Apple Shortcake

It's September, and that means something very exciting: apples!!! When I dreamed up this Apple Shortcake I got to work on it immediately! And, of course, I drenched it in salted caramel sauce, too.

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This Apple Shortcake has cornmeal buttermilk biscuits topped with caramel baked apples, cinnamon-cardamom whipped cream, and homemade salted caramel sauce! This unique dessert is so cozy and delicious!

If you enjoy this recipe, check out the posts for my Blackberry and Apple Crumble, Caramel Apple Angel Food Cake, and Apple Crisp Macchiato Bars!

Ingredients

The ingredient list looks long when the recipe has four separate components! Rest assured, all the ingredients are easy to find, and you may have many of them in your pantry already. The ingredient amounts and instructions can be found in the recipe card below!

Salted Caramel Sauce Ingredients

• Sugar - For sweetness, and the main flavor once it caramelizes.
• Unsalted Butter - For flavor, richness, and to help make the caramel pourable. Unsalted so that you know how much salt you're adding to the recipe.
• Heavy (Whipping) Cream - For moisture and richness. Helps to make the caramel pourable.
• Fleur de Sel - The salt in the salted caramel! You can change the amount to your taste. I use fleur de sel, but any flaky sea salt will do.

Biscuit Ingredients

• Flour - Provides structure for the biscuits. I used all-purpose flour.
• Cornmeal - Lends flavor and a light texture to the biscuits. Using fine cornmeal will keep your biscuits from being gritty.
• Sugar - For sweetness and keeping the biscuits moist.
• Baking Powder & Baking Soda - For leavening.
• Salt - To enhance and balance the flavors of the biscuits.
• Unsalted Butter - For moisture, richness, and a flaky texture. Unsalted so that you control the amount of salt in the recipe.
• Buttermilk - I do suggest that you use the buttermilk listed in the recipe for the most tender biscuits! That said,  you can make a quick substitution with milk and vinegar or lemon juice if you don’t have it on-hand (more info in the recipe notes!).  
• Honey - For sweetness and moisture.

Baked Caramel Apples Ingredients

• Apples - I used a mix of gala and granny smith apples, but you can use whatever kind of apples you prefer! I peeled mine, but you can skip that step if you prefer.
• Lemon Juice - Adds moisture and a bit of tartness to the apples. Also helps to keep the apples from browning, but that's not a large concern since you're baking them anyway.
• Sugar - For sweetness.
• Flour - To help thicken the juices released from the apples as they bake.
• Ground Cinnamon - For flavor.
• Salt - To balance and enhance the flavors of the apples.
• Salted Caramel Sauce (from above) - For flavor.

Whipped Cream Ingredients

• Heavy (Whipping) Cream - Can't make whipped cream without it! 😀
• Powdered Sugar - For sweetness. I prefer using powdered sugar because it dissolves so well, and because the small amount of cornstarch in powdered sugar helps the whipped cream to hold its shape for longer
• Ground Cinnamon & Cardamom - For flavor.

Instructions

Just a few simple steps and you're on your way to delicious Caramel Apple Shortcake! This will give you the gist, but for complete instructions, check out the recipe card below!

Making Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce

This recipe uses the dry method, which is my favorite way to make caramel. You just pour sugar into a saucepan and keep on whisking as the sugar melts. It will clump and you'll think you're doing it all wrong. You're not, I promise!

• Pour sugar into a saucepan over medium-high heat. Whisk, and keep whisking, as sugar melts.
• Once sugar is melted, stop whisking and let sugar cook until it is deep amber in color. *Carefully* add butter (mixture will bubble!) and whisk to incorporate.
• Remove mixture from the heat. Add cream (carefully!) and whisk until smooth. Add salt and stir to incorporate.

Hint: PLEASE take extra care when making caramel! The additions of both the butter and the cream will cause the mixture to bubble and splatter, and hot caramel can burn you badly!

