If you love chocolate, strawberries, and bourbon, this is the recipe for you! My chocolate strawberry shortcake has rich and tender biscuits full of cocoa, juicy ripe fruit, and a creamy indulgent sauce to top things off.
Hello, all.
We’ve finished up spring and are into summer here and that means ALL the berries! I’ve been making shortcakes, pies, mojitos and sorts of other fun recipes as I work on recipe development.
This recipe, though, I had already developed years ago. I made this for my in-laws when they visited a while back. And nearly didn’t serve it since I keep baked goods in the oven away from the cats and we turned it on without checking. Luckily they just got a little browned and the dessert was enjoyed to thumbs up all around.
Anyway, I decided it was time to get it posted because it’s too good not to share.
Oh, and one bit of advice before we move on – these are rich. Have a light dinner planned when you make these so everyone has room for dessert. š
What do you need?
- Biscuits
- Dry Ingredients – Flour, Sugar, Cocoa, Leavener
- Butter – Unsalted and COLD.
- Buttermilk – Enough to bring the biscuits together.
- Dark Chocolate – I like bittersweet but semisweet is also great.
- Sauce
- Cream – It’s a cream sauce.
- Cornstarch – A little extra thickening.
- Sugar – Just enough to sweeten.
- Bourbon – A couple of tablespoons will spike this nicely.
- Filling
- Strawberries – The ripest you can find, either sliced or chopped.
- Sugar – You’ll need more or less depending on your berries.
- Cinnamon – Fruit’s good friend. Half a teaspoon.
How to make this
To make chocolate strawberry shortcake make chocolate biscuits, then pile them with macerated fruit, and top with bourbon cream sauce.
While there is a decent amount going on here, it’s about the same as a standard shortcake recipe in terms of work. We’re adding cocoa/chocolate and making a sauce instead of whipped cream.
1. Biscuits
These are a fairly standard sweet biscuit with the addition of cocoa powder.
Start by mixing the dry ingredients together. Then drop in the cold butter and pulse until kind of shaggy with small bits of butter throughout.
Add the buttermilk and get it into a rough ball. Now turn it out into a bowl, add the chocolate, and finish mixing with a few turns of the dough.
Pat it out and use a biscuit cutter (end of an open can, or whatever else you have with fairly sharp edges, round shape, and about 3 inches across) to press out the biscuits. Note: There are chunks of chocolate in here. You will need to use a bit of force to punch them out neatly.
Then bake and cool.
Tip: If you need cutters, I like this biscuit cutter set!
2. Sauce
There’s not much to show in making the sauce. As with the biscuits, it’s not complicated.
Mix together the cornstarch and water – that way no lumps! Then cornstarch, cream, and sugar in a pot. Boil and thicken while whisking. And add the bourbon off heat.
Then into the fridge to cool it down. You can use the sauce warm, but I prefer it all thick and cold.
Tip: If you want to cook out some of alcohol, simmer the bourbon in the sauce for 30 seconds or so.
3. Filling
Mix your sliced strawberries with sugar and cinnamon and let them sit. The sugar will draw out the juices and make an awesome sauce.
If you try my recipe for Chocolate Strawberry Shortcakes, I would love to hear from you in the comments with your experience and rating! And Iām happy to answer any questions you might have.
– Stay Safe, Annemarie
Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake with Bourbon Cream
Ingredients
Bourbon Cream Sauce
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp water
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp bourbon
Strawberries
- 4 cups hulled and sliced strawberries
- 4-6 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Chocolate Biscuits
- 1 1/2 cups (7 1/2 oz) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (1 1/2 oz) cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup (2 oz) granulated sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp table salt
- 8 tbsp (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch cubes
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 4 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped finely
Instructions
Bourbon Cream Sauce
- In a saucepan, mix together cornstarch and water to make a slurry. Add cream and sugar and bring to a boil while whisking. Boil for 1 minute, whisking continuously. Take off heat and add bourbon. Pour into a container and chill in the refrigerator.
Strawberries
- Mix together strawberries, sugar, and cinnamon. Let macerate (rest and soften) for 30 minutes to 1 hour on the counter.
Chocolate Biscuits
- Heat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Add the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until combined. Add butter and pulse until mixture is like cornmeal with small pieces of butter. Add buttermilk and pulse until it starts to form a ball.
- Move the dough into a bowl and use a large silicone spatula to mix in chocolate. Form the dough into a ball.
- Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured board and flatten with your hands until 3/4 inch thick. Grease and flour a 3-inch cutter. Punch down with no twisting to make each biscuit. When you run out of room, reform the dough and pat down again until you have 6 biscuits. Move your biscuits to the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake biscuits for 12-15 minutes, until risen and cooked through. Let rest a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. Use warm or room temperature.
Assembly
- Cut a biscuit in half. Mound the bottom half with strawberries, getting some of the juice. Spoon cream sauce over and top with other biscuit half.
Notes
- Forming the dough: If too sticky as you add in the chocolate, add a little more flour. If too dry (not coming together), add a little more buttermilk. Just a splash or half a spoon at a time.
- Mixing by hand: Run all the dry ingredients through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl. Use a pastry cutter to work in the butter, then a large spatula to add the buttermilk and chocolate.
- Biscuits: If you keep reforming the dough you can make 8 biscuits. However, the last biscuits will be a little flatter and a bit tough (from all the mixing).
- Butter: Keep it cold while you are mixing. If need be pop the dough into the freezer for a few minutes to keep the butter from melting.
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