This roasted peach shortcake has brown butter cream biscuits sandwiched with homemade whipped cream, bourbon roasted peaches, and fresh thyme for a light, summery dessert!
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Why You'll Love These Peach Shortcakes!
There is nothing better than homemade strawberry shortcake in the summer! This bourbon roasted peach shortcake is my take on the southern classic! Roasting the peaches with bourbon and brown sugar brings out their sweetness and adds a rich, caramelly depth of flavor.
The best thing about roasting peaches, is that it's a good way to use up peaches that are either over-ripe or under-ripe!
The roasted peaches are the star of this shortcake, but you can also use them as a topping for vanilla ice cream or yogurt, pancakes or french toast, etc. The options are endless!
You might also like this strawberry shortcake layer cake or this bourbon peach pie!
Ingredient Notes
You just need a few simple ingredients to make these peach shortcakes!
Peaches - You want to use fresh peaches for this recipe for the best flavor! Since we're roasting the peaches, you could technically use frozen ones but I don't recommend it.
Bourbon - This is optional but I just love the extra flavor that bourbon adds to the spiced peaches!
Fresh Thyme - I love fresh thyme and peaches together, but you could also use fresh mint or basil! Or just leave out the herbs all together.
Brown Butter - My favorite ingredient of all time is brown butter!! Brown butter is just unsalted butter that has been melted and gently cooked to bring out a toasty, nutty flavor. If you've never made brown butter before, you can check out this post with all my tips for how to make brown butter! But if you're trying to keep things simple, you can just use regular unsalted butter in the biscuits.
Pastry Flour - I always use pastry flour or cake flour when making biscuits so that they have a super light, tender texture. However, all purpose flour will work great if that's all you have!
Heavy Cream - Using heavy cream instead of milk, yields biscuits that are super light and tender!
Whipped Cream - I use my basic homemade whipped cream recipe for this peach shortcake because it's not too sweet and mellows out the tangy peaches.
The complete list of ingredients and amounts is located in the recipe card below.
How to Make Roasted Peaches
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Add the sliced peaches, brown sugar, cinnamon, bourbon, and fresh thyme to a baking dish and toss gently to combine.
Roast for 15 minutes, then stir and roast for another 10-15 minutes until the peaches are soft and syrupy.
Remove from the oven and let cool.
Store the roasted peaches in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week!
How to Make Brown Butter Biscuits
You can also check out my post about making biscuits from scratch for more tips!
In a small bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients. Then use your hands to press the cold brown butter into the flour until it's fully incorporated but you still have pretty large chunks (about quarter sized).
Slowly drizzle the cream over top, combining as you go. Knead a few times in the bowl until you have a very dry, shaggy dough.
Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and press into a 1 inch thick rectangle. Then cut into four even squares, stack, and press out into a 1 inch thick rectangle again. This helps give you super flaky biscuits with lots of layers!
Cut into 4-5 even 2 ½ inch circles, then reshape the remaining dough and cut out 1-2 more. You should be able to get 6 biscuits.
Transfer the biscuits to a baking sheet and place in the freezer for 10-15 minutes before baking.
Remove the biscuits from the freezer and brush tops with melted butter and lightly sprinkle with turbinado sugar if desired.
Bake biscuits at 400°F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown on top.
Remove from the oven and let cool.
While the biscuits and peaches are cooling, make the whipped cream.
Add the heavy cream to a large bowl with the powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Beat on high with a hand mixer until thickened and medium peaks form.
Assemble Peach Shortcake
I love my strawberry shortcake with warm biscuits and warm peaches so the whipped cream gets all melty and delicious. But you can also wait for everything to fully cool!
Simply slice the biscuits in half and layer with bourbon roasted peaches, whipped cream, and a sprinkle of fresh thyme.
Once assembled, the roasted peach shortcake is best when eaten immediately. However, you can store the biscuits at room temperature and the peaches and whipped cream in the fridge, for up to 3 days.
