Strawberry Shortcakes

Easy buttery sweet biscuits topped with a sweetened whipped cream and rose water scented macerated strawberries. A delightful treat!

📝 Ingredients

• 500 g fresh strawberries ((1 pint))
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tsp rose water (optional)
• 3 cups all purpose flour (375g)
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 5 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup cold butter, cubed (170g)
• 1 cup heavy cream or buttermilk
• extra 2 tbsp heavy cream, buttermilk, or melted butter for brushing biscuits
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp icing sugar (you can also use regular sugar)
• 1 tsp rose water (optional)

👨‍🍳 Instructions

1. 1--- For the strawberries: ---
2. 2Cut the strawberries into quarters. Mash them a little with a fork to let the juices start to come out. Add the sugar and rose water syrup and toss to combine. Keep covered in the fridge until ready to use and they'll become saucy and delicious.
3. 3--- For the biscuits: ---
4. 4Preheat the oven to 220 C (425 F).
5. 5Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl or in the bowl of a food processor.
6. 6Add the cubed butter either by rubbing it into the flour with your hands, or pulsing with a food processor (I find this much easier) until coarse crumbs form.
7. 7If you used the food processor, tip the crumbs out into a large bowl. Pour the 1 cup of heavy cream or buttermilk on top. Stir until just combined.
8. 8Place dough onto a lightly floured work surface and use your hands to knead the dough a little till it comes together into a shaggy, slightly sticky dough.
9. 9Roll dough out or pat it out with your hands until it is 1/2 inch thick. Use a 3 inch biscuit cutter and cut out dough circles. You can reshape leftover dough scraps to continue cutting out biscuits. You should get around 12 biscuits. You can also use a sharp knife and cut squares out of the dough if you don't have a biscuit cutter.
10. 10On a parchment paper lined baking sheet, place the dough circles. Brush with some heavy cream, buttermilk, or melted butter and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
11. 11Bake for 12-15 minutes or until biscuits are a nice golden brown on top. Cool 10 minutes before assembling, and prepare whipped cream while cooling.
12. 12--- For the sweetened whipped cream: ---
13. 13In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, combine the cold whipping cream, the sugar, the vanilla ,and rose water if using. Beat on medium high speed until soft peaks form, about 3 minutes.
14. 14--- To assemble: ---
15. 15Slice each biscuit in half and top the biscuit half with some of the prepared strawberries. Top with sweetened whipped cream, then replace the other half of the biscuit as a lid. Enjoy immediately!