We found some beautiful strawberries at the farmer’s market the other day and knew we needed to make something. It’s summertime, we were in the mood for dessert, and we had freshly baked biscuits… which meant that it was time for Strawberry Shortcake!
The two of us are actually split on the best way to make strawberry shortcake. Growing up, my family always used ice cream instead of what I am now constantly hearing is the much more standard whipped cream. Like, everyone we ask this question to is boggled that my family used ice cream. Everyone.
And I’ll admit, as my palate has tended towards slightly less overly-saccharine desserts, I kind of like strawberry shortcake with whipped cream instead. The strawberries we found at the farmer’s market were very flavorful on their own and you’re already adding sugar to them, so any additional sweetness elsewhere in the dessert would just take away from the natural strawberry flavor. Ice cream, as well as heavily-sweetened store-bought whipped cream, would do just that.
So this recipe features an unsweetened whipped cream you can make yourself. And yes, you can sweeten it a bit, like we did. We’re not sugarless monsters. Although you could use a mixer to make this, it’s easy to over-thicken it, so we recommend using a whisk and making it by hand. Just, maybe have a friend to help out when your whisking wrist gets tired.
For the same reasons as we went with unsweetened whipped cream, we opted against a sugary baked good. There are obviously a range of things you can use, but we stayed away from super sweet pound cake or the pre-packaged “cakes” you can buy in the store and instead opted for our very simple biscuits recipe. They don’t have extra sugar, are soft enough to soak up the strawberry juice, but still hold together and don’t turn into a soft mess.
And to top it all off, we threw some mint on there, just for that nice summertime staple strawberry/mint flavor combo. Stack everything up, and you’ve got a delicious, easy dessert! Try it as is, or replace the whipped cream with ice cream and tell me it’s not better.
A homemade strawberry shortcake with limited sugar perfect for a summer evening dessert. Uses our recipe for homemade biscuits.
- 525 g strawberries tops removed (1 pint)
- 50 g white sugar (a scant ¼ cup)
- 1 cup heavy cream (about 250g)
- 1 Tb powdered sugar to taste (or sweetener of your choice)
- 4 biscuits
- 2 Tb fresh mint chopped finely (optional)
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Chop the strawberries into quarters (if large strawberries) or halves (if smaller).
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Toss with white sugar in a bowl and let sit in the fridge for 1 hour or more to macerate.
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Place a glass or metal bowl in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to prepare for whipping the cream.
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Pour cream and powdered sugar or other sweetener into the chilled bowl.
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Rapidly whisk the cream back and forth in the bowl using a side-to-side (not circular) motion until the cream is stiff enough to keep its structure, about 7 minutes.
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Slice the biscuits in half.
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Assemble the dessert with a biscuit half on the bottom, topped with strawberries and sauce, whipped cream, and finally the other half of the biscuit. Sprinkle with chopped mint. Serve!