Tips for Flaky Pastries
Use cold ingredients! For most baked goods you want to use room temperature ingredients, but for flaky pastries (like scones, biscuits, or pie crust) the ingredients need to be very cold! Keep any butter, eggs, milk, etc. in the fridge until right before you need to use them!
Chill before baking! Chilling the dough for at least 15-20 minutes before baking helps ensure the butter in the dough is nice and cold and helps the pastries hold their shape. Cold dough + hot oven = perfect flaky pastry!
Don't overwork the dough! You want to mix the ingredients until just combined so that there are still distinct pieces of butter in the dough. This is what gives you those buttery, flaky, air pockets!
Measure your flour correctly! It's most accurate to use a kitchen scale, but if you're measuring by volume you want to spoon and level! Fluff up the flour a bit with a spoon, and then spoon flour into the measuring cup. Once it's overflowing, use the back of a knife to level it off. Don't ever pack flour into the measuring cup or you'll end up with way too much! Improperly measured flour can lead to dry, dense baked goods. [Measure cocoa powder the same way!]
Make sure you baking powder is fresh! Baking powder is important for helping certain baked goods rise properly, but it has a relatively short shelf life once opened, so it's one of the few items I never buy in bulk! To test if your baking powder is still fresh, add a small amount to boiling water. If it bubbles it's still good to use, but if not it's time to toss it!
Use an oven thermometer! Just because your oven says it's 350, doesn't mean it is! If you oven hasn't been calibrated recently, it can be as much as 30 degrees off, which will negatively affect all baked goods from cakes to macarons! An oven thermometer is the easiest/cheapest way to ensure your oven is always at the proper temperature. Some ovens also take longer than the standard "preheat" time to actually come up to the proper temperature.
Tips for Success!
For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!
Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.
A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.
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Recipe Card
Roasted Peach Shortcake with Brown Butter Biscuits
Special Equipment
Ingredients
Roasted Peaches
- 3 cups fresh peaches , sliced (about 4 large peaches)
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon bourbon
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, optional
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, optional
Brown Butter Biscuits
- 2 cups pastry flour, substitute all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup unsalted brown butter, cold and cut into chunks
- ½ cup heavy cream, cold
- turbinado sugar, optional for topping
Whipped Cream
- 1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream, cold
- ¼ cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Roasted Peaches
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Add the sliced peaches, brown sugar, cinnamon, bourbon, and fresh thyme to a baking dish and toss gently to combine.
- Roast for 15 minutes, then stir and roast for another 10-15 minutes until the peaches are soft and syrupy.
- Remove from the oven and let cool.
- Store the roasted peaches in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week!
Brown Butter Biscuits
- You can also check out my post about making biscuits from scratch for more tips!
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Then use your hands to press the cold brown butter into the flour until it's fully incorporated but you still have pretty large chunks (about quarter sized).
- Slowly drizzle the cream over top, combining as you go. Knead a few times in the bowl until you have a very dry, shaggy dough.
- Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and press into a 1 inch thick rectangle. Then cut into four even squares, stack, and press out into a 1 inch thick rectangle again. This helps give you super flaky biscuits with lots of layers!
- Cut into 4-5 even 2 ½ inch circles, then reshape the remaining dough and cut out 1-2 more. You should be able to get 6 biscuits.
- Transfer the biscuits to a baking sheet and place in the freezer for 10-15 minutes before baking.
- Remove the biscuits from the freezer and brush tops with melted butter and lightly sprinkle with turbinado sugar if desired.
- Bake biscuits at 400°F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown on top.
- Remove from the oven and let cool.
Whipped Cream
- While the biscuits and peaches are cooling, make the whipped cream.
- Add the heavy cream to a large bowl with the powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Beat on high with a hand mixer until thickened and medium peaks form.
- Simply slice the biscuits in half and layer with roasted peaches, whipped cream, and fresh thyme.
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
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