The Easiest Strawberry Shortcakes

Every week, baking expert Alice Medrich will be going rogue on Food52 -- with shortcuts, hacks, and game-changing recipes.

Today: Think beyond the cake in shortcakes for the best -- and easiest -- results.

I love strawberry shortcakes made with biscuits rather than cake! And I love drop biscuits because there is no rolling out or cutting the dough. These cream biscuits are even more streamlined -- there’s no butter to cut in and no worrisome biscuit-making technique to deter you!

So here they are. The biscuits take less than 5 minutes to measure, mix, and shape. They come from the oven looking deliciously homely, with a craggy golden brown crust hiding a moist and buttery crumb. They are perfection with sweet ripe berries and cream, if you can manage to not eat them up immediately.

Because these are so very easy, I’ve added one tiny little extra step: Some of the berries are puréed to make a juicy little sauce for those biscuits. You can skip it if you like. No harm, no foul.

The Easiest Strawberry Shortcakes

For the shortcakes:

1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose unbleached flour
1 1⁄4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 tablespoons milk
Sugar for sprinkling

For the filling:

3 pints (680 grams or 24 ounces) fresh, ripe strawberries if you are making the purée (or 2 pints if not), rinsed, patted dry, and hulled
Lightly sweetened whipped cream, or rose cream

See the full recipe (and save and print) here.

Get excited about Alice's forthcoming book Flavor Flours: nearly 125 recipes -- from Double Oatmeal Cookies to Buckwheat Gingerbread -- made with wheat flour alternatives like rice flour, oat flour, corn flour, sorghum flour, and teff (not only because they're gluten-free, but for an extra dimension of flavor too). 

Photos by Mark Weinberg