Raspberry Sour Cream Shortcakes

Raspberry Sour Cream Shortcakes start with homemade flaky sour cream biscuits and delicious fresh raspberries dressed with muscovado sugar and lemon juice. Add to that some voluptuous whipped cream and you have a dessert meant to impress. Want to have it for breakfast? With this recipe, you'll make 6 biscuits, make a couple of shortcakes then freeze some biscuits and have them warmed up slathered with jam. Amazing!

Song of the day: Walking on Sunshine - Katrina & The Waves

Who said that shortcakes are only made with strawberries? We tried them with raspberries and let me tell you, they were scrumptious! The important thing is to have great biscuits, fresh fruit, and a lovely whipped cream. 

 

 

Shortcakes

There is something special about summer, sunny days, fresh berries, whipped cream, and shortcakes. "Any fruit" shortcakes must be the quintessential summer dessert. Strawberry shortcakes are, of course, the most famous and loved; we have made roasted strawberry shortcakes and they were delightful. If you have never tried roasting your strawberries, you're in for a treat. 

What about Raspberry shortcakes?

Today, we are sharing these Raspberry Sour Cream Shortcakes which are truly wonderful, from the homemade sour cream biscuits to the fresh raspberries and homemade whipped cream.

In short, let's see how it's done.

Ingredients for the biscuits

You will need:

• flour, all-purpose
• butter
• sour cream
• whipping (heavy) cream
• lemon zest
• salt
• sugar

Preparation

• In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, cane sugar, and salt until combined. Grate the zest of half of the lemon right into the bowl (reserve the lemon for the raspberries) and whisk to combine.
• Add the cold, cubed butter to the flour mixture. Work the butter into dry ingredients by pinching with your fingers until there are lots of pea-sized bits remaining (you can also use a pastry cutter).

• In a medium bowl (or measuring cup), combine sour cream and whipping (heavy) cream. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Add the cream mixture into the well.
• With a rubber spatula, working in circles from the inside outwards, mix the dough until shaggy clumps form.
• Knead briefly (don’t overdo it) until it forms a dough and most of the flour has been incorporated.

1. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface, pat to a 1-inch thick square -more or less-, roughly about 6×6-inches.
2. Cut the square of dough into 4 pieces, then stack them all on top of each other, creating a tower of dough.
3. Press down on the stack with your hand, flattening the dough again (this will create lots of flaky layers), then pat to a rectangle about 1 inch thick.
4. Cut the rectangle in half lengthwise, then cut each of those 2 rectangles into 3 squares, making 6 biscuits.

• Next, transfer the biscuits to the prepared baking sheet and sprinkle the tops with sugar. Place the baking sheet in the freezer for 10 minutes (this will help ensure that the shortcakes rise rather than spread out in the oven).
• Lastly, bake the biscuits until golden brown, about 20–25 minutes.

Do you see all those layers? The biscuits are going to be buttery and flaky. My mouth is watering at the thought of adding raspberries and whipped cream and making shortcakes!

The raspberries

Truly, I love raspberries. They are sweet, tart, and delightfully crunchy. 

• Add to a bowl, squeeze lemon juice, add muscovado sugar (or any sugar you like) and toss to combine. Let sit at room temperature, tossing occasionally as you wait for the biscuits to bake. They will naturally create a syrupy juice.

The whipped cream

• Pour whipping (heavy) cream into a bowl. Using a handheld mixer start mixing on low speed, add the vanilla and the sugar, then beat at high speed until you get nice soft peaks.

Now that you have all the components, it's time to assemble the Raspberry Shortcakes.

Assembling the shortcakes

Since there are two of us at home, we only made two shortcakes.

• Hence, cut one biscuit in half. Place the bottom half on a serving plate. Add macerated raspberries, drizzling some of the juice, then top with whipped cream (you can switch things up as you like by adding whipped cream at the bottom and raspberries on top).

• Lastly, close with the top half. Here it is, a beautiful raspberry sour cream shortcake.  Similarly, repeat for the other one.

Note

The recipe makes 6 biscuits and two shortcakes. We froze the leftover biscuits, wrapped individually in plastic wrap, and placed them into a ziplock bag. Simply defrost overnight in the fridge, place in the oven to warm up and they are as flaky and crumbly as if freshly baked. Enjoy with jam or make a breakfast sandwich (that’s exactly what we did).

Raspberry Sour Cream Shortcakes

Normally shortcakes are done with the sponge cakes, however, done with the biscuits gives you a texture experience that you will never forget. Those light and buttery melt in your mouth layers just soothe the palate as the freshness of the raspberries and whip cream tease your tastebuds and coax a smile to your face.

Ultimately, these Raspberry Sour Cream Shortcakes are summer in a mouthful.  Joyful and so bright in flavor and extremely playful in texture. Imagine these colorful little bundles gracing your picnic table on a beautiful sunny summer day. I can already see the smiles at the table!

 

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