what is shortcake pastry

Skip the store-bought and make summertime strawberry shortcake completely from scratch with this recipe! Biscuits recipe updated in 2022. Using less flour and baking powder, adding a bit of baking soda, and including a dough folding step, these sweet biscuits are better than ever. They’re simply perfect for holding juicy strawberries and fresh whipped cream!

Today is real food and real flavor brought to life without any peanut butter swirls, caramel drizzles, rainbows, chocolate chunks, candy bar pieces, sprinkles, or unicorn magic. Strawberries + sweet biscuits + whipped cream. Every summer has a different song anthem with the latest chart-topping hit, but the summer dessert anthem stays the same year after year. And that dessert we just can’t get out of our heads, tastes delicious any time of day, and soothes our summertime soul is most definitely strawberry shortcake.

what is shortcake pastry

How to Make & Shape These Biscuits

Biscuits for this strawberry shortcake are not nearly as tall and fluffy as regular biscuits. Just to set your expectations appropriately! Don’t expect a super tall biscuit.

The shaping process is exactly like our regular biscuits using the fold and flatten method. Flattening and folding biscuit dough creates multiple flaky layers, just as it does when we make homemade croissants. This step is a lot easier than it looks. First, pour the crumbly dough onto a floured work surface:

what is shortcake pastry

Flatten the dough to about 3/4 inch thick with your hands or use a rolling pin:

what is shortcake pastry

Fold both ends into the center:

what is shortcake pastry

Turn it:

what is shortcake pastry

Flatten again and repeat 2 more times.

what is shortcake pastry

Use a biscuit cutter to shape them. You can use a 3-inch biscuit cutter or 2.75-inch biscuit cutter. You can bake the biscuits on a lined baking sheet, cast iron skillet, or round cake pan. A brush of heavy cream and sprinkle of coarse sugar gives the sweet biscuits a delightfully crisp top.

what is shortcake pastry

Just 3 ingredients here: cold heavy cream or heavy whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla extract. The colder the heavy cream, the more volume your whipped cream has. Unlike store-bought whipped cream, you can control the amount of sugar. I prefer lightly sweetened whipped cream with strawberry shortcake, so we’ll only use 2 Tablespoons. And another thing! Homemade whipped cream tastes 100x better than store-bought.

With its light and billowy texture, whipped cream is the perfect topping for pies, cakes, cupcakes, cheesecake, trifles, and so much more.

Use Cold & Cubed Butter in the Biscuits

Use a food processor or pastry cutter, like we do for pie crust, to cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients, as detailed in the printable recipe below.

what is shortcake pastry

How to make shortcrust pastry – BBC Good Food

FAQ

What is shortcake made of?

Shortcake is typically made with flour, sugar, baking powder or soda, salt, butter, milk or cream, and sometimes eggs. The dry ingredients are blended, and then the butter is cut in until the mixture resembles cornmeal. The liquid ingredients are then mixed in just until moistened, resulting in a shortened dough.

What is the difference between a cake and a shortcake?

When you think of strawberry shortcake, you might imagine the small, spongy cakes sold at the grocery store, but the traditional recipe is closer to a scone or biscuit than a cake. You’ll notice this from the start. Unlike cake batter, shortcake batter is significantly thicker and reminiscent of biscuit dough.

Why are they called shortcake?

First, there’s that name. It’s not called shortcake because it isn’t tall. “Short” is an English word, dating to at least the 16th Century, that means crisp. Or, more specifically, something made crisp with the addition of fat, traditionally either butter or lard.

Is shortcake a cake or biscuit?

Shortcake is a crumbly and crisp cake that uses butter to give it a crispy texture when you bite into it. The distribution of the butter amongst the flour is what gives shortcake its unique taste and name. Some prefer to call them “sweet cream” biscuits.

What is a Shortcake made of?

The sky is the limit when it comes to this classic dessert. Shortcake consists of a few ingredients that you likely have on hand. The basic biscuit dough includes flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and butter.

How do you make Shortcake?

Shortcake is typically made with flour, sugar, baking powder or soda, salt, butter, milk or cream, and sometimes eggs. The dry ingredients are blended, and then the butter is cut in until the mixture resembles cornmeal. The liquid ingredients are then mixed in just until moistened, resulting in a shortened dough.

What is a classic Shortcake?

A classic shortcake is essentially a sweetened biscuit. I like to use my basic scone recipe because it’s slightly sweet with the perfect crumbly texture. A strawberry shortcake can also be made using layers of classic vanilla cake or angel food cake but it’s less traditional. Shortcakes: Make the shortcake dough and cut into rounds.

Is Shortcake a cake or biscuit?

The “short” in “shortcake” refers to the type of dough used. For shortcakes, fat is cut into the flour creating a crispy, crumbly texture instead of a spongy or stretchy texture. Shortbread cookies, biscuits, scones, and pie crust are all types of “short” doughs. Is strawberry shortcake a cake or biscuit?

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