only been 10-12. Gladly, my audience did not mind, and the biscuits were devoured anyway.

It might be that your baking powder is old and has lost its lifting power. You can test it first (google search for how) or just buy a new tin if in doubt.

What is the tip ?

I do this all the time it's like you just made them. I use smitten kitchn recipe for cream biscuits that are super easy & outstanding.

The acid in buttermilk reacts w baking powder & soda to create lift. (Lactose is sugar.) Add lemon juice or white vinegar to your non-lactose or non-dairy milk (1 Tbl to 1 cup milk). Let curdle 5 mins, & measure what you need. To avoid lactose in butter, many bakers use good leaf lard or vegetable shortening. Some use a good, non-aerated margarine. I've used Spectrum organic vegetable shortening. Coconut oil can tricky as a butter substitute in baked goods, as you noted. Good luck!

Elizabeth, I do something similar; however, while I like wedge-shaped scones, I like a more regular shape for biscuits (easier to make into strawberry shortcakes or little fried-chicken sandwiches) so I knead/fold the dough into a rectangle (I do it right on a quarter-sheet baking sheet to save mess), cut into squares, and separate them slightly on the sheet. The re-rolled scraps are never as tall and tender as the first ones, anyway!

Wonderful recipe! Simple to make. Thank you for allowing me revisit Strawberry Shortcake just as my dear grandmother used to make decades ago.

I agree!! That's the only way to do it! I add fresh lemon juice as well!

Tasted good. Jam was tasty but good also just let berries marinate with a touch of fresh citrus and sugar. Cakes were on small side for some and did not rise that much. Roll to be a bit thicker than 1/2 ". Aim to get 8-10 next time instead of 12.

Followed note on here to cut into wedges because I didn’t have a biscuit cutter. Big hit. Added blackberries to the strawberries and nixed the sauce because of time constraints. Buttermilk was just vanilla almond milk with some Greek yogurt added in... needed like a tbsp more of each though.Added ~1 tbsp of sugar to the cream before I whipped it by hand (no electric mixer, no biggie, it took about 6 mins to come together), so no confectioners sugar was needed and no love loss.

I am eating this right now & it really is one of the best strawberry shortcakes I have made! The berries I got from the farmer's market are so sweet, I just added lemon juice & honey instead of making the berry sauce. This shortcake is the perfect shortcake texture with the berries & whipped cream

For maximum height when using buttermilk & soda, allow the cut biscuits to sit on baking pan, lightly covered, for 30 - 45 minutes before baking. This allows the first chemical rising to occur. In the oven the heat triggers the baking powder for a 2nd rise. (Same for Cornbread) Also, place biscuits next to each other & touching on the baking sheet, not spaced apart. It keeps the sides active & allows them to support each other as they rise. Make sure your baking powder is fresh.

Made per recipe. Got 8 just right sized servings. Great flavors in all elements. But let's talk about the biscuit shortcakes rising because, like others who posted here, mine didn't. Flavor was wonderful (used lime for citrus zest), they were nicely short and good crumb. But did not rise much. Baking powder was in date. I've been making biscuits since I was a kid so not a novice at it. But... Still would make these again for flavor. Great by themselves with coffee.

Should have said in previously posted comment, had 12 biscuits but I served 8 with the remainder of the recipe. Hence extras of the wonderfully flavored biscuits for tea or coffee companions.

I made the dough exactly as written and it did NOT rise at all. Instead of lovely biscuits I had flat cookies. I will not make this again, very disappointing.

I increased the sugar in the biscuits a bit because I did not care to mess up another pan cooking berries, but otherwise the recipe worked well. Does not need the zest either to further simplify and make it more of a classic strawberry shortcake.

Followed the recipe and they came out great!
I use a little microwave oven so they were finished in 10 minutes.

I froze this dough overnight and was super grateful for the note encouraging me to do so. I got 11 shortcakes out of this, the 11th one being made from scraps and not nice and cut out like the others. I'm not sure how a pound of strawberries and a cup of cream are supposed to feed 10-12, though -- I doubled the strawberry/syrup and cream measurements and the 11 of us were still scraping the bowls. Love the hibiscus in here; I also added cardamom to the shortcakes and crème fraîche to the whip.

I added an additional tablespoon of sugar. Gotta roll out biscuits WAY thicker than a half inch; mine were rolled at an inch and were fine. Done baking at 12 minutes. Not a big yield, but very good basic sweet biscuit recipe.

Not a good biscuit recipe -- too dense, not enough rise, and too sweet. Try "Fannie Farmer Cookbook" cream biscuits. Far better and easier because it uses melted butter which doesn't need to be cut into flour. The berry sauce is interesting and worthwhile (used an extra chunk of orange zest) but I don't get the point of doing both that and traditional sliced/macerated berries. Wound up combining both for next day; it was fine.

The lemon zest in the biscuits is a revelation. I love the extra dimension it adds to the dish. I didn't make the saucy berries, but the rest was delightful and a step above the bisquick version I grew up with.