Blueberry Pie Bars
Samantha Seneviratne
1985 ratings with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars
1,985
About 1 hour 10 minutes, plus chilling
Double Strawberry Shortcakes
Updated Oct. 11, 2023
- Total Time
- 1 hour 15 minutes, plus at least 1½ hours’ resting
- Prep Time
- 15 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1 hour, plus at least 1½ hours’ resting
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:6 shortcakes
- 4ounces/1 cup fresh strawberries, trimmed and sliced ¼-inch thick
- 4tablespoons/50 grams granulated sugar
- 1¾cups/230 grams all-purpose flour
- 1tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1tablespoon poppy seeds, plus more for topping
- ½teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt
- ½cup/113 grams unsalted butter, cubed
- Buttermilk, as needed
- 8ounces/2 cups fresh strawberries, trimmed and sliced
- 1 to 2tablespoons granulated sugar
- Whipped cream
For the Shortcakes
For Serving
Preparation
- Step 1
In a small bowl, macerate the berries: Gently toss the strawberries with 1 tablespoon sugar and set aside for 30 minutes or until the berries are juicy and bright red.
- Step 2
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, remaining 3 tablespoons granulated sugar, baking powder, salt and poppy seeds. Add butter. Using a pastry cutter or your fingers, work the butter into the flour until the mixture is mealy with pea-size butter pieces. While the strawberries macerate, put the flour and butter mixture in the freezer to chill.
- Step 3
After the strawberries have released their liquid, use a slotted spoon to carefully transfer them to a clean kitchen towel or paper towel, and dab off any excess liquid. Pour strawberry liquid into a measuring cup and add enough buttermilk to make ⅓ cup.
- Step 4
Add the drained strawberries to the chilled flour mixture and toss with your fingers or a fork to incorporate.
- Step 5
Pour in buttermilk mixture and gently toss until the dough is evenly damp and shaggy, being careful not to overmix. Turn the shaggy dough onto a piece of plastic wrap and pat it into a rough 5-by-4-inch rectangle that’s 1½ inches tall (it will look small, but will rise a lot in the oven). Cut through the dough into 6 even pieces but don’t separate the shortcakes. (This makes them easier to store.) Wrap well with plastic and place in the freezer for at least 45 minutes and up to 2 weeks.
- Step 6
Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- Step 7
Remove dough from the freezer. Use a knife to separate the shortcakes (you may have to cut all the way through the dough again) and place on a lined baking tray at least 1½ inches apart. Brush tops with buttermilk and sprinkle with more poppy seeds.
- Step 8
Put the shortcakes in the oven and immediately reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Bake for 22 to 30 minutes until the shortcakes are golden brown on the tops and bottoms. Transfer to a rack to cool.
- Step 9
To serve, in a medium bowl, toss together berries and sugar and let macerate for at least 15 minutes and up to 4 hours (store in the fridge if keeping longer than an hour). Halve the shortcakes crosswise, and fill with whipped cream and syrupy berries.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Pattie
I discovered that if I macerate berries in brown sugar instead of white sugar, the flavor is exponentially better. More berry-y. Deeper, more interesting.
zingsMom
I made these today, as follows: 1. I froze the stick of butter, then grated it using a cheese grater. 2. My dough was a bit dry, so I added another teaspoon of buttermilk to it. After letting the liquids soak into the dry ingredients for a few minutes, I was able to form the dough and freeze it. 3. I agree with other posters - the dough could have used a pinch of salt. I'll add it next time. 4. Lastly, the shortcakes were baked at 400 degrees and were finished in 23 minutes.
nb
Good recipe & relatively easy summer dessert! I would add a pinch of salt and some lemon zest to the biscuits next time to amp up the flavor.
TT
Well, these are by far the best Strawberry Shortcakes I've ever had. This is the first time that the strawberry flavor was in each bite. And, my chocolate loving wife actually gave these her seal of approval. Please note that the freezer steps are critical in hiding the dough together.
JZ
Replaced the sugar with Stevia, and as the poppy seeds had expired a decade ago (lol) threw in some finely chopped walnuts. Decided to include chia seeds as well. Froze the dough overnight, which seems essential to the dough holding its shape, and these turned out great.
Shelley
I made this recipe over a week ago and there was no salt in the recipe. Looks like they updated it based on all the feedback.
Chris
See Step 3, last line. You take the strawberry juice and add enough buttermilk to make 1/3 cup. That is the mixture refered to in the recipe.
CW
I’m not understanding the comments about adding a pinch of salt. The recipe does call for salt — is the problem that it is not enough?
michele
Followed this precisely, and believe they are going to be delicious. However, in a 400 degree oven, the bottoms were burned when I checked the. at 18 minutes. Might want to lower the bake temperature to whatever biscuit setting works for your oven. As this is a timely process when one considers chilling the dough, we’ll be cutting the bottoms off of this batch.
Mary Jo
Strawberry liquid and buttermilk. Pour strawberry liquid into a measuring cup and add enough buttermilk to make ⅓ cup.
