- Desserts
- Pastries
- Strawberry
- Easter Desserts
- Memorial Day
Ten minutes and a few ingredients make an awesome dessert with minimal effort.
By
J. Kenji López-Alt
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/kenji-lopez-alt-9e7ff3ba54e24328a853d774a05fd4b8.jpg "5-Ingredient Strawberry Shortcakes Recipe (1)")
Updated August 17, 2022
Trending Videos
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/five-ingredient-strawberry-shortcake-scratch-recipe-hero-01_1-b8854df0c6154bd2b1b8a43a2b631ba6.JPG "5-Ingredient Strawberry Shortcakes Recipe (2)")
Why It Works
- Combining our two-ingredient biscuit recipe with macerated strawberries and whipped cream makes a five-ingredient dessert that takes only 10 minutes to put together.
I loved Strawberry Shortcake as a kid. I mean, Ilovedit. And I'm not talking about the simple dessert of biscuits layered with macerated strawberries and whipped cream. I'm talking about the cartoon character with the cat named Custard. I had a well-worn cassette tape with Strawberry Shortcake episodes, my favorite of which was the housewarming episode which ends with a rousing dance number calledInternational Party. I'd play it on repeat, dancing out the routines with the characters on-screen. I'm pretty sure I also dressed up as Strawberry Shortcake for Halloween several years in a row.
There are a few things the cartoon Strawberry Shortcake has in common with real strawberry shortcake. Most importantly, it offers a lot of pleasure in a very short amount of time with minimal effort. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that you could throw together an excellent strawberry shortcake from scratch during the commercial breaks, not miss a single second of the action, and have dessert ready by the time the show is over.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/__opt__aboutcom__coeus__resources__content_migration__serious_eats__seriouseats.com__images__2015__10__20150911-two-ingredient-biscuit-strawberry-shortcake-recipe-kenji-01-72ba1a33698644dab5fa8d659d6d4aa7.jpg "5-Ingredient Strawberry Shortcakes Recipe (3)")
This strawberry shortcake recipe falls squarely into the maximum-return-for-minimum-investment category. Five ingredients and only five to 10 minutes of actual work for a simple dessert that will be better than most of the stuff you can get at the store.
It starts out with a standard two-ingredient biscuitrecipe: stir together equal parts heavy cream and self-rising flour (along with a dash of sugar), scoop out with a cookie scoop, and bake.
Because cream has just the right ratio of fat to water, it allows you to make a moist, workable dough with very minimal gluten formation. The result is light, tender, buttery-tasting biscuits even though the recipe calls for no actual butter. This, by the way, is where shortbread and shortcake get their name: gluten strands are kept "short" during dough formation.
You've already got the sugar and the cream out, which makes the rest of the recipe a snap. First, I toss sliced strawberries with a little bit of that sugar. As the strawberries rest, the sugar draws out their liquid through the process of osmosis, which in turn forms a sweet, strawberry-flavored syrup to soak into your biscuits. Drawing liquid out from the strawberries also tenderizes them, very much like letting some of the air out of an air-mattress will make it softer and squishier.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/__opt__aboutcom__coeus__resources__content_migration__serious_eats__seriouseats.com__images__2015__10__20150911-two-ingredient-biscuit-strawberry-shortcake-recipe-kenji-20-4ce0da6f859e46fabec605b2955cc0be.jpg "5-Ingredient Strawberry Shortcakes Recipe (4)")
(I took a bunch of photos of myself tossing strawberries with a flash set on an intervalometer and discovered that when frozen in time in mid-air, macerated strawberries a) look much wetter than they do when sitting still and b) always look like they're going to splat all over the counter.)
The same macerating method will work with other juicy fruits, by the way. Ripe apricots, peaches, and plums all make for fantastic shortcake desserts, as do all manner of berries.
All that's left to do is whip some cream with a dash of vanilla and sugar while the biscuits bake, then layer everything together once they've had a chance to cool slightly. Wasn't that easy?
Now dig in and pretend that you've done enough hard work to deserve a dessert this good, then consider perhaps serving strawberry shortcake atyournext international party. (You can skip the dancing.)
October 2015
Recipe Details
5-Ingredient Strawberry Shortcakes Recipe
Active10 mins
Total25 mins
Serves4to 6 servings
Ingredients
1 quart strawberries, quartered or sliced
1/2 cup sugar, divided
5 ounces (about 1 cup) self-rising flour
1 pint heavy cream, divided
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Adjust oven rack to center position and preheat oven to 450°F (230°C). Toss strawberries with 6 tablespoons sugar in a medium bowl and set aside.
Place flour in a large bowl. Whisk in 1 tablespoon sugar. Stirring with a wooden spoon, drizzle in 3/4 cup cream. Stir until a lumpy dough is formed. Do not overmix.
Using a 1-ounce cookie scoop, scoop balls of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing them 2 inches apart. Brush tops with cream and bake until golden brown, about 12 minutes. Remove biscuits and set aside.
Using a wire whisk or an electric mixer, whip remaining cream with remaining tablespoon sugar and vanilla extract until stiff peaks form. Split biscuits, top with strawberries and cream, close shortcakes, top with more whipped cream, and serve immediately.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/five-ingredient-strawberry-shortcake-scratch-recipe-step-01_1-2fa5b3bbc1f64fbeb777eb410d39d43e.JPG "5-Ingredient Strawberry Shortcakes Recipe (5)")
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/five-ingredient-strawberry-shortcake-scratch-recipe-step-021-f479cd19d3ed4c35abdbe8e140562433.jpg "5-Ingredient Strawberry Shortcakes Recipe (6)")
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/five-ingredient-strawberry-shortcake-scratch-recipe-step-03-43715fa778634cb29bfd1d740d281518.jpg "5-Ingredient Strawberry Shortcakes Recipe (7)")
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/five-ingredient-strawberry-shortcake-scratch-recipe-step-04-24173fb3756a455cb391f6345ec06aa3.jpg "5-Ingredient Strawberry Shortcakes Recipe (8)")
Read More
- 2-Ingredient Never-Fail Cream Biscuits Recipe
| Nutrition Facts (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 457 | Calories |
| 29g | Fat |
| 45g | Carbs |
| 5g | Protein |
Show Full Nutrition Label
×
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Servings: 4to 6 | |
| Amount per serving | |
| Calories | 457 |
| % Daily Value* | |
| Total Fat 29g | 38% |
| Saturated Fat 18g | 92% |
| Cholesterol 90mg | 30% |
| Sodium 305mg | 13% |
| Total Carbohydrate 45g | 16% |
| Dietary Fiber 3g | 11% |
| Total Sugars 25g | |
| Protein 5g | |
| Vitamin C 69mg | 344% |
| Calcium 151mg | 12% |
| Iron 2mg | 9% |
| Potassium 284mg | 6% |
| *The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice. | |
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)
