I love Strawberry Shortcake, and when I want to treat my friends and family, my individual Strawberry Shortcake Recipe is my go-to baked treat.
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My little shortcakes are easy to make and are the perfect way to use all the delicious, fresh strawberries available in local grocery stores and farmers’ markets.
My Individual Strawberry Shortcake is one of the easiest desserts to prepare, making it a perfect finish to a family meal or your next gathering. There is just something magical about this delectable summer dessert.
Ingredients
Let’s start by gathering the ingredients we need to make Individual Strawberry Shortcakes. In Chef Speak, this is called the “Mise en Place,” which translates to “Everything in its Place”.
Not only does setting your ingredients up ahead of time speed up the cooking process, it also helps ensure you have everything you need to make the dish.
The list of ingredients is short. Flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, lemon zest, butter, heavy cream, Greek yogurt, vanilla, and of course fresh juicy strawberries.
How to Make Individual Strawberry Shortcakes
Follow along with my simple step-by-step instructions to learn how to make individual strawberry shortcakes in your home kitchen.
- Add the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and lemon zest to the bowl of a food processor.
- Pulse until all the ingredients are well blended.
- Add the very cold cubes of butter to the flour mixture
- Pulse until the butter has been incorporated into the mixture; it should resemble coarse grains of sand.
*You can also do this by hand using a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the dry ingredients.
- Add the Greek yogurt, heavy whipping cream, and vanilla extract to a small mixing bowl.
- Using a wire whip, mix the ingredients together.
- Add the yogurt mixture to the flour mixture, mixing with a spoon until the dough starts to come together. Do not overmix.
- Form the mixture into a ball and use your hands to shape the dough into a large circle, then flatten it until it’s about 1 ¼ inches thick.
- Use a drinking glass or cutter to cut out circles in the dough for the shortcakes. *Reform the leftover dough and repeat the process until you’ve used up the dough.
*This is my favorite shortcake recipe and is perfect for the summer months, with all the available, fresh berries.
- Place the dough cutouts on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush the shortcakes with heavy cream or whole milk before baking. This will give them a nice, golden-brown color.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a deep golden brown in color.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
- When cooled, slice the shortcakes in half.
While the shortcakes are baking, prep the strawberries and whipped cream.
- Wash and slice the strawberries.
- Sprinkle sugar on the strawberries and let them sit in the refrigerator while you finish making the shortcakes and whipped cream. This will make the strawberries.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the cold heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla
- Start on low speed and build up to a faster speed gradually (this will give you a better consistency for your whipped cream than overbeating it from the beginning)
- Continue beating until the cream is thoroughly whipped
- Place a large dollop of whipped cream on top of the bottom half of the sliced shortcakes.
- Arrange your sliced strawberries on top of the whipped cream.
- Spread a small dollop of whipped cream on top of the strawberries (this will help keep the top in place).
- Add the top of the shortcake.
Sprinkle the Strawberry Shortcake with powder sugar, serve and enjoy!
These little beauties would be great with any fresh berries you have on hand. Peaches or nectarines would be excellent choices to add your own touch to this sweet summer dessert!
Recipe FAQs
Think of a shortcake as a cross between a biscuit and a scone. Made with flour, sugar, baking powder or soda, salt, butter, and cream. In my mixture, I add Greek yogurt to make it extra delicious. The dry ingredients are blended, and then the butter is cut in until the mixture resembles coarse grains of sand. The liquid ingredients are then mixed in just until moistened, resulting in a shortened dough. Hence the name shortbread.
Strawberry shortcake is a quintessential American dessert that is made from coast to coast, with slight variations. It can be made with shortcake or sponge cake and layered with fresh macerated strawberries and whipped cream.
Shortcake is more crumbly and buttery, filled with fresh fruit and whipped cream. While the cake is layered, moist, and light in comparison, it is usually finished with some frosting.
More Strawberry Desserts You’ll Love!
Individual Strawberry Shortcake’s
Ingredients
Shortcake
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 5 tablespoon sugar
- zest of one Lemon
- 12 tablespoon unsalted butter cold and cut into cubes (1 ½ sticks)
- ½ cup heavy cream cold
- ½ cup Greek yogurt plain or vanilla
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whipped Cream and Berries
- 1 pint strawberries cleaned and sliced*
- 2 tablespoon sugar *optional
- 1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoon superfine sugar or regular sugar
- sprinkle of confectioners sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
Shortcake
- 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 ¼ 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.
Whipped Cream and Berries
- Clean and slice the strawberries
- (optional)sprinkle the sugar on the strawberries and let them sit in the refrigerator while you finish making the shortcakes and whipped cream.
- In the bowl of your mixer add the cold heavy 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
Assembly
- 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!
Deb says
Outstanding taste and wonderfuly fun to make.They have a very rich flavor
Chef Dennis Littley says
I’m very happy to hear you enjoyed the strawberry shortcakes. My granddaughter loves making them with me, and they are delicious!
beth says
instructions say to add vanilla to shortcake dough, but you don’t say how much.
Chef Dennis Littley says
Sorry about that, its one teaspoon.
Patricia Regan says
This recipe was absolutely perfect! The shortcake was tender, but with a wonderful crust! My family thought it was the best shortcake-by far-that they had ever tasted. Highly recommend!
Tara says
There is something wrong with this recipe as the mixture was way to wet? The taste was good but they looked more like pancakes!
Chef Dennis Littley says
my guess would be that the butter was too soft, or you let the mixture sit too long before baking. That will cause the dough to become looser.
Danielle Wilson says
If I were to half the actual size of the scones to make smaller desserts how would I go about adjusting the bake time?
Chef Dennis Littley says
you will probably be looking at 15-18 minutes. Just keep an eye on them and if they start getting too brown take them out.
Sandra ashenfelter says
Can these be made ahead or will the whip cream go flat? Thanks very much.
Chef Dennis Littley says
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.
KayCee says
The whip cream will not go flat, I made mine about 3 hours prior and it was perfect. My shortcake were very wet as well. I had to add flour to my surface and rolling pin to keep it from sticking too much. So apparently my butter was too warm? One stick was in the freezer and the rest had just come from the store. Mine actually in the end looked like pancakes. But while they were cooking they looked like big beautiful biscuits but then, not so much as they cooled on the rack. Ibwas a very warm day. I was super disappointed because no one complimented me on them and it took me an hour and a half. They still tasted good. I adjusted the recipe for 14 servings. One question, is 719 calories per shortcake or for the whole recipe?
Food to Fitness says
Looks delicious. Thanks for sharing.
Kim Beaulieu says
These are sheer perfection Dennis. I just love strawberry shortcakes and your recipe was easy to make and delicious!
Brooks says
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. Everyone in my family loved them.
Kim | a little lunch says
thanks for sharing this recipe chef. I made these for a small get together and everyone loved them.
Sandie@afoodieaffair.com says
OMG, these were so delicious. Sometimes, its the simple things in life that you appreciate so much. And Strawberry Shortcake does it for me!
Kiran @ KiranTarun.com says
I often forget about foodie holidays too, so don’t be hard on yourself. Delicious strawberry shortcakes!
Dionne Baldwin says
Another perfect recipe chef. I’ll be making them again next week, they were a big hit.
Betty Ann @Mango_Queen says
They were so good! I must make them again soon. Thanks for sharing the delish recipe 🙂
Laura (Tutti Dolci) says
Your shortcakes were divine! Your recipe was easy to follow and came out perfectly.