Tender, light and melt in your mouth, Strawberry Shortcake with Sourdough Biscuits are simple to whip up and make ahead ready. You’ll use your sourdough discard from your Sourdough Starter, butter, all purpose flour, heavy cream for tenderness and a touch of lemon.
Macerate your strawberries in sugar and vanilla, then spoon over the tender sourdough biscuits with a dollop of whipped cream. Make ahead by freezing the cut dough; frozen biscuits can go straight from freezer to oven! This recipe is vegetarian and egg free.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review: “The most tender flaky shortcakes I’ve EVER had!!” ~ Dana
Shortcakes with Sourdough Discard Shortcake Biscuits Highlights
Why is it called discard? I never throw it out. Carefully tucked away in the fridge, I use it in Sourdough Biscuits, Sourdough Blueberry Scones, and Sourdough Discard Buttermilk Pancakes. There’s more on my list too…
So many ways to use sourdough discard to obtain a rustic and delightful sourdough flavor in baked recipes. These strawberry shortcakes are no different. They’re tender, lightly sweetened and the perfect vehicle for juicy strawberries and lightly whipped cream.
This Recipe Is
- tender and light
- slightly tangy
- buttery
- make ahead
If you enjoy sourdough discard recipes, you’ll love this delightful and easy to make dessert.
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How to Make Shortcakes with Sourdough Biscuits
step by step
Tips for the Most Tender Biscuits
To keep these biscuits light and tender, start with cold, straight from the refrigerator ingredients. Sourdough is more difficult to incorporate into cream when mixing cold, but it will ensure the most tender biscuits for this shortcake.
When making biscuits, the goal is to coat the pieces butter in flour like when making pie dough, rather than incorporating it into the flour like a cake or cookie.
Work quickly when working the butter into the flour. The butter should remain cold and pliable throughout the mixing process. If the butter starts getting melty, pop the whole bowl in the freezer (before adding any liquid) for about 10 minutes. This will allow the butter to solidify, then you can carry on.
Because this dough is heavy on fat, it’s easy to work with and I don’t worry so much about overworking the dough. Fat tenderizes gluten. Hooray!
Biscuits are best straight out of the oven and slightly cooled, but, I didn’t get any complaints after they were frozen and reheated.
The Difference Between Scones and Biscuits
I’ve read much about this topic, and it’s sometimes difficult to discern the technical difference between the two. They’re both considered quick breads, and can go sweet or savory. My takeaways are:
Scones tend to be dryer than biscuits, contain more sugar if sweet and often have some sort of inclusion like fruit, nuts and/or zest. They’re typically made with eggs.
Biscuits are light, sometimes flaky and moist with a less sweet flavor profile than scones (if sweet). They’re made with butter, lard or some other fat and milk, cream or buttermilk. They typically don’t contain eggs.
This sourdough biscuit recipe is somewhat of a crossover. I’ve incorporated butter and cream with a hint of lemon zest into the dough creating a short dough that’s tender, light and melt in your mouth. These biscuits are flakyish and moist!
Traci’s Tips
- When kneading the dough, use a folding and pressing motion, scooping up bits of flour and butter from the bottom of the bowl and pressing the dough over and on top of itself. This helps build fluffy layers.
- When cutting the dough, flour the cutter first, then press down and pull right back up. Avoid twisting the cutter. The cleaner the cut, the better the rise.
- Internal Temperature: to know when the scones are done baking, check the internal temperature using a digital food thermometer. When done, they should read between 200 – 205 Fahrenheit (93 – 96 Celsius).
Kitchen Tools: I recommend a digital oven thermometer and weighing your ingredients using a digital kitchen scale for best outcome (affiliate link).
Strawberry Shortcake with Sourdough Discard Biscuits
Ingredients
For the Biscuits:
- 2/3 C (145g) Heavy Whipping Cream + more for tops
- 1/3 C (100g) Sourdough Discard 100% hydration, stirred down
- 1 3/4 C (245g) All Purpose Flour
- 3 Tbs Organic Cane Sugar + more for tops
- 1/2 tsp Fine Sea Salt
- 2 1/2 tsp Baking Powder aluminum free *see 5/21 update note below
- 1/2 C (114g / 1 stick) Unsalted Butter cold, just from the fridge, cut into 1/2" pieces
- Zest of One Lemon
For the Strawberries:
- 3 C (425g) Strawberries about 1 1/2 pints
- 1 – 3 Tbs Organic Cane Sugar to taste
- 1 Tbs Lemon Juice
For the Whipped Cream:
- 1 C (210g) Heavy Whipping Cream
- 1 – 2 Tbs Organic Cane Sugar to taste
- 1/2 Vanilla Bean Pod, beans scraped or 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions
Make the Biscuits:
- Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and set aside. Make room in the refrigerator for the sheet pan.
