Again we received bounty from friends this past week, including strawberries and raspberries, the first of which I used in simple and delicious gluten-free strawberry shortcakes. I adapted a recipe from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook — bless it for having all flour measurements in weight as well as cups, thus making my conversion “job” that much easier — swapping oat and tapioca flours for the all-purpose flour. These are meant to be very lightly sweetened anyway, so a little bit of maple syrup was all they needed to give a hint of sweetness.
This recipe would be easy to make dairy-free; you could use your favorite non-dairy butter or the equivalent amount of coconut oil (make sure to put it in the fridge first so it’s cold). Coconut milk and vinegar would make a worthy buttermilk substitute. And you could skim the cream off of your can of coconut milk and turn that into coconut whipped cream.
Summer feels like it’s really sunk in here, with some very hot days recently and in the immediate forecast. So we’re enjoying all its gorgeous produce for as long as we can.
Til next time — N xx
Gluten-Free Strawberry Shortcakes
Ingredients
- 2 cups/210 g gluten-free oat flour
- ½ cup/70 g tapioca flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp fine grain sea salt
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 5 tbsp cold unsalted butter
- ⅔ cup cup buttermilk
- 1 cup heavy cream, whipped
- 3 cups sliced strawberries or fruit of choice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a baking mat.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut in the butter with a fork until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Drizzle in the maple syrup then slowly pour in the buttermilk, using just enough to hold the dough together. Turn out onto a piece of parchment lightly floured with oat flour and knead the dough together for about a minute.
- Roll and pat the dough into a small rectangle about 1/3-inch thick. Cut out eight 2-inch rounds (I used a small glass) and place on the prepared baking sheet. Place in the oven and bake for about 15-20 minutes, checking at 15 minutes to see if they are lightly golden. Check the bottoms to make sure they are not getting too dark; if so, remove from oven.
- Remove cakes from oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely. When ready to serve, split the cakes in half and fill with the cream and berries. Shortcakes are best served the day they are made.