This Peach Shortcakes recipe is the summer sister to the strawberry shortcake. Juicy ripe peaches are paired with buttery shortcakes and perfectly whipped cream. If you’ve never had a peach shortcake, you’re in for a treat.
I’m currently in a very dark cave called 90-Day Fiance. It’s an amazing show, GREAT content. And surprisingly very good for productivity. I always need some sort of television that doesn’t require insane amounts of attention to play in the background while I work. And 90 Day show is perfect for that!
A few weeks ago we were blessed by being invited to a summer dinner party and I was tasked with dessert. I went strolling through the farmer’s market that weekend and I was stopped dead in my tracks by the fragrant, sweet smell of summery yellow peaches. Yum. I decided to buy a handful.
I wanted something that was easily transportable and would be easy enough to whip up in an hour or so. This fit the bill perfectly. I made a sweeter version of Carla Hall’s biscuits and added about 1/4 cup of sugar to make them a bit sweeter (they still weren’t very sweet so don’t worry).
I sprinkled the tops with turbinado/raw sugar and a bit of flakey sea salt; they were delicious! And easy to make ahead and transport. Win Win!
How to Make Peach Shortcakes:
- Mix together the dry ingredients. Toss the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
- Add the shortening and butter. Use your hands to pinch the flour into the shortening until evenly mixed together. Use a box grater to grate the butter right into the bowl and use your hands to toss it all together then use the tips of your fingers to just work the butter into the flour.
- Add buttermilk. Use your hands to mix the buttermilk into the mixture, it will be sticky but that’s fine. That’s what gives us not dry biscuits.
- Fold. Pat out the dough and fold it several times, sprinkling with flour each time. This helps the biscuits not sticky anymore and will give us super flaky biscuits.
- Â Cut them out! Use a floured biscuit cutter and cut straight down, going through all the dough and re-rolling the scraps only once.
- Chill. Refrigerate the biscuits for 15 minutes, this will help them hold their shapes and be that much flakier.
- Bake! Sprinkle the tops with turbinado sugar and flaky salt and bake until they’re golden brown.
- Make the filling. Carefully toss all the filling ingredients together and set aside to marry.
- Assemble! While the filling get’s more flavorful carefully cut the biscuits in half and whip the cream. Place a few of the peach slices on the bottom of each biscuit then top withwhipped cream and the other half of the biscuit.
How to tell a peach is ripe:
To make an easy peach short cake even easier you need to start with good peaches. The goal is to have a fruit that’s super fragrant and firm with just a little give. If the peach is too ripe it will be hard to slice clean and nice for presenting. If you’re at a farmers market the other thing you can do is ask the farmstands which peaches are clingstone and which are freestone. Freestone peaches come away from the pit perfectly which is what you want for preparing peaches for shortcakes.
How to Make Peach Shortcakes ahead:
- Bake off. Bake the biscuits, let them cool and pack them up.
- Prep the filling but don’t mix. In a glass tupperware (with a lid), add the lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla, salt and sugar to the bottom. Place the sliced peaches on top. I didn’t mix it because once you do that, it’ll begin to macerate and get all juicy. I didn’t want them to be like canned peaches (like super soft and gross) so I figured I’d do that about 15 minutes before we were gonna have dessert.
- Workout with a whisk. Bring the heavy cream and whip it by hand. Super easy!
Tips and Tricks:
- Look for freestone varieties of peaches, they’ll separate from the pit much much easier and make for prettier slices on the shortcakes.
- These shortcakes work well for strawberry shortcake too. Just swap out the peaches for slices strawberries.
- Try other stone fruits when they’re in season! Plums and apricots would also be great in place of the peaches if they’re ripe.
Peach Shortcakes Recipe
Ingredients
Biscuits:
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter cold
- 4 tablespoons trans fat-free vegetable shortening
- 1 cup cold buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon turbinado for topping
- Flaky sea salt for topping
Filling:
- 3 whole peaches (about 2 pounds) thinly sliced
- Zest and juice from 1 small lemon
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla paste or extract
- Pinch of kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
Instructions
To Make the Dough with a Food Processor:
- Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and baking soda in a food processor fitted with the blade attachment. Pulse a few times, until well mixed. Add the shortening and pulse until fine crumbs form. Switch to the grating disk attachment. With the machine running, push the frozen butter through the feed tube.
- Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and toss to make sure all the butter shreds are coated with the floury crumbs. Add the buttermilk and fold in using a rubber spatula, running the flat of it through the center of the mixture and then around the edge while you rotate the bowl. Keep at it, being as gentle as possible, until the dry ingredients are evenly hoisted.
To Make the Dough by Hand:
- Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl with an open hand, using your fingers as a whisk. Add the shortening and use your fingertips to pinch it completely into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- Using a box grater, grate the frozen butter on the large holes into the flour. Toss until all the pieces are coated. Add the buttermilk to the flour mixture. Using your hand as a spatula, gently mix until there are no dry bits of flour left. The dough will be sticky.
- Lightly coat your work surface with nonstick cooking spray, then flour. (The spray keeps the flour in place.)
- Turn the dough out onto the prepared surface and gently pat into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle. Sprinkle the dough with flour, then fold it in thirds like a letter. Repeat the patting, sprinkling, and folding twice, rotating the dough 90 degrees each time. Pat the dough to 3/4-inch thickness. It should no longer be sticky.
- Flour a 3-inch-round biscuit cutter and press it straight down into the dough. Transfer the round to the prepared pan, placing the bottom side up. Repeat, cutting the rounds as close together as possible and spacing them 1-inch apart on the pan. Stack the scraps, pat to 3/4-inch thickness, and cut again. Refrigerate the rounds until cold, at least 15 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
- Bake until the tops are golden brown and crisp, about 16 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes on the pan before serving hot.
To Make Ahead:
- You can let the biscuits cool completely, then freeze them for up to 2 months. To serve, thaw them and then bake in a 350 degrees F oven until toasted and warm.
To Make the Filling:
- To a medium bowl, mix together the sugar, lemon juice, zest, vanilla paste or extract and a pinch of salt. Add the sliced peaches and toss until evenly coated. Allow to sit to macerate (i.e., marinate) for about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Beat the heavy cream with the powdered sugar either by hand or using an electric hand mixer until light and fluffy.
To Serve:
- Slice the biscuits in half. Spoon the peach mixture to the bottom half of the biscuit. Top with a spoon full of whipped cream. Repeat until you've worked through shortcakes.
Notes
Nutrition
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Looking for more Summer recipes? Here are some of my favorites:
Assemble the shortcakes by cutting the biscuits in half. Place 3 to 4 slices of grilled peaches on the bottom half of the biscuit, top with a spoonful of whipped cream, and cover with the top half of the biscuit. Serve immediately or put the cakes in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Those look simply amazing! We used to have a peach tree, and would love eating them – despite having a competition with the birds!
These look heavenly! I love peaches and honestly never thought to do this, How Delightful! I will have to try this. Thank you.