Simple & Sweet Strawberry Shortcakes

The one and only classic, built with tender biscuits and vanilla bean whipped cream.

Grocery store strawberries could not be more disappointing these days. Engorged, white shouldered, and somehow crunchy, the grocery industry’s obsession with year-round strawberries (and many other fruits) should be criminal. What’s worse is when it’s finally strawberry season, and those same ones they’re selling in your local Ralph’s, Wal-Mart, wherever you shop— still suck. Thank god for the farmers market.

Mara des Bois strawberry shortcake!

I constantly realize how lucky I am to live in California, and even luckier to be able to walk to the Hollywood Farmers Market every Sunday. I’m truly so grateful. I have access to some of the best produce in the country, which I gladly spend money on each week. Access to good fruit can be tough for those in smaller towns, but even in my hometown of Wilmington, NC, we had a local strawberry farm called Lewis Farms. I grew up picking those berries every summer and taking home buckets of them each year. My point here is that if you’re sick of crunchy sh*tty strawberries, hopefully someone is growing something better locally.

The strawberries I got this past weekend are Mara des Bois, a French variety that I originally fell in love with in Paris and now purchase occasionally from Harry’s Berries. Expensive, but worth it during peak season. Mara des Bois are almost like wild strawberries: super aromatic and sweet, petite, and flavorful. Compared to the ginormous strawberries we see at the grocery store, these ones are tiny and smaller than my thumb. I love them! Naturally, I wanted to stuff them inside a strawberry shortcake ASAP.

Assembly in progress.

My biscuits— er, “shortcakes”— for this recipe are super tender and surrender to the fork or spoon you dig into them with. There’s nothing I hate more than something that falls apart and can’t be eaten easily when eaten, be it a sandwich or a tart. My goal was to have a soft, submissive biscuit that wouldn’t put up a fight (laughing at myself over this charged description). You don’t need a knife for these. Unlike most shortcake recipes where you make a big biscuit and split it in half, I decided to use two biscuits instead of one, which meant I could use more butter and let them spread a little more. This recipe uses buttermilk, a little almond flour, and some medium grind cornmeal. Perhaps annoying if you don’t have them on hand, but know that the buttermilk can easily be swapped for heavy cream, and if you don’t wanna use almond flour and cornmeal, screw it! Just use more all purpose flour in its place. I do think those three ingredients create the tender biscuit of my dreams, though. Hope you like them.

Recipe Notes: This recipe can be halved perfectly to make a smaller batch if you like. As I mentioned above, you can swap out almond flour and cornmeal for equal amounts of all purpose flour if you’re trying to make these on the fly. This recipe yields 4 large shortcakes, but admittedly, I had no problem eating a full one. Feel free to scoop more biscuits (maybe 10-12 instead of 8 like I do) if you want a smaller serving! One final note: I love making whipped cream with my hand blender— it makes it so smooth and thick. However, this cream won’t last for long. It deflates rather quickly, so if you’re not serving these right away, you can whip the cream the normal way in a stand mixer and hold it in the fridge for later. The macerated strawberries will hold well in the fridge, too.

Strawberry Shortcakes

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Bake Time: 18-20 minutes
Servings: 4 big boy shortcakes

For the shortcakes:
1 1/2 cups (190g) all purpose flour
1/4 cup (30g) almond flour
1/4 cup (35g) medium grind cornmeal
3 tbsp (38g) granulated sugar
1 tbsp (9g) baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup (114g) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 cup buttermilk (or cream)
Turbinado sugar (or more granulated), for topping (optional)

For the strawberries:
2 cups strawberries, halved or quartered
1/4 cup granulated sugar

For the whipped cream:
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
3 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 400º F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Make the biscuits: Add the all purpose flour, almond flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt to a mixing bowl. Whisk together, then add the butter and pinch it into the dry mixture until it’s broken down to the consistency of breadcrumbs (no big chunks).

2. Make a well in the center and pour in the buttermilk. Stir together just until no dry clumps remain and a soft, wet dough forms. Scoop 1/3 cup portions onto the baking sheet, about 2 inches apart each— I divided the mixture into 8 biscuits (if you want smaller servings, do 10-12 instead). Sprinkle turbinado sugar on top of each biscuit, then bake them for 18-20 minutes. They won’t gain too much color, but the edges will be golden brown. cool completely.

3. Macerate the strawberries: While the biscuits are baking, add the strawberries and granulated sugar to a small bowl. Stir every 5-10 minutes. The juices will begin releasing and the strawberries will soften slightly.

4. Make the whipped cream: add the cream, sugar, and vanilla bean paste to a large measuring cup. Use a hand blender to whizz the mixture together on high speed, until it turns into a thick whipped cream (you can also just do this in a stand mixer instead, but this way is really fast).

5. Assemble: Pair the biscuits with their twins. Place a bottom biscuit (I use the less cute ones) on a plate and top with a good scoop of whipped cream. Spoon some of the macerated strawberries and their sauce over the whipped cream, then top with another biscuit. Repeat for remaining biscuits and serve immediately!