Boxplayer
Butter the inside surfaces of the shortcakes. I prefer unsalted. The juice of the berries won't soak in anywhere near as much, and the butter . . . well, who doesn't like butter?
Jonathan
I cut the butter into the flour in the food processor. I found that the shortcakes required a lot more buttermilk to come together. I also reduced the baking powder to 1 TBS, which eliminated the bitterness some have noted. The end result is yummy, not too sweet, and a great match for fresh in-season strawberries. As Pattie recommended, I macerated the berries in brown sugar.
Brenda P. Boyd
My mother and her mother--both New England Yankees through and through--always buttered the biscuits before assembly. It added a "protective liquid proof layer" to avoid sogginess, and everything tastes better with butter, right? She even put PB&J and tuna fish on buttered bread. She always buttered first! (Similar to British cucumber sandwiches!) LOL.
Tina
I am an old Mainer. My father would make us leave the table if we said something rude about food, like "Ew." Food was scarce and sacred. Your 50-year-old book is presumably delightful, but it is ok for the rest of us to try something new, whether we "need" it or not.
Rebecca
I like others also thought this recipe calls for way too much baking powder. There’s a distinct bitterness that sadly overpowered the shortcake and made these basically inedible.
cheching
I made these twice. The first time, I shouldn’t have listened to the suggestions here to add more liquid. It was so wet that I had to add extra flour to fix the sodden mess. The second time, I used the unaltered amount of liquid, and it was perfect. I transferred the drained strawberries directly to the flour mixture, and I didn’t bother dabbing them dry. That may have helped. Also, I got much cleaner cuts by freezing the block of dough first before cutting it into pieces. Served with mascarpone
emmy
These are the perfect way to use up strawberries that are JUST past their edible-raw phase. We veganized this recipe and it worked great. For our oven, baking time was 22 minutes at 400*.
catmoo
You forgot the part where you butter the shortcakes BEFORE adding the strawberries and whipped cream.
rigbynw
Since it is a Melissa Clark recipe, I did not feel the need to deep dive a ton of reader notes before I decided to make these to have with the first local berries of the season. It was a huge mistake on my part. This was a finicky recipe, the amount of liquid in the dough is way off (as many other reviewers have pointed out) and, while tasty, not worth the effort. Note to self—always deep dive the reviews. The community here generally knows of what it speaks.
Leslie T
Made these yesterday for my husband's 70th birthday party. Excellent, although I had to add an additional maybe 2 Tbsp of buttermilk to hold the dough together. He LOVED them, as did our guests. And the bonus was being able to serve them with the season's first local (Willamette Valley, OR) Hood strawberries...they are the best! My only wish is that I'd doubled the recipe.
Trev
Alterations - used brown sugar to macerate the berries, tasted great. - I just microwaved the strawberry slices for 30 secs with the sugar, not perfect but it did work quickly. Probably could have done 20 seconds if I stirred them midway through. - All I had was salted butter and buttermilk powder, so I used 1 Tablespoon of powder and added water to the strawberry juice. That also worked but next I want to decrease the baking powder a bit.
Barbara W
These were fantastic. I made them exactly according to the recipe. As with all types of biscuits, the less you handle the dough, the more tender they will be, so I kept that in mind when making these. This will be one of my go-to's during fresh strawberry season from now on.
Patti Travaglio
Did anyone try making these with blueberries instead of strawberries?
Johnna
I made this hoping for a "WOW" dish, but found that the extra work associated with making the shortcakes with the berries in them didn't add a lot to the overall strawberry shortcake experience. Also, the dough was crumbly and I probably should have added more buttermilk as some of these commenters have noted. For me, a simple shortcake with beautiful berries and cream is really enough. But we've enjoyed eating the shortcakes on their own - they make for a nice complement with a cup of coffee!
Cathi B
My grandson says these are the best things he has ever eaten...I admit I wasn't sold on them by just viewing the recipe but I am sooo glad I made them. They are exceptionally good and make the strawberries shine. Good strawberries are essential here!
Penny
I also had a poor result even though I added extra buttermilk to get the dough to keep from crumbling apart. I felt the final product was not worth the effort. I will continue to use my standard shortcake recipe ( with things I have added over the years) but may try the idea of adding berries and poppy to the dough before baking. My 4th of July guests felt the shortcake needed more sugar. I also missed the addition of lemon peel to the dough which is a perfect compliment to strawberries.
Rhubarb
Used rhubarb instead of strawberries inside the shortbread and it worked so well!
stewart P
Can you use regular milk instead of buttermilk? I hate to buy a big carton of buttermilk and use so little…
Gina
Liked the strawberry flavor in the biscuit, but wish I had read the reviews - so much baking powder made these noticeably bitter which was a big surprise. I sprinkled sugar on top to compensate.
Woozie
I wouldn't change a thing about the recipe. We've been making what we thought was perfectly good shortcake for 50 years, but Melissa has cast the scales from our eyes!
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