Making gluten free Strawberry Shortcake with a small tweak to your tried-and-true biscuit recipe is the secret every cook wants to know. For shortcake, the biscuit shouldn’t be too sweet, so the juicy strawberry filling is the star of this spring and summer dessert.
Savvy cooks learn to make as many variations as possible with the gluten free recipes they've mastered. The original recipe is for cheese biscuits but I make variations all the time. See my ideas below and let me know what your favourites are.
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🍓 Ingredients
Master the biscuit recipe then use it for all the variations you can think of. This dessert takes advantage of strawberries when they're in season but you can vary the filling too.
- EGFG gluten free flour blend (sweet rice flour, potato starch, sorghum flour, millet flour) - This is my everyday blend.
- Baking powder & baking soda - Using 2 leaveners helps lighten up gluten free baked goods.
- Psyllium husks - A binder that is necessary for structure, just buy it! Learn more about this ingredient in my post on binders for gluten free cooks.
- Butter - A must for the best biscuits.
- Plain yogurt - I use 6% Greek yogurt, fat is flavour so don't go low fat.
- Lemon juice - Balances all the flavours.
- Strawberries & whipping cream - Fresh berries and real cream, whipped in your kitchen, are a must.
See recipe card for exact amounts.
🧑🏻🍳 Substitutions
EGFG gluten free flour blend - If for any reason you can't use my everyday blend, work at finding a substitute. It takes trial and error but once you have a reliable blend, that works in most of your baking, it's a game changer. Just don't try and make it work in every recipe.
What I call everyday baking is recipes like muffins, pancakes, waffles, cinnamon rolls, pastry and even Yorkshire pudding. I don't recommend this everyday blend for recipes like pizza dough, pasta and yeast breads.
Variations for Strawberry Shortcake
Strawberry Shortcake is a classic dessert that can be varied to match fruit that's in season. Here are three classic filling combinations.
- Mixed berry shortcake with any combination of raspberries, blueberries, strawberries or berries that grow in your area.
- Strawberry-Rhubarb filling in early spring.
- Peaches and blueberries in late summer.
Endless Variations for Biscuits
Once you've mastered this biscuit recipe with small tweaks you can use it for sweet and savoury recipes like these.
- Plain or cheese biscuits with all the combinations you see in places you can't find a gluten free version. Bacon/cheddar, spinach/feta, pesto/cheddar, raspberry/white chocolate, blueberry/lemon and on and on.
- Mini appetizer biscuits or larger triangles halved and topped. Try cream cheese & chopped peppers (red & green for Christmas) or cream cheese with smoked salmon and fresh dill.
- These biscuit-style cinnamon rolls.
- Instead of pastry try chicken pot pie with a biscuit topping.
- The base for a biscuit pizza.
Storage
Biscuits are best the day they're made and there's no way around that. The second best biscuit is the one you made yesterday, stored in an airtight container. I freeze cooked biscuits for my own consumption, but always enjoy one or two the day I make them.
🛒 Top Tip
Buy the psyllium! It took me a long time to decide to add psyllium husks to my pantry. It's easy to find, inexpensive and it is an effective binder for yeast breads but also recipes like this biscuit. Buy it today, you'll never look back.
Gluten Free Strawberry Shortcake
Ingredients
BISCUITS
- 2 cups EGFG gluten free flour blend* (265 g)
- 2 tablespoon sugar
- 4 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1½ teaspoon psyllium husks
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoon butter , chilled and cubed
- ¾ cup plain yogurt (I use 6% Greek yogurt)
- 1 egg lightly beaten
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoon lemon juice
FINISHING
- 1 tablespoon coarse sugar or 1 brown sugar cube, crushed
STRAWBERRY FILLING
- 6 cups strawberries , sliced or quartered (divided)
- 6 tablespoon sugar divided
WHIPPED CREAM TOPPING
- 1 cup whipping cream chilled
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
STRAWBERRY FILLING
- Place 2 cups strawberries and 2 tablespoon sugar in a large bowl and crush using a potato masher.
- Stir in remaining strawberries and sugar to combine. Set aside until ready to serve.
MAKE BISCUITS
- In a large bowl whisk together DRY INGREDIENTS: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, psyllium husk powder and salt.
- Using your fingers or a pastry cutter, rub butter into flour mixture until only small pieces of butter remain. Set aside.
- In a 2-cup measuring cup whisk WET INGREDIENTS: yogurt, egg, oil and lemon juice. Stir into flour until well combined.
- Let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
SHAPING BISCUITS
- Preheat oven to 450°F. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and place it on top of an identical baking sheet for additional insulation.
- Using a large metal scoop drop biscuit dough onto prepared sheet into 6 mounds. Use your hands to pat the centre down for more of a traditional biscuit shape.**
- Sprinkle with coarse white or brown sugar for a fancy finishing touch.
- Bake biscuits until golden, 15-17 minutes. Let cool completely on wire racks.
WHIPPED CREAM TOPPING
- Beat cream, sugar and vanilla on medium low speed until foamy, about 1 minute.
- Increase speed to high and whip until stiff peaks form, about 3 minutes.
ASSEMBLY
- Cut each biscuit in half lengthwise. Portion strawberry filling on bottom half of biscuit. Add a generous dollop of whipped cream and cover with the biscuit top. Serve immediately with remaining strawberry filling on the side.
Notes
Nutrition
In the comments below let me know if I convinced you to buy psyllium husk powder and what happened.
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RITA O'KELLEY STONE
I did use psyllium husk and the shortcakes turned out perfectly! Could not tell it is GF which is a win for me!
I stocked my garage freezer with many GF flours & starches etc and made a batch of ATK GF all purpose flour. For the shortcakes, I used King Arthur GF blend as I had not made the ATK blend yet.
Great recipe!
I love the cookbook. Very informative and helpful.
Cinde Little
Hi Rita, thanks for your feedback. I still remember the first time I made these shortcakes and thought, "these don't even taste gluten free". That's always a win and of course it is the standard now. I actually made this recipe with both ATK blend and the blend I know call my EGFG blend (sweet rice flour, potato starch, sorghum flour and millet flour). There are so many great combinations out there I know everyone can learn to bake food that no one knows is gluten free. Happy baking!