- In a spouted measuring cup add whipping cream, and sourdough discard (just out of the fridge). Whisk until the starter is incorporated. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. To the flour mixture, add the cold butter. I like using my hands here, but a fork or pastry cutter may be used instead. Start incorporating the butter pinching and mashing the butter pieces in between your fingers, working quickly so the butter stays cold. The point is to coat the butter in flour, pinching and tossing the pieces. Once the flour and butter is incorporated, there should be small (pea size) and larger pieces (almond size) of butter remaining, coated in flour. If the butter starts to melt, put the whole bowl in the freezer for about 10 minutes to firm the butter back up.
- To the butter/flour mixture, stir in the lemon zest until evenly distributed.
- Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the sourdough/cream mixture. Use a fork to pull the dry flour into the well, then mix until a shaggy dough forms. Put the fork down and use your hand to scoop up the dough and press it over and on top of itself, doing this several times until a shaggy dryish dough forms.
- Flour your work surface and turn the dough out. Lightly flour the top of the dough and knead it a few times (folding and pressing) until a cohesive dough forms. Lightly flour the top again and roll the dough with a rolling pin or pat the dough out to between 3/4" to just below 1" (1.9cm – 2.5cm) thick disk. Dip the biscuit cutter into flour, then cut the biscuits with a 2 3/4" – 3" (7cm – 7.6cm) biscuit cutter, without twisting the cutter, and transfer to the parchment paper-lined sheet pan, spacing them evenly and a few inches apart. Reroll the dough as needed (I do this twice). Refrigerate the biscuits for at least 20 minutes. *Note* if your butter seems soft you can pop the biscuits in the freezer rather than the refrigerator. The colder the biscuits are, the better they'll rise once you put them in the oven. Make Ahead: At this point the biscuits can be frozen, then transferred to a lidded container and held in the freezer for up to three weeks. You can bake completely frozen biscuits straight from the freezer same as you would refrigerated biscuits adding a few minutes on the bake time as needed.
- While the biscuits are in the fridge/freezer, preheat the oven to 350F (180C) and arrange a rack in the center of the oven. Just before baking, brush the tops of the biscuits with cream and sprinkle a bit of sugar over the top. Bake the biscuits from refrigerated or previously frozen on a parchment lined sheet pan for 30-35 minutes and until golden (you'll need to bake a few more minutes when baking from frozen – keep an eye on the bottoms and internal temperature). The internal temperature will be between 200F-205F when baked through (93C – 96C).
- Store baked biscuits at room temperature in a covered container for up to two days or in the freezer for up to three weeks. Biscuits are best fresh, but if needed, they can be gently reheated at 350F (175C) for about 10-15 minutes. Wrap in foil when reheating to retain their softness.
For the Strawberries
- While the biscuits are in the fridge chilling, trim the green stems away from the strawberry and slice strawberries into rounds or quarters. Sprinkle the strawberries with sugar using some or all of the sugar depending on how sweet your berries are, and/or your taste. The sugar is optional, and sometimes I leave it off, but it helps create a bit of syrup. Squeeze in the fresh lemon juice and if you like, add an empty vanilla bean pod. Stir, cover, then refrigerate for up to two hours. They will soften the longer they sit.
For the Whipped Cream
- In a medium mixing bowl, add the whipping cream, sugar and extract or vanilla beans. Whip until soft peaks form. Make up to one day ahead and store in the fridge in a lidded container.
To Assemble:
- Cut a biscuit in half and scoop strawberries over the top. Dollop with cream, then top with the other biscuit half. Pile up more strawberries and cream if desired!
So delicious, this will be my go-to shortcake recipe. Thank you!
Best news ever, Julie! Thank you for your note!
Omgosh these were a hit! Thank you so much!
Love hearing this Jasmine! Thank you for your note!
These biscuits were to die for. Light, buttery, the lemon zest was perfect!
Love hearing this Becki! Thank you for note and giving the biscuits a go!
