Preheat the oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, kosher salt and sugar.

Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry knife or by rubbing the butter into the flour using your hands. Do this until the mixture holds its shape when you squeeze.

Mix in the lemon zest until evenly distributed.

Slowly add the milk to the mixture and toss with a fork. Continue to add milk until the mixture just comes together in a cohesive ball. It's not the end of the world if you accidentally add a tiny bit of extra milk. The dough should be light, not sticky, and not crumbly.

Divide dough into four equal portions, or pat into one larger circle. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for an hour.

Press each piece of dough into a circle approximately 3/4 inch thick. Brush with heavy cream and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.

Bake shortcakes on your prepared baking sheet for approximately 15 minutes or until the bottoms are golden and the tops are just beginning to brown. While your shortcakes cook, make your strawberry topping and whipped cream.

Wash, dry, and hull the strawberries. I use the pointy end of a vegetable peeler to do this as efficiently as possible with minimal waste. Quarter the berries and smash half of them in a bowl using a fork or whatever device you find easiest. They don’t have to be perfectly mashed, we just want to get the process going!

Add the un-mashed berries to the bowl, sprinkle with sugar and lemon juice and stir.

Chill your whisk and bowl. Or save your arms and use a stand mixer instead.

Pour whipping cream into your chilled bowl and sift powdered sugar directly over the whipping cream.

Add the lemon zest. You can taste it at this point to see if you would like to add more zest.

Whisk briskly to combine. If whisking in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, it is best to whip on medium-low speed. This will give you a dense, rich whipped cream that is akin to having whipped it by hand.

Whisk vigorously until soft peaks form, about 5 minutes. Continue whisking if you want stiff peaks or if you want to pipe the whipped cream.

Strain the excess juice from the berries and reserve the juice.

As you can see in my pictures I like to place one shortcake on the bottom, top it with strawberries and whipped cream and then repeat the process with another shortcake. I actually cut each shortcake in half and made 4 small portions. Drizzle with the reserved strawberry lemon juice.