Sourdough Strawberry Shortcakes

Take your summer dessert experience to the next level with this Sourdough Strawberry Shortcake recipe. This mouthwatering dessert is made with sourdough biscuits, whipped cream and fresh strawberries. A symphony of tangy sourdough biscuits, pillowy whipped cream, and luscious fresh strawberries creates a harmonious treat that’s both rustic and indulgent, capturing the essence of summer in every blissful bite. Grab a fork, let’s do it!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe!

Rustic Charm with a Gourmet Touch – these delicious sourdough strawberry shortcakes ooze rustic charm, with golden brown sourdough biscuits with a crunchy sugar topping. Yet they also have a gourmet touch with special vanilla whipped cream and luscious red strawberries. It’s a winning combination!

Use Up Excess Strawberries – This recipe is a great one to have on hand during strawberry season when juicy strawberries are cheap and abundant. It’s also a savvy way to use up excess strawberries that might not be perfect, as soaking them in sugar reinvigorates them and hides any imperfections. All that matters here is flavor!

So Quick & Easy – This is one of those sourdough discard recipes that’s perfect to whip up for unexpected guests or the perfect end to a summer dinner party, with minimal effort. Seriously, I love having recipes like this in my repertoire, simple but impressive! And sourdough based of course!

These yummy sourdough strawberry shortcakes make a delightful sourdough Valentine’s Day treat too (check out these other sourdough recipes for Valentine’s Day). If you have excess strawberries, make sure you check out these sourdough discard strawberry muffins and sourdough strawberry cake.

Ingredients

• All-purpose Flour
• Granulated Sugar
• Baking Powder and Baking Soda
• Salt
• Cold Butter – Make sure your butter is ICE COLD! In fact, take it from the fridge, grate it and then pop it in the freezer! The colder it is, the better your sourdough biscuits will be. I’ve used salted butter … mostly because there’s no unsalted butter in my kitchen!
• Sourdough Starter – You can use either active sourdough starter or sourdough discard – it doesn’t really matter for this recipe.
• Cream, or buttermilk – If you don’t have cream you can use buttermilk or whole milk with a dash of white vinegar. Let it sit for 10 minutes before adding to your sourdough biscuit dough.
• Egg – This is just for egg wash, so you’ll just need one egg. You can use milk if you don’t have an egg on hand.
• Strawberries – Use the ripest strawberries you can find! You’ll need to make they’re hulled, washed and diced.
• Heavy Cream
• Pure Vanilla Extract

How To Make Sourdough Strawberry Shortcakes

This recipe has been made using an updated version of my flaky sourdough biscuits – it has a little more sugar added and uses heavy cream to create the most tender biscuits! You might also like this sourdough berry sheet pan shortcake.

Preheat your oven to 190ºC (375ºF) and line a cast iron skillet with parchment paper (you can use a baking tray if you prefer). I always line my cast iron skillet because there’s nothing worse than biscuits stuck to the bottom!

Prepare the fillings

Before you start, prepare the strawberries and whipped cream so they are ready when the sourdough shortcakes are done. Grate the butter with a box grater and set aside in the freezer until you’re ready for it.

Hull, wash and dice the strawberries. You want to make sure they have as little white on them as possible. Place them in a bowl with 50 g of granulated sugar. Toss to coat them in the sugar and set aside (room temperature is best for this). This will draw out all those gorgeous strawberry juices. If strawberries aren’t in season, I like to use a jar of small batch strawberry jam. 

Whip the heavy cream and pure vanilla extract together until they form soft peaks and place in the refrigerator to keep it cold (nothing worse than warm cream!). I’ve just used the whisk attachment on my stand mixer to do this.

Let’s Make The Sourdough Biscuits

Place the dry ingredients  (flour, sugar, baking power, baking soda and salt) into a large mixing bowl. Mix with a large spoon until well combined.

Take your butter out of the freezer and place into the bowl with the dry ingredients. Cut the butter through the flour. I don’t own a pastry cutter, so I just use a spatula or dough scraper to do this. You can use your fingers if you prefer (but be fast as you don’t want the butter to melt).

Now tip the cream and sourdough discard or sourdough starter into the butter and flour mix. Bring together with a spatula until it’s a dry dough (I start with 80 g of cream and add a touch more if I need it).

Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and fold it gently until the dough comes together better. You want to create layers in the dough to give your sourdough biscuits that lovely flaky, buttery texture.

Gently roll the dough out to around 3/4 to one inch thick and press out rounds using a sharp biscuit cutter or a glass. Don’t twist the biscuit or cookie cutter. If you twist it, it will seal the edges of the dough and stop them from rising as much as they could. Just push the cutter straight down and then back up. You really want something with a sharp edge, so a glass is better than a mason jar if you don’t have a biscuit cutter. You should easily get 7 or 8 large biscuits from this mixture.

Place the biscuits into your cast-iron skillet. Use a pastry brush to brush the tops of the biscuits with beaten egg and sprinkle with granulated sugar. You can also use Turbinado sugar if you want a sparklier finish. Place into the oven at 190ºC (375ºF) for around 25 minutes (bake time will vary slightly depending on your oven).

Once the biscuits are cooked through, allow them to cool a little before splitting them and filling them with vanilla whipped cream and strawberries. You can drizzle any excess juice over the top of the shortcake for an extra hit of flavor!

Recipe Variations

I love this recipe just as it is, but sometimes I like to vary things a bit … or just use up what I have in the fridge! So here a few little swaps and variations you can use to make these sourdough strawberry shortcakes work, no matter what life throws at you!

• Citrus Twist – If you have some lemons or limes on hand and want to create a citrus twist, add a tablespoon of of lemon zest or lime zest to your strawberry mixture. A little twist of lemon juice can be lovely too, depending on how far you want to take the citrus flavor. 
• Yogurt – I always have Greek yogurt on hand, so if I don’t have heavy cream, I add pure vanilla extract and sugar to Greek yogurt. I don’t whip it, just stir these through with a spoon to ensure that the yogurt stays thick. This creates a lightly version. You could also do half heavy cream and Greek yogurt if you prefer. It’s totally up to you!
• Berries – If you don’t have strawberries, you can literally use any berries you like or have on hand. Even a “mixed berry shortcake” so add raspberries, blueberries and blackberries to the strawberries. They all work!

How To Store and Freeze

Sourdough strawberry shortcakes are best baked and served fresh, the day they’re baked. They are not suitable to freeze.

If you need to prepare them ahead of time to make life easier, you can create the sourdough biscuit dough, cut the biscuits out and store them in the fridge for up to 24 hours. The strawberry mixture and whipped cream can also be prepared up to 24 hours in advance. Just store these in airtight containers. Do not assemble the shortcakes until you’re ready to serve. Once the strawberry mixture is sitting inside the biscuits, you want to serve it straight away to avoid the biscuits going soggy. 

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