Juneteenth Buttermilk "Drop" Strawberry Shortcakes

This is a light and delicious summer dessert using strawberry jam, soaked in sugar strawberries, homemade whipped cream, and perfectly decadent shortcake dough that you literally just drop onto the baking pan and bake in the oven. The method of simply dropping dough and frying or baking it has been used for centuries by Black people. We didn’t always have access to tools to roll out dough properly thus, recipes like hot water cornbread and non-perfect shortcakes were made. These shortcakes are not perfectly round, each one looks a little different once baked and that’s what’s so special about it to me. The dough in this recipe is symbolic of the kneading of our broken hearts. The comfort we all need right now. The thick red strawberry sauce coating the bottom of the plate is representative of a stream, flowing into a river of liberation. 

This short cake is easy to make but requires a little bit of time and love. Take time while making this recipe to reflect. Reflect on the true meaning of freedom. Reflect on your privilege. Reflect on what this all means and how to be a better human. Make it for your family, make it for your friends, make it for your white neighbors and talk about Black history and the importance of food within our culture. Having difficult conversations is a little easier with something sweet.

Servings: 10

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour

• 1/2 cup of sugar

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/3 cup butter, chilled and cut into pieces

• 1 cup buttermilk

• Zest of one whole lemon

• 1 teaspoon good vanilla extract

• Fresh ripe strawberries

• Whipped cream

• Strawberry jam

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400

2. Slice strawberries and let soak in sugar while you prepare the dough.

3. In large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

4. Mix in butter with your fingers until the mixture has the consistency of coarse crumbs. (You can also pulse this mixture in a food processor a few times)

5. Stir in buttermilk, lemon zest, and vanilla extract until the dough is fully blended. If the dough is a bit dry, add in more buttermilk. You want the mixture to be soft to the touch and a little sticky at this point.

6. Drop 1/4 cups of the dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. You can also just drop about a hand full of dough, depending on how large you’d like your shortcakes to be.

7. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the tops are golden brown.

8. Cool completely.

For the Whipped Cream

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons of sugar

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

The key to turning heavy whipping cream into whipped cream is making sure the cream itself and your tools are very, very cold.

1. Place heavy whipping cream, mixing blow and metal whisk into freezer for 10-15 minutes.

2. Place sugar in bottom of mixing bowl, add vanilla and heavy whipping cream and whisk until heavy peaks start to form.

3. If you have a standing mixer or an electric hand mixer, this would be a bit easier and quicker as you don’t need to freeze these tools, but all methods produce similar results.

To Assemble

1. Slice each shortcake in half.

2. Place a tablespoon of strawberry jam on the bottom of the bowl or plate (trust me, this part is key).

3. Place bottom of shortcake on top of jam, add sliced strawberries that were soaking in sugar to the top of the shortcake bottom, add whipped cream, top with the other half of the shortcake, add more whipped cream, top with more sliced strawberries and drizzle the juice from the sugar strawberry mixture.