I don’t know about you, but for me, strawberry shortcake is the quintessential dessert of summer. The days are long and often quite hot, the strawberries sweet and juicy. They practically demand to be macerated, spooned between a biscuit and served with a very generous dollop of whipped cream or ice cream.
Did you catch that word in there? Macerate. To “soften or become softened by soaking in a liquid”. In case you misunderstood ;-). Strawberries in particular, are best macerated overnight, but you can just do an hour and they will still be wonderful. It’s wicked simple to do and will elevate your shortcake game to the next level, for real.
The strawberries, though, are only half the shortcake. There are many schools of thought on what makes proper shortcake. Some people insist on baking powder biscuits, others use pound cake or angel food cake, and I’ve even seen cornbread used. Well, I’m not the shortcake police here so I won’t argue which is the real version. I am the lazy police and therefore, my only concern is that my perfect shortcake is the fastest, easiest, tastiest version out there. And they are. Â They take less than 5 minutes to stir up in a bowl, 10 minutes to bake, and that’s it. AND AND AND, there are recipes for both a vanilla version and chocolate version. You’re welcome!
Are you ready for some strawberry shortcake?!
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Prep Time | 10 minutes |
Cook Time | 10 minutes |
Servings |
servings
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- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar (plus more for sprinkling on top)
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted [Nutiva Organic, Neutral Tasting, Steam Refined Coconut Oil from non-GMO, Sustainably Farmed Coconuts, 54 Fluid Ounces]
- 1/3 cup plain non-dairy milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 cups hulled and sliced strawberries
- 1/4 cup sugar
Ingredients
Basic Quick Shortcake Biscuit (see notes of chocolate variation)
Macerated Strawberries
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- Wash and hull the strawberries. Slice them and add to a large bowl. Add sugar and mash them lightly with the bottom of a cup or with a fork, letting their juices release. Refrigerate until ready to use. The longer they can macerate, the better, but 30min-1 hour is fine too).
- Preheat oven to 450F.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
- Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the oil, non-dairy milk and vanilla extract.
- Mix it all together until well combined and dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
- Section out into 4 pieces, form into a biscuit (patty) shape and place on an UNGREASED baking sheet.
- Sprinkle tops lightly with additional sugar.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until bottoms are just lightly browned. (Be sure to check after 9 minutes ---> the bottoms can burn fast!)
- Take out of oven and let cool.
- Slice biscuits in 1/2 carefully. Place bottom half on a plate, spoon 1/4 of the strawberries onto the biscuit. Top strawberries with whipped cream or ice cream and then put the top biscuit on. Garnish with additional cream and strawberries if desired.
(*) You can use any type of vegetable oil here, but I find coconut oil to give the best result. I use refined coconut oil so it doesn't have that coconut flavor and is just a nice mellow oil. If you use olive oil or any strong flavor oil, expect it to show in the final product.
Chocolate Quick Biscuit Variation:
Use 4 tablespoons sugar and add 2 tablespoons cocoa powder to the dry mix. Increase the milk to 1/2 cup. Follow instructions as normal.