Making Cornmeal Buttermilk Biscuits

These biscuits have a slight sweetness to them, but they're definitely not dessert on their own (in fact, I'm dreaming of breakfast sandwiches made with them right now...). If you'd prefer to make the biscuits a little sweeter, you can increase the amount of sugar listed in the recipe.

• Combine the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
• Add cold, diced butter and cut into the dry ingredients using a pastry blender or fork.
• Add buttermilk and honey and gently stir to combine until a soft, sticky dough forms.
• Turn dough out onto a floured surface and pat the dough into a circle.
• Cut biscuits using a round cutter (I used a 2¾" biscuit cutter). You can gather the scraps and gently press them together to cut additional biscuits.
• Place the biscuits on the prepared pan and bake until golden.

Tip: Be sure to just press down with the cutter and not twist, as the twisting motion may seal the edges and keep your biscuits from rising! Since the dough is sticky, I found it helpful to dip the cutter in flour before each cut.

Making Caramel Baked Apples

If you haven't tossed apples in salted caramel sauce, is it even Fall??

• Peel apples (if you prefer) and slice into ¼" thick slices and place in a baking dish.
• Drizzle the lemon juice over the apples and toss to coat. Add the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt, and stir until apples are coated.
• Pour salted caramel sauce over the apples and stir to coat. Bake apples until tender.

Making Cinnamon-Cardamom Whipped Cream

If you're not a fan of cardamom, you can just omit it from the recipe. If you haven't tried it, give it a chance! People will be asking you what you did to achieve that wonderful flavor!

• Combine all whipped cream ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Start the mixer on low speed, and gradually increase the speed to high. Whip until the cream thickens and forms peaks.

Assembling the Shortcakes

It's finally time! I really enjoyed building each one, and my kids enjoyed that they could help!

• Wait until you're planning to serve the shortcakes to assemble them. Split the biscuits and top each with the baked apples. This can be served room temperature or warmed (and they're sooo good warmed)!
• Top the apples with the whipped cream, then the top halves of the biscuits. Drizzle (er...drench?) in salted caramel sauce.

Substitutions

Instead of Buttermilk - If you don't have buttermilk, put ¾ teaspoon vinegar OR lemon juice into a liquid measuring cup, then add enough milk (I find that 2% milkfat or greater works best) to come up to the ¾ cup line. Let sit for 5 minutes, then it's ready for use!

Instead of Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce - This isn't so much a substitution as open permission to BUY caramel sauce instead of making it. Yes, I love to make everything from scratch...but I also realize that time is limited and that *just maybe* you don't want to spend all day in the kitchen like I do.

Instead of Cinnamon-Cardamom Whipped Cream - These shortcakes are fantastic with ice cream in place of whipped cream, too! Good ol' vanilla is delicious, but you could also use cinnamon or caramel ice cream!

Equipment

I use a few pieces of hardware to make the process quicker and easier:

• Pastry Blender - While not strictly necessary to cut in the butter, it does make the job faster and easier!

• Biscuit Cutter - I used a 2.75″ biscuit cutter for this recipe. You can use whatever size/shape cutter that you prefer, just keep in mind that larger biscuits will take longer to bake, and smaller ones will bake more quickly than indicated in the recipe!

• Nonstick Parchment - I use pre-cut nonstick parchment to line my pans because they're convenient and because this dough is a bit sticky. A silpat would also work nicely.

Storage

These shortcakes shouldn't be assembled until you're going to serve them, or they'll get soggy! The whipped cream is also best made when you're going to serve it.

The salted caramel sauce can be stored in the refrigerator up to three weeks, or frozen for up to three months.

The biscuit dough can be made, cut, covered, and stored in the refrigerator the day before you want to bake them. Once baked, they're best within a day or two. For longer term storage, cool the biscuits completely, wrap well, and freeze for up to three months.

The baked caramel apples can be made and stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.

Top Tip

We preferred ours with the biscuits and apples warmed for a nice contrast with the cold whipped cream. Not to mention how coooozy warm apples and caramel are! This would also be fabulous with a scoop of vanilla (or cinnamon! or caramel!) ice cream instead of the whipped cream!

FAQ

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