If you are looking for the perfect, light, and airy dessert to bring to your next get-together, then look no further! These strawberry shortcake puffs are like taking a bite out of heaven as you indulge in each delicious bite. The sweetness of the strawberry mixed with the handmade whipped cream and the cloud-like puff pastry is a perfectly balanced trifecta. Oh – and they are ridiculously easy to make! So, set aside thirty minutes, and let’s get to baking.
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Tips Before You Begin
- These puffs only have three main ingredients and the star of the show is the strawberries! So, make sure that your strawberries are as fresh as you can get them. (We recommend buying organic if you can as they usually taste better.)
- Make sure you wash your strawberries before cutting them! It can be an easy thing to forget but the last thing you want is bugs and dirt in your dessert — so wash those strawberries.
- Granulated sugar is used in this recipe to enhance the sweetness of the strawberries and to bring out some of the juices of the strawberries as well. While granulated sugar is great to use, if desired, you can swap it out for coconut sugar or an artificial sweetener. These sugar substitutes won’t activate the juice as much as regular sugar but they will both enhance the sweetness in the same way.
- In this recipe, the puff pastries that are used are turned into more of a sandwich style. If you are wanting to save a little time and have an easier way to eat these puffs, then use a muffin tin. Place the squared puff pastry dough into a muffin tin to create a bowl shape and then scoop in the strawberries and whipped cream for this effect.
- If you are wanting to cut out some of the sugar in this dessert — don’t add the sugar to the heavy whipping cream. It will still have wonderful flavor just with a little less sugar.
- Heavy whipping cream and half and half are not the same things! Half and half will not peak the way that heavy whipping cream will, so make sure you have the right kind of cream beforehand.
Strawberry Shortcake Puffs
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes + 20 minutes cooling
- Total time 1 hour
- Servings: 12
Ingredients
- 1 sheet puff pastry
- 1lb (454g) of fresh strawberries
- 1/4 cup (50g) sugar +3tbsp for later
- 1½ cups (355ml) heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
- 1 tbsp icing sugar (optional, for decor)
How to Prepare
- Preheat your oven to 400ºF/205ºC while working on your puff pastry dough.
- On a clean surface, lightly spread flour so your dough doesn’t stick to the surface. Roll out your pastry dough evenly into a square and cut it into small rectangles using a pastry cutter.
- Grease a baking sheet (or use parchment paper as it cooks the pastry evenly) and cook the rectangles for about 15 minutes or until the tops of the pastries are golden brown.
- While the puff pastries are cooking — let’s prepare those strawberries! Wash and dry one pound of strawberries and then cut them into quarters. Pour all of the quartered strawberries into a large bowl and add ¼ cup of granulated sugar. Give the sugar and strawberries a good mix until the sugar begins to activate some of the strawberry juices and then set it to the side.
- If your puff pastries are done at this time — go ahead and take those out of the oven and allow them to fully cool (if they are still warm the whipped cream is going to melt).
- Now, it’s time for that delicate whipped cream treat! Honestly, if you have never had homemade whipped cream then you are missing out and you need to try it immediately. The good thing is that this recipe is about to show you how to.
- So, in a deep bowl pour in 1 ½ cups of heavy whipping cream. (The deeper the bowl the less of a mess the whipped cream will make when you whisk it.) With an electric hand mixer, mix the heavy whipping cream until it begins to reach a stiff peak. When the heavy whipping cream begins to look like a cloud, add three tablespoons of sugar and ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract then continue to mix the whipped cream. After about five minutes of mixing the heavy cream, you should have the texture of classic whipped cream and that is when you can stop mixing.
- Now that we have all three ingredients prepped and ready to go, it’s time to assemble our strawberry shortcake puffs. While regular strawberry shortbread is open-face, we are going to assemble these puff pastries more like a sandwich.
- Slice the puffed pastries in half so it’s like having two pieces of a sandwich. Add a dollop of whipped cream to the bottom half of the puff pastry, add a scoop of the quartered strawberries, and then place the other half of the puff pastry on top. Continue this same process with the rest of the puff pastries and then it’s time to finish these puffs by adding a little pizzaz.
- With the remaining whipped cream and sliced strawberries, add another dollop of whipped cream on top of the puff and place a couple of sliced strawberries on top of that. Voila! You now have a delicious and eye-catching dessert that will have you craving them every week.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you store the strawberry shortcake puffs?
If you have already assembled the puffs, place them in a sealed container and refrigerate them. The best way to store these for longevity is to keep all three ingredients separated with the strawberries and whipped cream refrigerated and the pastries kept at room temperature. Then when you’re ready to eat the puff pastry you can assemble it with the ingredients that you stored.
How long will the strawberry shortcake puffs keep?
If assembled together, these puffs will only keep for about 24hrs as the whipped cream will make the puff pastry soggy. If all of the ingredients are separated then you can store these for up to three days.
Is this dessert gluten-free?
If you go according to the recipe, no it is not gluten-free. There are gluten-free puff pastries that you can buy and use that will make this recipe gluten-free.
Can these strawberry puffs be made without dairy?
If you are making the whipped cream from scratch — there is no way to not have dairy in it. To make whipped cream unfortunately heavy whipping cream is a necessity. To achieve the same concept without the dairy you can buy coconut whipped cream as a delicious, dairy-free substitute.
Can this dessert be made with a different fruit?
While this dessert is perfect for strawberries, you can use different berries or fruit instead of strawberries.
Yield: 12 servings
Strawberry Shortcake Puffs
These delicious strawberry shortcake puffs are made from scratch using real strawberries and whipped cream. Make these sweet treats today!
Prep Time
25 minutes
Cook Time
15 minutes
Additional Time
20 minutes
Total Time
1 hour
Ingredients
- 1 sheet frozen puff pastry
- 1.5 pounds (4 cups)fresh strawberries
- 1.7 oz (1/4 cup) + 3 tbsp sugar
- 10-12 oz (1½ cups) heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
- 1 tbsp icing sugar (optional, for decor)
Instructions
- First wash the strawberries and slice them. In a medium bowl, toss the strawberries with 1/4 cup sugar and let them stay for 30 minutes.
- Roll the puff pastry into a square and cut into small rectangles. You may need to flour the surface to prevent sticking the pastry on the working surface.
- Place the rectangles in a prepared baking pan with baking paper. Bake at 400°F (205°C) until golden brown and the rectangles are puffed, around 15 minutes.
- Remove them from the oven and let them cool completely, because if they are still warm the whipped cream is going to melt.
- In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the heavy cream. Add the remaining sugar and vanilla and continue mixing until the ingredients are incorporated.
- Split the pastries in half as you can see on the photos. Top each bottom half with one tablespoon of the previously prepared heavy cream and sliced strawberries, then place the top half and adjust it if needed.
- Decorate with a small amount of heavy cream and strawberries on top. You can also decorate with powdered sugar.
Notes
Learn everything about growing strawberries from the Strawberry Master Manual, also don't forget to follow me on Pinterest and Facebook to stay updated with everything I post. We also have a Strawberry gardening group on Facebook! Feel free to join.
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