The "easiest" way, and it's pretty good, is just to buy a box of Bisquick and follow the recipe. Not bad, but I don't like "frozen whipped topping" (I'd rather use real whipped cream) and I would like to minimize the amount of refined sugar. So here's my variation.
For the shortcakes, just follow the recipe on the box. But for a variation add the zest from a couple of oranges to the dough before baking. You can smell the orange as it cooks and it adds a nice, subtle citrus flavor to the shortcake.
All the dry ingredients - Bisquick, a couple tablespoons of sugar (I haven't found a way to avoid this yet) and the orange zest.
This is the dough after adding milk and melted butter.
Six shortcakes before baking.
Just out of the oven.
I picked up a half box of strawberries (six baskets) from a local farm yesterday. They don't look as awesome after a day in the fridge, but still pretty decent. I used half of these for the recipe. The rest will go into smoothies.
The recipe on the Bisquick box says to slice them up and add like a cup of sugar. I halved them and added about a half cup of honey and a couple tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. They still give off a lot of juice after a couple of hours in the fridge, with a lot more interesting flavor than if you just use sugar.
These are ready to go but we won't be eating for another hour or so. I'll post some pics later of the final product.
