As usual I missed another foodie holiday, National Strawberry Shortcake Day was June 14th and while I had great plans to make a three layer strawberry shortcake for the occasion, as happens too often life gets in the way. Well I guess its better late than never, those lush beautiful berries are everywhere in the markets, and at least by waiting I got a great deal on some local Jersey berries and created my Individual Strawberry Shortcake Recipe to celebrate the season!
As I began thinking about what recipe I would use to make my little shortcakes, I remembered that my friends at the Mid Atlantic Dairy Association had asked for a post this month to celebrate the dairy products that they love and feature. As I searched my recipes, I found the perfect combination of ingredients for my little shortcakes. After all what could be better for than a butter rich cake that has heavy cream and Greek yogurt in the recipe for National Dairy Month!
Add in a nice dollop of freshly made whipped cream, and those juicy sweet berries, and you’ve got a dessert or a tempting breakfast treat to go with your morning cup of coffee!
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- tsp ½ salt
- 5 tbsp sugar
- Zest of one Lemon
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter cold and cut into cubes
- cup ½ heavy cream
- cup ½ Greek yogurt plain or vanilla
- 1 pint strawberries cleaned and sliced*
- 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 tbsp superfine sugar
- sprinkle of confectioners sugar
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a food processor add in the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and lemon zest, pulse to blend.
- Add the cubes of butter and pulse until the butter has been cut into the mixture, it should like coarse grains of sand.
- In a small bowl, mix together the yogurt, cream, and vanilla until combined.
- Add to the flour mixture and mix with a spoon until the mixture just starts to come together. Do not overmix.
- Form the mixture into a ball and use your hands to form the dough into a large circle and flatten till about 1 1/4 inch thick.
- Using a drinking glass or cutter cut out the shortcakes in circles, reform any dough left and repeat process until you've finished the dough.*
- brush shortcakes with heavy cream before baking, to give those little cakes a golden brown color.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a deep golden brown in color.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
- In the bowl of your mixer add cream, sugar and vanilla
- start on low speed and build up to faster speed gradually, (this will give you a better consistency for your whipped cream than over beating it from the beginning)
- Continue beating until cream is fully whipped
- Slice shortcakes in half and place a large dollop of whipped cream on top of the bottom half.
- Arrange your sliced strawberries on top of the whipped cream
- Spread a small dollop of whipped cream to the underside of the top half of the cake, and place on top of the strawberries. (this will help keep it in place)
- Top with a sprinkling of confectioners sugar and enjoy!
*feel free to add a little sugar to the berries if they are not sweet enough
These little beauties would be great with any fresh fruit you might have on hand, blueberries, peaches or nectarines would be excellent choices to add your own touch to this sweet summer dessert!
And it doesn’t have to be National Dairy Month to use all of those great dairy products.
Your shortcakes look divine!
This is hard to resist. I must make this strawberry shortcakes soon. It doesn’t matter if you missed the day of, Chef Dennis ~ we can celebrate our love for the strawberry any day! Thanks for sharing the delish recipe 🙂
Aww yeah I can totally have this with coffee and be proud. These are so beautiful! Another winner, chef. 🙂
I often forget about foodie holidays too, so don’t be hard on yourself. Delicious strawberry shortcakes!
OMG, these look so delicious. Sometimes, its the simple things in life that you appreciate so much. And Strawberry Shortcake does it for me!
If it’s any consolation, your red, white, & blue photos are ahead of the curve for next month’s holiday, Dennis! I also like your additions of yogurt and lemon to the shortcakes.
Perfect execution Chef! I adore the combination of fresh berries and cream, and the addition of lemon zest to the short cakes seals the deal.
These are sheer perfection Dennis. I just love strawberry shortcakes and would gobble these up in no time.
Looks delicious. Thanks for sharing.
Can these be made ahead or will the whip cream go flat? Thanks very much.
if you want to make sure the whip cream holds up, add a package of knox plain gelatin into the cream before beating. I wouldn’t make them anymore than 8 hours ahead of time so that the strawberries stay there best.