Strawberries and honey are a great pair and this honey-flavored sourdough biscuit recipe makes the perfect strawberry shortcake.

I’ve been spending a few weeks playing and tweaking my favorite sourdough biscuit recipe to make a honey-flavored sourdough biscuit. ‘Cause strawberry season means strawberry shortcake! (Or Strawberry Chamomile Cake and Strawberry Banana Nut Bread. Or Strawberry Jam and Strawberry Pizza.))

I tend to be a little OCD when I’ve got a batch of sourdough starter bubbling. I get a bee in my bonnet wanting to add new recipes to my family cookbook that make use of sourdough. Now that I’ve finally got a sourdough farm loaf that doesn’t drain a good chunk of my day away, I might get working on pancakes, buns, chocolate cake, pizza dough, noodles, dinner rolls, donuts… don’t stop me!

The first bee landed on Honey Sourdough Biscuits.

I had a rough time getting the tall rise I like to see in a fat biscuit and not letting the sourdough go too long and completely overpower the honey. I was looking for a balance of the flavors because when honey and strawberries get together, they know how to party! While I still love my normal Buttermilk Biscuit recipe (it’s the best!) and the whole wheat drop biscuit I normally use for strawberry shortcake is quick and delicious, neither use the honey I wanted to try.

After taking some clues from the Biscuit Troubleshooting Guide, I finally nailed it!

A few tips:

• Be very, very careful when cutting the biscuits that you don’t twist the cutter or compress the sides in any way. Use a sharp biscuit cutter for a nice, clean cut. The sourdough isn’t as strong as a hefty addition of baking powder to recover and still get tall sides.

• For the same reason, make sure when you transfer the biscuit to the baking sheet you don’t pinch the sides.

• You can let the sourdough biscuits rise longer than the 2 hours if you’d like, just remember, you’ll taste the honey less and less the longer the souring happens.

• These biscuits are fluffy and moist after baking but are best eaten within a day or they tend to dry out. Though if you’re making strawberry shortcake with them that won’t be a problem. Well macerated berries are nice and juicy.

• While it’s ok to use a sourdough starter that was fed with whole wheat flour, using wheat flour in the biscuit recipe makes a dense, heavy biscuit. We’re shooting for a beautiful dessert here, not hardtack.

• Normally biscuits are best made with chilled ingredients. I found that these biscuits actually get a better rise when using warm, soft butter. I’m sure there must be some sort of scientific reason about the wild yeast being activated more in a warm environment or something.

Strawberry Shortcake with Honey Sourdough Biscuits

Name: Strawberry Shortcake with Honey Sourdough Biscuits
Yield: 10 Biscuits
Ingredients: Strawberries; 1 quart strawberries, sliced; 2 Tablespoons evaporated cane juice, or sugar (Buy cane juice here .); splash of vanilla; pinch of salt; Honey Sourdough Biscuits; 2 ½ - 2 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour; 1 Tablespoon baking powder; 1 teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon baking soda; 6 Tablespoons butter, softened; 1 cup sourdough starter; ¼ cup honey; ¼ cup buttermilk; Whipped Cream; 1 cup heavy cream; ¼ cup evaporated cane juice, or sugar (Buy cane juice here .); dash of vanilla

Strawberry Shortcake with Honey Sourdough Biscuits

Author Reformation Acres

Yield 10 Biscuits

Ingredients

Strawberries
1 quart strawberries, sliced
2 Tablespoons evaporated cane juice, or sugar (Buy cane juice here.)
splash of vanilla
pinch of salt
Honey Sourdough Biscuits
2 ½ - 2 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
6 Tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup sourdough starter
¼ cup honey
¼ cup buttermilk
Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy cream
¼ cup evaporated cane juice, or sugar (Buy cane juice here.)
dash of vanilla

Instructions

Strawberries
Thinly slice the strawberries. (If they're fully ripened you don't need to core them.)
Add the berries, evaporated cane juice, vanilla, and salt to a bowl and carefully stir them.
Cover and set them aside to macerate while you make the biscuits.
Honey Sourdough Biscuits
Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl.
Cut in the butter with your fingertips until it's incorporated and crumbly.
In another bowl, whisk the sourdough starter, honey, and buttermilk together.
Add the starter mix together into the flour/butter mix and stir it together until it comes together in a dough. Additional flour may be necessary.
Turn the dough out onto the counter and knead it about 20 times until it all comes together.
Pat the dough, flattening it until it's about an inch high.
Using a 2 ½" round biscuit cutter, cut the dough (without twisting the cutter) and transfer them to a baking sheet being careful not to pinch the sides.
Set the baking sheet aside and allow them to rise and sour about 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Bake the biscuits for 8-9 minutes until fully baked.
Transfer them to a cooling rack.
Whipped Cream
Add the cream, evaporated cane juice, and vanilla to a bowl and whip it with a whisk until it forms stiff peaks.