Summer Peach Shortcakes

Mix up a traditional strawberry shortcake with sweet peaches made even sweeter as they soften in a tiny bit of brown sugar and lemon.

As Labor Day brings us closer to summer’s end, let’s stay summery for a little while longer. Peaches are still soooo yummy, so I thought we could mix up a traditional strawberry shortcake with sweet peaches made sweeter as they soften in a tiny bit of brown sugar and lemon. 

While peach shortcakes look impressive – and they are! – they really are very easy to put together. Making biscuits might sound like a project, but this recipe from the classic New Orleans restaurant Commander’s Palace, via their also-classic cookbook Commander’s Kitchen, is simple and totally accessible. I promise these took me 20 minutes and turned out to be maybe the most beautiful plate of biscuits I’ve ever made: I pulled them out of the oven and said WOW out loud to myself. 

As for the peaches, a little lemon juice and brown sugar coaxes out juice from the fruit, which then becomes its own peachy syrup, perfect as a drizzle on the biscuits. Slightly sweet, lightly whipped cream brings the fluff factor and makes it all look beautiful.

Summer, keep on keeping on.

Summer Peach Shortcakes

Biscuit recipe from the Commander’s Palace cookbook, Commander’s Kitchen, from the recipe for Ponchatoula Strawberry Shortcake.

For the peaches:
3 cups ripe, sliced peaches
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon brown sugar

For the biscuits:
4 cups flour
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 ½ tablespoons baking powder
¼ cup sugar
½ pound (2 sticks) butter, cold and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 ½ to 2 cups buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda

For the whipped cream:
1 cup heavy cream, very cold
1/8 cup sugar

In a small bowl, toss the peaches, lemon juice, and brown sugar gently. Set aside at room temperature for an hour or so.

To make the biscuits, sift the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar in a large bowl. Gently work in the butter with 2 knives or your hands, breaking it into pea-size pieces but taking care not to overwork the dough. Form a well in the center of the mixture, add 1 ½ cups buttermilk mixed with the baking soda, and lightly fold the mixture so that it’s just sticky and the dry ingredients just moistened. If needed, add the additional buttermilk. The idea is to create layers so the butter will steam and serve as a leavening agent to help the biscuits rise. The less you handle the dough, the flakier the biscuits will be.

On a work surface lightly dusted with flour, flatten the dough to 1 ½- inch thickness. Using a flour-dusted cutter 2 ½ inches in diameter, cut the dough into 6 or 8 biscuits. Set the biscuits touching each other in an ungreased pie tin so that they stay moist while they bake. Bake biscuits for 20 to 25 minutes. Do not overbake; remember that the final 10 percent of the cooking will happen after they are removed from the oven.

Using a stand or hand-held mixer, whip the cream and sugar together until soft peaks form, about 5 minutes.

To assemble the peach shortcakes, split the biscuits horizontally, and place the bottom halves on plates. Top each with some peach slices and the juice that has accumulated at the bottom of the bowl. Top with a biscuit top and whipped cream.