Gluten-Free Strawberry Shortcake

This Gluten-Free Strawberry Shortcake recipe is superb! With just the right amount of sweetness, these shortcakes let the bright flavor of the strawberries shine. Finish with a dollop of homemade whipped cream and you have the perfect springtime dessert.

These GF Shortcakes are so much better than store-bought, both in flavor and texture, and are surprisingly easy to make. Plus, you control the amount of sugar in them so you can always adjust the amount to your liking. 

Choosing a Gluten-Free flour

For this batch of Gluten-Free Strawberry Shortcakes, I used King Arthur Measure for Measure Gluten Free Flour. It has a nice balance of starches, including sorghum flour, which gives it the shortcakes a great texture and a touch of natural sweetness. Shortcakes fall somewhere in between a scone and a biscuit, and they are perfect for soaking up all the juicy goodness of the strawberries or other macerated fruit. If you have a favorite flour that you use for baked goods, it will probably work well for these shortcakes.

The trick with making shortcakes is to not overwork the dough. When you mix the wet and dry together, do so until the mixture just holds together. Overworking or handling the dough too much will result in tough, dense shortcakes. 

My daughter actually made the batch of shortcakes pictured in this recipe and they turned out beautifully! Here is how to make them:

How to make your GF Shortcakes

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F. 
2. Cut 4 Tablespoons of unsalted butter into small pieces and place back in the refrigerator until ready to mix the batter. Cold butter is essential for the shortcakes.
3. Measure and stir dry ingredients into a mixing bowl: 1 cup Gluten-Free Flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar. 
4. Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut the cold butter into the flour mixture until it forms pea-sized pieces. 
5. Whisk 2 Tablespoons of sour cream into ½ cup Half and Half (or milk) and pour into the dry mixture. Mix gently with a spoon until the flour mixture is incorporated. Do not overwork the dough. If there is a little of the flour left in the bowl, that is ok.
6. Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface, such as a parchment lined countertop, and knead gently to incorporate any last bits of flour.
7. Divide the dough into 8 sections and shape into rounds.
8. Place rounds on a parchment lined baking sheet.
9. Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden. I find that gluten-free baked goods dry out much more quickly than those made with wheat, so don’t be afraid to pull them at 8 minutes and check for doneness. A knife inserted will come out clean when they are ready.
10. Once cooled, slice the shortcakes in half before filling them.
11. Meanwhile, wash, slice, and macerate the strawberries by sprinkling them with 2 teaspoons of granulated sugar. Let them sit until ready to serve. The retired science teacher in me can’t help but point out the beauty of osmosis at work here. Yay, science! If you’ve never tried raspberries or blackberries in place of strawberries in Strawberry Shortcake, they are lovely substitutions, especially if you wait until the berries are in season locally.
12. Combine the ingredients for the whipped cream in a clean mixing bowl. Whisk or use an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Another fun way to make whipped cream when cooking with kids is to pour the ingredients into a jar, tightly close the lid and let them shake it up!
13. Remove your beautiful, slightly golden shortcakes from the oven and allow them to cool on a wire rack. No wire rack? No problem. Just remove them from the hot pan so they don’t continue to cook from its residual heat. You can place them on a plate.
14. Slice and layer with strawberries and a dollop of homemade whipped cream. Yum!

Colleen