Wake and Bake: Breakfast Strawberry Shortcakes

[Photographs: Carrie Vasios]

I grew up eating strawberry shortcake every summer—and it was always a light yellow sponge or angel food cake that was split and layered with macerated strawberries and freshly whipped cream. To many, however, the idea that strawberry shortcake is made with anything other than biscuits is heresy.

I'm happy to occasionally adopt the biscuit version, especially because I believe that makes shortcakes perfectly acceptable at breakfast. The key is starting with freshly baked buttermilk biscuits. It's a simple dough to throw together, so I take the time to roll out the dough and cut out the biscuits, though if you really don't mind irregular servings, you could simply drop the dough onto the baking sheet. To keep it reasonable for breakfast, I serve these open faced, one half of each biscuit topped with freshly sliced strawberries and a cloud of freshly whipped cream.

Some tips: you can adjust the sweetness of this dish to your taste. You can cut the sugar in the biscuit dough to one teaspoon or similarly decrease the sugar in the whipped cream. On the flip side, if you want to serve this at dessert, try letting the strawberries sit in a few tablespoons of sugar for 30 minutes until they release their juices, then pour the fruit and syrup over the biscuits.

As it's written, the strawberries aren't accompanied by extra juices because they're just sliced and served. To make up the moisture, I like to serve each biscuit with an extra large cloud of softly whipped cream. Each bite should contain a mix of sweet biscuit, fresh berries, and milky cream. See below.

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Breakfast Strawberry Shortcakes »