Strawberry season is not yet here in the Midwest but we have been getting some awfully pretty strawberries from California at our local grocery store. Nothing tastes like spring more than strawberry shortcake! It’s a long-time favorite in our family. In fact, my grandmother used to schedule her 2 week trip to visit my parents each spring to coincide with the strawberries in Dad’s bed ripening!  She was disappointed if strawberry season came early or late and she missed it!

At our house, strawberry “shortcake” is not really a “cake” at all. Shortcake, instead, is a sweet biscuit, either homemade or using the recipe on the back of the Bisquick box. The consensus at our house is that those little dry, spongy cakes you buy just aren’t real “shortcake”.  Not to say that crushed strawberries over angel food cake is not a delicious dessert, but it isn’t “shortcake” to us!

How to top that wonderful, warm biscuit? That’s where our family’s paths diverge.  Most of the clan (the unenlightened part) top their shortcake with sweetened, crushed strawberries, the sweet juice of the strawberries and whipped cream, but the purists butter their warm shortcake and add sliced strawberries, sugar and milk. Any guess where my loyalties are in the great strawberry shortcake debate?

However you build this luscious dessert, I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Oh, PS, the squirting of the canned-whipped cream is almost as popular as the strawberry shortcake itself!

Strawberry Shortcake

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Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2/3 cups half & half (up to 3/4 cup)
• 2 quarts strawberries
• 1/2 cup sugar (for strawberries)
• whipped cream topping

Directions

Step 1

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

Step 2

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. With fork or pastry blender, add butter, stirring until mixture forms small pea-sized balls. Add 2/3 cup of half & half and quickly stir, adding more if necessary to form a ball. Divide dough into 6 equal pieces and place on greased baking sheet. Bake 14 to 18 minutes until light brown.

Step 3

Clean and slice strawberries, crushing them. Add sugar and mix well. Or clean and slice strawberries for Option 2.

Step 4

Option 1: Top warm shortcakes with crushed strawberries and juice. Add whipped cream if desired. Option 2 (try it! It’ll change the way you eat strawberry shortcake forever!): Split and butter warm shortcake and add sliced strawberries (not crushed). Sprinkle with sugar as desired and pour milk over top. The butter melts into the biscuit. The sliced strawberries give you more substance than the crushed strawberries, you can choose how much sugar to add and the milk soaking into the crumbly biscuit is creamy and heavenly!