How to Make a Delicious Strawberry Shortcake in Roughly 10 Minutes

Even if you don’t consider yourself a natural in the kitchen, it doesn’t take much to master a few staples—maybe a basic pasta sauce, a simple buttermilk biscuit, and some fluffy scrambled eggs approved by Dolly Parton herself.

Something sweet for after dinner (or anytime, really) is also a must-have. And what better crowd-pleaser is there than a classic strawberry shortcake? This recipe from Serious Eats’ J. Kenji López-Alt calls for just five ingredients and doesn’t take much longer to create than it does to eat.

As is the case with any layered dish, strawberry shortcake is sort of more than a one recipe: biscuits, whipped cream, and macerated strawberries. To get your strawberries—cut into slices or chunks, based on your preference—good and gooey, you mix them with sugar and let them rest in a bowl while you work on the other two components. López-Alt’s biscuits are nearly as easy: Just combine self-rising flour with cream and a little sugar, stir to lumpy perfection, plop scoops onto a baking sheet, brush a bit of cream over them, and bake.

While they’re baking—which should only take about 12 minutes—you can whip the rest of the cream together with sugar and vanilla extract and then get to assembling your final product. Bottom of the biscuit, then strawberries and whipped cream, top of the biscuit, and more whipped cream. An unbeatable dessert for roughly 10 minutes’ worth of labor.

You can find the full recipe over at Serious Eats, and follow López-Alt on Instagram to see what other delectable dishes he’s been whipping up lately. 

[h/t Serious Eats]