Easy Berry Shortcakes
These mixed berry shortcakes are not-too-sweet biscuits topped with whipped cream and fresh, juicy berries. They're a perfect blend of sweet, fresh, creamy, texture and a great dessert for when there's an abundance of berries and to celebrate holidays like Mother's Day and the 4th of July.
Servings 6 servings
Ingredients
For the biscuits:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup cold butter in pieces
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup of cream cold
For the berry filling:
- 1 and ½ cups whole fresh mixed berries
- ½ tablespoon granulated white sugar
For the whipped cream topping:
- 1 cup heavy cream or heavy whipping cream, cold
- 2 tablespoons cream cheese at room temperature
- 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
Instructions
For the shortcake biscuits:
- Have ready a baking tray or cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
- Add cold butter in small pieces and mix until it is the size of peas.
- In another bowl, combine eggs and cream. Do not beat but integrate thoroughly.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and stir with a fork until moistened. It might have floury patches. Don’t overmix.
- Turn this shaggy dough onto a lightly floured counter and dust the top lightly with flour.
- Handling it as little as possible, bring the dough together until you have a rough ball. Do so without kneading; it may be uneven and that is fine.
- Using a floured rolling pin, roll out a rectangle about 1 inch tall. Cut circles of dough with a round cookie cutter about 2-2.5 inches.
- Place on the prepared baking sheet and freeze for 10 minutes or refrigerate for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, turn the oven to 375°F (190°C).
- Brush the tops with milk (or water) and sprinkle lightly with sugar.
- Bake for about 20 minutes until golden brown, puffed and dry. Check that the inside is fully baked by lifting the middle of a biscuit with a fork. If the tops brown too quickly, cover loosely with a piece of aluminum foil and keep baking.
- Let cool on a wire rack completely before serving cut in half with whipped cream and red berries.
For the sweetened whipped cream:
- Put the heavy cream and cream cheese in a medium or large mixing bowl.
- Add sugar and beat with an electric hand mixer at medium speed until firm peaks (stiff peaks) form, it will take about 4-5 minutes, depending on the speed of your beaters and the size of the bowl (smaller bowls take longer).
- Beating: if using the stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat at low speed, especially towards the end so you don't curdle the topping. I use an electric hand-held mixer for this reason.
- Important: whipped cream can curdle very quickly when overbeaten. To avoid this, I always beat it at medium-high speed until soft peaks start to form, lower the speed to medium and continue beating until medium-firm peaks form. Then, I finish beating by hand with a whisk until I get stiff peaks. It takes a bit of arm muscle, but it's harder to overbeat cream by hand.
For the berry topping:
- Wash and carefully dry berries without crushing them. Stem the strawberries if using. Do this about 30 minutes before you're ready to assemble them.
- Cut them into little pieces, mix them with the sugar and reserve. It will release a syrupy juice.
