Gluten Free Strawberry Shortcake
This easy recipe for the most amazing gluten free strawberry shortcake is bound to make your summer infinitely more delicious. It’s really the ultimate combination of flaky, buttery gluten free buttermilk biscuits, juicy strawberries and luscious whipped cream. And it’s super easy to make, plus you couldn’t possibly guess that it’s gluten free!
Servings 12
Ingredients
For macerated strawberries & strawberry syrup:
- 320 g (about 2 ½ cups) strawberries, halved (for smaller strawberries) or quartered (for larger strawberries)
- 50 g (¼ cup) granulated or caster/superfine sugar
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp vanilla bean paste (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
For gluten free buttermilk biscuits:
- 360 g (3 cups) plain gluten free flour blend (I used Doves Farm Freee plain gluten free flour, which doesn't contain xanthan gum. You can also mix your own blend from 50% white rice flour, 30% potato starch and 20% maize flour by weight. **Note that maize flour in the UK is equivalent to corn flour in the US.**)
- 1 ½ tsp xanthan gum (Reduce to ¾ tsp if your gluten free flour already contains xanthan gum.)
- 1 tbsp granulated or caster/superfine sugar, plus 1 tbsp extra for sprinkling on top of the biscuits
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 170 g (1 ½ sticks) frozen unsalted butter, grated
- 260 g (1 cup + 1 ½ tbsp) cold buttermilk, plus 1 tbsp extra for glazing the biscuits
For whipped cream:
- 230 g (1 cup) cold heavy/double cream
- 30 g (3 tbsp) powdered/icing sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla bean paste (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
Instructions
For macerated strawberries:
- In a large bowl, combine the halved and quartered strawberries, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla. Mix well until the strawberries are evenly coated with the sugar.
- Cover and allow to sit either at room temperature for 1-2 hours or in the fridge overnight, stirring occasionally.
For gluten free buttermilk biscuits:
- Adjust the oven rack to the upper middle position, pre-heat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC) and line a baking sheet with baking/greaseproof paper.
- Whisk together the gluten free flour blend, xanthan gum, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt until evenly combined.
- Add the grated frozen butter and use a fork to toss the butter together with the dry ingredients – you want all the butter pieces to be coated in a layer of flour. If there are any larger clumps of butter, break them up.
- Add the cold buttermilk and use the fork to mix it into the dry ingredients – you want both the dry and the wet ingredients as evenly distributed as possible, so that most of the flour is hydrated by the buttermilk.
- Once the dough starts clumping together, give it a quick knead by hand until it only just comes together in a ball (it’s OK if it’s a bit crumbly or slightly dry in places, so long as it’s not completely crumbling and falling apart).
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and pat it all together into a disc.
- Roll it out gently to a thickness of about ¾-1 inch (2-2.5cm). Try to keep the dough as square as possible – use a bench scraper to straighten out the sides.
- Use the bench scraper (or a knife) to cut the dough into 4 approximately equal pieces. Stack the pieces on top of each other, then pat down the stack and roll it out until it’s again about about ¾-1 inch (2-2.5cm) thick. You don’t need to worry about keeping it square or rectangular, as you’ll use a round cookie cutter to cut out the biscuits.Tip: This laminating step helps to create even more layers and flakiness in the biscuits – much like you would laminate puff pastry or croissants through a series of folds.
- Use a round cookie cutter, about 2 ½ inch (6.5cm) in diameter to cut out the biscuits. Dip the cookie cutter into flour between cutting to prevent the biscuits from getting stuck. Re-roll or flatten any scraps to make more biscuits, this recipe makes a total of 10-12 biscuits, depending on how thick you roll the dough.Tip: Don’t twist the cookie cutter while cutting – make sure to just press it straight down. Twisting will squash together and disrupt the layers in the dough, which can interfere with how the biscuits rise in the oven.
- Place the biscuits onto a lined baking sheet, cover with cling film and freeze for 15-20 minutes.Tip: The freezing helps to achieve the maximum rise and flakiness by firming up the butter in the dough.
- Once chilled, arrange the biscuits on the baking sheet so that they lightly touch each other (this will help them rise higher).
- Brush the tops of the biscuits with extra buttermilk and sprinkle them with some granulated sugar.
- Bake at 375ºF (190ºC) for about 20-24 minutes on the upper middle oven rack, until they’re well risen and golden brown on top. If your oven bakes unevenly, you can rotate the baking sheet after about 15 minutes.Tip: The oven temperature of 375ºF (190ºC) gives the best rise and flake, and the softest biscuits. Baking them on the upper middle rack prevents the bottoms of the biscuits from browning too much, while also giving nice golden brown tops.
- Allow to cool on the baking sheet until warm or completely cool before assembling the strawberry shortcake.
For strawberry syrup:
- Once the strawberries have released their juices, pass them through a sieve to drain the juices, then return the strawberries back into the bowl and set aside until needed.
- Pour the juices into a saucepan and cook over medium-high heat with frequent stirring until thickened and syrupy, but not quite jam-like. This should take about 5 minutes. Once thickened, set aside to cool.Tip: I always like to err on the side of over-reducing (rather than under-reducing) the juices, as it’s easy to dilute them to the right consistency with a splash of water or lemon juice. A too runny, under-reduced syrup, on the other hand, will be rather messy and can make the biscuits too soggy.
For whipped cream:
- In a large bowl, combine the cold heavy/double cream with powdered/icing sugar and the vanilla. Whisk them together until soft peaks form. You can do this by hand using a large balloon whisk, or using a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or a hand mixer fitted with the double beaters. If using a stand/hand mixer, whisk on the low/medium-low speed setting, this will ensure that you don't over-whip the cream.Tip: Using COLD cream is very important, as it whips up faster, to a greater volume and it’s more stable.
Assembling the strawberry shortcake:
- Slice or cut the biscuits in half, then fill with the macerated strawberries and whipped cream. As a finishing touch, drizzle generously with the strawberry syrup. Serve immediately.