Double Strawberry Shortcakes, Vegan & GF

Strawberries mark the beginning of summer. Strawberry season brings back some of my favorite summery food memories. Strawberry picking, picnics, and most of all shortcakes.

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Strawberries are the worst fruit to pick, but I pick them anyway.

And apparently I scrutinize the plants as I pick.

I make the trek to the farm every year, and hunch over row after row of strawberries until I have at least a whole flat. I’ve been doing this ever since I was a kid. My mom and grandpa took me to a strawberry patch every summer. They picked multiple gallons, and I ate multiple gallons. And then complained about a stomach ache the entire way home.

But peak strawberry eating wasn’t even the trip to the berry patch. It was the shortcakes the next day.

That was the true beginning of summer. Strawberries turned jammy as they sat in the sunshine. The house getting way too hot because we turned on the oven to make shortcakes. That annoying bee that kept swarming our bowls as we ate dessert outside…

And then jumping into the river because I was so hot and so sticky from eating too many strawberries and too much whipped cream.

There were never too many strawberries in strawberry shortcake. I always came back for more strawberries and cream. Which is why I wanted to double the strawberry factor for these shortcakes. Strawberries in and out of the bake. Topped with sweet coconut cream.

I am so excited, summer has arrived.

So step one is find delicious strawberries. I think I appreciate eating strawberries picked by myself the most, but that is obviously not obtainable for everyone. You can often find beautiful strawberries at a farmer’s market sometime in the early summer depending on where you live, but grocery store-picked many days ago-strawberries will do the trick! I do not recommend using frozen strawberries in the bake. It throws off the moisture.

Onto these shortcakes.

I think the perfect shortcake is a cakier, slightly sweet biscuit. The addition of the fresh strawberries makes the batter quite a bit wetter, so I settled on using cornmeal to absorb some of that extra moisture. Corn and strawberries go so well together, plus it adds texture to something that is usually nontextured.

To make the shortcakes, start by making curdled soy milk. I’ve also tried this with almond milk. Let me know if you try another kind of milk! Add 2 tbs of apple cider vinegar to 1 cup of soy milk, stir, and set aside for it to curdle into a buttermilk substitute.

In a large bowl, whisk together 2 cups finely ground almond flour, 1 cup brown rice flour, ½ cup tapioca starch, ½ cup potato starch, ½ cup sorghum flour, ½ cup corn meal, 1 tsp baking soda, 4 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp salt, 4 tbs corn starch, and ½ cup sugar.

Add 8 tbs of vegan butter. I love the Melt brand, but I’ve done this with various Earth Balance editions and with Miyoko’s. I haven’t gotten a bad batch yet! With your fingers, or the paddle attachment for a standing mixer, break up the buttery bits and mix them into the dough until they are pea sized.

Dice one cup of strawberries and set aside. Add the zest of a lemon and 2 tsp vanilla extract to the soy milk. Whisk together until thoroughly combined. Add the soy milk and strawberries into the dry ingredients and mix until a dough forms. Depending on what brand of flours you are using and how wet your strawberries are, you might find that the dough is too thin to form shortcakes. If this happens, add some more brown rice flour until your dough is thick enough to hold its shape.

Dump out dough onto a floured work surface and flatten lightly with your fingers until the dough is about ¾ in thick. Using either a large biscuit cutter or a bench knife, cut your dough into 12 equal sized shortcakes. Place cut shortcakes on a lined baking tray and bake at 400 for 25 minutes.

Let the shortcakes cool before cutting into them. Enjoy with coconut whip and fresh strawberries. Mmm, summer is here!