it’s a shortcake, it’s a cobbler, it’s a strawberry shortcake cobbler

Home Movies Tuesday!

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Jun 01, 2021

Hello and welcome to Home Movies Tuesday! If you’ve found your way over by some miracle but are not yet subscribed, here, let me help you with that:

Happy Day-After-Memorial-Day! I will spend the rest of the week forgetting today is not Monday and therefore, not ever knowing what day it is. This week on Home Movies, it’s a strawberry shortcake cobbler: strawberry shortcake in spirit, cobbler in practice. A thing to make when you have a ton of strawberries and no idea what to do with them, and even if you’re “not a baker” please, I beg of you, keep reading. Because truly (and I mean it), anyone can make this.

This edition of Home Movies is sponsored by All-Clad, and to celebrate, they’ve let me pick some of my tried and true All-Clad products to give away to our Home Movies subscribers. This week, we're giving away a D3 Stainless 4 qt sauce pan, my second most used pot. It’s the perfect size for making jammy 6-minute eggs, cooking grains, blanching small vegetables, or reheating basically anything. For a chance to win one of your own, click here and enter your email. Also, you can use the code ALISON10 for 10% off any All-Clad purchase.

Strawberry shortcake is a dessert that I love dearly—it’s nostalgic, deeply summery, and just sweet enough without crossing into saccharine territory. It’s also something that I’ve absolutely never made for myself, not even once. The layering is fussy, and the little individually assembled ones are even fussier. All that being said: a strawberry shortcake cobbler? I’m listening.

I’m not much of a project baker. When I’m baking, I want as much ease as possible or else I’m immediately stressed, making the whole thing no longer enjoyable. If I can make a dessert so good my friends will instantly devour it and I don’t even have to clean so much as a whisk? Heaven to me.

This cobbler is strawberry shortcake without the hassle—everything gets baked together at once, and the result is even more delicious than the original. It’s low-effort, high-reward baking at its finest that makes me feel actually *less stressed* than when I began, a true miracle.

This episode of Home Movies is very Alison-gone-granola (we should have known when she went camping), starting with shots rightfully fired at Amazon, musings on how therapeutic baking can be when there are no tools or equipment involved (just your hands and a vision), the unrealistic expectation that produce should always be in season, and the Online Ceramics gardening shirt (peas and love, baby). Come for the cobbler, stay for the call for corporations to be taxed.

If last week’s pasta salad is the perfect potluck main/side dish (it is!), this strawberry shortcake cobbler is the equivalent dessert to get you through summer picnic/barbecue/birthday party season. It’s quick to make, made mostly from pantry staples, loved by all, and easy to transport. We love a low-maintenance dessert!

The nice thing here is that you don’t need the smallest, most precious farmers market strawberries for this cobbler (in fact, it would be a crime to bake with those!)—This method will make any mediocre or even sad strawberries taste sweeter and juicier than you ever thought possible. A truly inspiring comeback story! The additional cornmeal in the shortcake dough adds a much needed lightly complex, almost savory note, and yes of course, there is salt.

Of course, what would an AR recipe be without MODIFICATIONS!

Don’t feel like going to the store for strawberries? Bake the shortcakes on their own and serve with butter and jam.
No heavy cream? Use buttermilk instead (just use a touch less than the recipe calls for).
You can use flour in place of cornstarch in the strawberry mixture, because sometimes you just don’t have cornstarch (but you probably have flour).
Want to add some thyme, fruit zest, or anything else to customize your cobbler? Add it to the strawberries just before baking.
No cast iron skillet to bake it in? All good, this can be made in a pie plate or regular baking dish (square or rectangle, sure!).

The most important thing to remember for this recipe (and all baking recipes), is that every oven is a little different—baking times are always an approximation, so go by looks instead of time. We’re looking for golden brown, puffed shortcakes, and juicy, bubbling strawberries.

Click HERE for a printable PDF.

strawberry shortcake cobbler

serves 6

Strawberry shortcake: great in theory, a little annoying in practice. I’d better like you a lot if I’m going to make you an individually assembled dessert. But this cobbler gets at the point (tender, buttery shortcake; juicy, lightly sweetened strawberries), and it gets at it in a more efficient and, dare I say, delicious way. The shortcakes get baked right on top of the strawberries, so by the time they’re golden brown and perfect, the strawberries have given up a bit of their juices, which roast with just enough sugar to create a gloriously delicious, syrupy sauce. Two birds, one cobbler.

SHORTCAKES
1 ¼ cups/181 grams all-purpose flour, plus more for the work surface
½ cup/78 grams coarse yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoons/27.5 grams light brown sugar
2 tablespoons/25 grams granulated sugar
1 tablespoon/12 grams baking powder
¾ teaspoon/2 grams kosher salt*
½ cup/113 grams (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces, at room temperature
½ cup/113.5 grams heavy cream

FILLING
5 cups/750 grams strawberries (about 2 quarts), hulled and halved
½ cup/100 grams granulated sugar
2 tablespoons/14 grams cornstarch
1 tablespoon/14.5 grams fresh lime or lemon juice
2 tablespoons/14 grams heavy cream
2 tablespoons/27.5 grams light brown sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. Make the shortcakes: In a large bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Using your hands, rub the butter into the flour mixture until no large chunks remain. Add the cream and mix with your hands just until blended. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead the dough just until it’s no longer super sticky, about 2 minutes.

3. Using your hands, form the dough into a circle about 1 inch thick. Using a 2-inch cookie cutter (or an approximation thereof—I use water glasses, mason jars, whatever), punch out as many shortcakes as you can. Re-pat the scraps to 1 inch thick and repeat until all the dough is used. Set the shortcakes aside while you prepare the filling (transfer to the refrigerator if they feel too soft).

4. Make the filling: In a medium bowl, toss the strawberries with the granulated sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice. Transfer the berries to a 9-inch cast-iron skillet, pie dish, or cake pan (a 9 x 13-inch baking dish will also work in a pinch) and top with the shortcakes.

5. Brush the tops of the shortcakes with the cream and sprinkle with the brown sugar. Bake until the shortcakes are golden brown and the juices of the strawberries have thickened and bubbled up around the edges of the skillet, 25 to 30 minutes.

6. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before digging in (this will not only prevent unnecessary mouth burns, but letting it cool a bit will help set the juices so it’s not too runny).

*kosher salt conversion based on Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt