Oh Strawberry Shortcake I Love You!

The blog entries I have photos ready for are beginning to stack up. I am at seven meals I still need to blog about. Alas, such is life during a college student's midterms. Anyway tonight I made a completely vegan strawberry shortcake topped with coconut milk whip cream. This was inspired by the lovely strawberries pictured above.


I started by slicing up a pound of washed strawberries. I then added a tablespoon of lemon juice and a table spoon of brown rice syrup. You could add honey or sugar instead if you want. This gives them a sweetness and a glaze. Then set them aside.









Next I made my coconut whip cream. Here is what you will need:









1 can of full fat coconut milk (this is the can that has the thick layer on top)
1/4 c. to 1/3 c. of powdered sugar (I made my own using the recipe from the cupcake blog only I used a finer cane sugar)
3 tbsp Tapioca or coconut flour
1/2 tbsp of vanilla extract
1/2 tbsp of almond extract

ok so here are the steps:
1. Chill the coconut milk in an airtight container for at least 24 hours. It came to about 1 1/4 c. of the coconut fat and 1/4 c. of the milk.
2. With a mixer mix the coconut milk until it is thick and fluffy (too much milk and not enough fat wont work for this)
3. 1 tbsp at a time of the powdered sugar and the tapioca flour.
This is done to taste and to the desired consistency for your whip cream.
4. Add the vanilla and almond extracts
5. Once the consistency you want, put in an airtight container and refrigerator.

Ok so this is a pretty easy recipe and sort of a hard at the same time. It comes from Carol Fenster's 1000 Gluten Free Recipes

Grease a cookie sheet or muffin pan (I used spectrum shortening) or use parchment paper, then dust with rice flour. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees making sure the rack is in the middle of the oven.

So here are the ingredients:
3/4 c. Carol's Sorghum Blend(see cupcake blog)
3/4 c. Potato starch
1/2 c. Sugar (or organic cane juice) plus 1tbsp for sprinkling
1tbsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Xanthum gum
1 tsp Guar gum
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 c. Earth balance butter
1 c. Buttermilk (see cupcake blog for dairy free recipe)
1 tsp Vanilla extract
White rice flour for dusting and rolling
(recipe calls for milk to brush the tops... I skipped that)

Ok so here's what you do... and what I learned:
1. In a food processor combine flour, starch, gums, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Pulse it.
2. Add in the butter and the buttermilk and the vanilla then blend until dough forms a ball. Scrape the sides if necessary.
3. The dough is going to be soft.
4. Ok from here you have a couple options. I think the one I didn't choose would be the easiest... this would be the muffin pan. The dough is soft and can be hard to work with. However here is how I did it the other way.

I dusted a clean counter space with rice flour, I spooned the dough onto the counter, then patted the dough with more rice flour. Making sure dough is a 1 inch thickness. I used a 2 inch metal ramekin cup dipped in rice flour. I pushed it straight down with out twisting and put the circle on my greased and floured cookie sheet. I continued this until I had to re-roll the dough. This made about 16 cakes. If you have the larger circle cutters, you could certainly use those and make them bigger. I kind of liked the smaller size.


I sprinkled the tops with the left over sugar and baked for 15 minutes.

Let them cool for 5 minute or so. To assemble the finished project slice the short cake in half. Add a spoonful of strawberries, then a dollop of the whip cream, then the top of the shortcake, then another dollop of whip cream.













So there you have it. It tasted pretty good. The shortcake had a good consistency. The whip cream turned out light and fluffy and the strawberries were beautiful. Hopefully it comes across in the picture, my camera battery died as I was taking pics. Hopefully I can get the other blogs posted soon. Have a good night. I need some quirky sign off... not very inspired.