Strawberry Shortcake

Where I grew up in Central Pennsylvania, strawberry shortcake was a big deal. Strawberry festivals are especially popular there during the summer months, and while these celebrations offer an array of berry-centric treats—jams, pies, ice cream sundaes—strawberry shortcake almost always steals the show.

For this strawberry shortcake recipe, I started by diving into my grandmother's trusty cookbook collection, and quickly discovered that today's strawberry shortcake hasn't changed much since the days of mid-century cookbooks like Betty Crocker and Better Homes and Gardens: The shortcakes are similar to biscuits, but not exactly the same as the tall, fluffy version typically enjoyed with gravy. Instead, they're like a sweeter, cakier cousin that's rich and buttery, with a crunchy, crumbly, sugary top. Once baked until golden, they're served with a generous helping of sweet berries and thick dollops of whipped cream.

Growing up in the United States, I assumed that strawberry shortcake was an American recipe. Then I moved to England and learned that it is also a quintessentially British dessert. And in fact, the earliest shortcake references date back to the Elizabethan era. In the late 16th century, author Thomas Dawson included a shortcake recipe in one of his cookbooks. It's remarkably similar to today's versions, calling for clotted cream or sweet butter (but recommending clotted cream more), though his also adds an egg yolk as well as mace, clove, and saffron for a more spiced flavor. Not long after, Shakespeare named a character "Alice Shortcake" in The Merry Wives of Windsor, indicating an established awareness of the pastry at that time (something similar in our era would be the Peppermint Patty character in Peanuts).

Contemporary British recipes often employ self-rising flour, but otherwise, the basic equation remains the same on both sides of the pond: buttery shortcake + juicy berries + fluffy cream = one of the most beautiful ways to enjoy strawberries at their peak of ripeness.

How to Make the Shortcakes

My ideal shortcake is rich and buttery, with a tender, cakelike center that's perfect for absorbing plenty of sweet macerated strawberry juice. Shortcakes typically include milk, cream, buttermilk, or a combination of the three. I experimented with milk and cream, and found that the cream version produces a richer cake (which makes sense, since heavy cream contains the most fat).

The amount of cream is also important; I tested several flour-to-liquid ratios before landing on a dough that isn't dry, yet rises more than it spreads. The finished shortcakes won't be overly tall, but a bit of a rise is important here: Flat shortcakes are impossible to slice! 

Some recipes require a food processor, fork, or pastry cutter to incorporate the butter, but I prefer rubbing it in by hand. This helps keep tools to a minimum, and also gives the cook a better tactile sense of the butter's temperature and size. The "rubbing in" method is exactly what it sounds like—rubbing everything together with your fingertips. Like biscuits, cold butter is crucial. In a hot oven, pea-sized chunks of cold butter create pockets of steam, helping the shortcakes to rise and creating a tender, cakelike, and slightly flaky texture. Cold butter also takes longer to melt in a hot oven, so chilling the dough after working it with warm hands (or working in a warm kitchen) will help  the cakes to retain their shape as they bake.

How the shortcakes are formed varies too. I've seen a few recipes that have you bake the shortcake in a single piece, then cut it with a knife after, similar to a tray of brownies. Others have you scoop and drop a wetter shortcake dough onto a baking sheet in the style of a drop biscuit, or bake a cake-sized shortcake to serve for slicing at the table. And yet others have you stamp them out of the raw dough with a biscuit cutter before baking. My preference is to use a biscuit cutter because it produces round, evenly-sized cakes which make for a prettier plated dessert. The key to a clean cut is to use a sharp, metal cutter with an up-and-down stamping motion (rather than twisting it into the dough like a screw); periodically wiping the cutter with a paper towel guarantees clean cuts to the last shortcake.

Assembling Your Strawberry Shortcakes

Most of the work required to make strawberry shortcakes is making the shortcakes themselves. The other two components are much simpler, but they do benefit from some thought.

Simply slicing fresh strawberries and mounding them on the shortcakes with cream is an option, but not one I'd recommend. What really makes the dish sing is to macerate the strawberries with sugar first, which softens the berries and draws out their natural juices to form a flavorful syrup. This syrup acts as a sauce that allows for a much more delicious result. Some recipes suggest a 24-hour maceration, but I found four to eight hours optimal for creating enough syrup to moisten the shortcakes without drowning them in syrup.

When it's time to serve, just remember that these are meant to be rustic so don't fuss too much over a perfect presentation. The strawberry shortcakes of my childhood were crumbled in a bowl, doused with milk, and eaten with a spoon, and they were absolutely sublime. Tossed together with a bit of a free hand, and these will be too.