These biscuits were amazing. I “kneaded” them by simply pressing the dough flat, cutting it in half with the bench knife, and then stacking them and repeating. This created incredible layers and flakiness once baked. I was trialing baking these in my wood-fired oven, so my timing and temps were slightly different, but they developed a beautiful golden crust on the top and the bottom.
They are just like a biscuit I had several years ago somewhere in the middle of Massachusetts, which I haven’t stopped thinking about since, and these really hit the spot.
Hi Mira! Thank you for your note and sharing your extra flaky tip! In your wood-fired oven sounds wonderful!!
These were easy and turned out delish!! I used active starter as I was baking bread and had some active. Used berries with only 1Tbl sugar and lemon juice (they were perfect)
I made the whipped cream with less sugar and it was really good! I will definitely make these again
Thanks
Teri Walker
Love hearing this, Teresa! Thank you for your note, star rating and sharing your tips!
Haven’t made these yet, wondering if I can use bread flour?
Hi Nancy! Technically you could use bread flour, and although I’ve not tried it in this recipe, I’m thinking the biscuits may have a little more chew (not quite as tender) than the AP flour biscuits. Keep us posted if you experiment!
Can these be made and refrigerated overnight before baking? Or must they be baked the same day?
Hi Ashley! You can refrigerate or freeze them overnight and bake the next day. Just make sure they’re covered while they’re resting in the fridge.
These are literally the best thing I’ve ever made. I wish I could give you 1,000 stars for this recipe!! They’re perfect melt in your mouth goodness that are just as good on day 3 as right out of the oven! Beautiful!!
Oh my gosh, Erin! Thank you for coming back and letting us know! So excited!
I made this as written and it’s definitely a keeper! I was going to use the full tablespoon of baking powder, but went with the equivalent weight measurement of 14 grams…which ended up looking like 2 1/2 teaspoons. The lemon zest really makes this biscuit stand out, as does the slight sweetness. I ended up freezing 6 of the unbaked biscuits and will enjoy them freshly baked with a dab of strawberry jam when strawberries aren’t in season. Thanks for sharing!
The most tender flaky shortcakes I’ve EVER had!! I did the lesser of the baking powder recommendations. I gave away half to my in-laws and regret it now haha. May need to make them again once we go strawberry picking again!
Hooray Dana! SO happy to hear. Thank you for giving the recipe a go and coming back and sharing! No doubt, next time freeze some for your next strawberry picking adventure!
I agree with another user that the amount of baking soda is probably too high. It seemed like a lot to me as well when I was making the biscuits. It is less noticeable when eaten all together with the other components, but definitely present.
I really appreciate how you laid out the recipe and mentioned making space in the refrigerator though !
Hi Carrie! Thank you so much for your note. I’m sorry to hear about your experience with the baking powder. I’d been making these for many months prior to my posting the recipe and I hadn’t noticed an aftertaste (nor did several other makers – see comments below and then also on social). However, after your note and another maker’s note regarding this, I retested and updated the recipe to include less baking powder. Interestingly enough, my husband is the first to alert me of too much BP or BS and he didn’t notice it either with the 1 Tbs amount. I truly appreciate your note however and would rather this recipe work for 100% than 80%!
One of my favorite ways to use discard! Such a great recipe. I make smaller biscuits and just adjust bake time. Everyone loves them!
Hi Kellie! Thank you for your note and giving the shortcake a go! I love the idea of smaller biscuits. Thank you for your tip!
My son and I tried this recipe, and he noticed right away it had an “aftertaste”. It looks like it has too much baking powder.
Hi Tim! I’m sorry to hear these didn’t work for you. This is the first I’ve heard of an “aftertaste.” Thank you for your note.
OMG!!!These biscuits are fantastic! They are my new favorite shortcake biscuit.
And I love that it uses “discard”starter…I can’t bear to throw mine out, and there really is only so much sourdough bread a family can eat. I’m glad I found this recepie.
Hi Andrea! Thank you for your note and giving the biscuits a go. Hooray for sourdough discard! It’s SO good in so many things!
definitely worth a weekend calorie splurge, and might as well go all out while doing it, this will lead the way, thank you!
I’m SO with you Sabrina! I hope you enjoy the biscuits!
Do you use gluten free starter and flour? Also dairy free?
Hi Denise! I attempted a gf version but it didn’t come out like I wanted. So I’m unable to recommend a one to one substitute for this recipe.