Gluten Free and Vegan Strawberry Shortcake

With all the craziness of the Easter Holiday (mixed in with Earth Day and school activities with the kids) I've been a little behind in my blogging. My youngest son turned 5 the day after Easter, so not only were we up to our ears in Easter candy, but I had to make a school worthy birthday treat (thank you Gluten Free Goddess for that one) and he wanted strawberry shortcake for his special birthday treat.

Well, I grew up on the Bisquik version of strawberry shortcake where the dried out dough sucked up the juice of the strawberries, so I wanted to find a more gourmet version of what I grew up on. I happened to have a version in my Better Homes and Gardens Baking Book that I tried a gluten free lifetime ago, so I pulled it out and proceeded to put this recipe together. It is a long list of ingredients, but I really only changed the flour part of the recipe and it worked out splendidly. Instead of the applesauce and oil, you could use Spectrum shortening, but I never seem to have any on hand when I need it. I served it with a recipe for Orange Whipped Topping that I picked up out of a Thanksgiving edition of Optimum Wellness for their pumpkin pie, but I figured that if the shortcake had orange, that this would work well here. I sliced and layered mine, but this is one desert that needs no direction on assembly. Enjoy.



Shortcake: (all ingredients are measured by volume and before milling)

1 cup or 235ml brown rice flour-milled in coffee grinder
1/2 cup or 120ml gluten free oats-milled in coffee grinder
1/2 cup or 120ml potato starch
1/2 cup or 120ml finely ground walnuts (original recipe called for pecans)
1/4 cup or 60ml brown sugar
1 tsp or 5 ml cream of tartar
1/2 tsp or 2.5ml baking soda
1 1/2 tsp or 7.5ml guar gum
1/4 tsp or 1ml salt

1/4 cup or 60ml oil
1/4 cup or 60ml applesauce, unsweetened
1 tbsp or 15ml flax seed plus 3 tbsp or 45ml hot water mixed
2/3 cup or 160ml unsweetened hemp milk or non-dairy milk of choice
1 tbsp or 15ml fresh orange zest (about 1 orange or 3 clementines)
1 tsp or 5ml vanilla

Directions:

Mill flax seed and mix it with hot water in a small bowl and set it aside.

Place walnuts (or preferred nut) into food processor and mill until fine, but not super fine. Add in all other dry ingredients and blend until well combined, making sure to scrape the inside of the bowl just in case any of your nut bits are stuck on the bottom and sides.

Add in flax mix, oil, and applesauce and pulse a few times until the dough resembles course crumbs. Add in the remaining ingredients and blend until moist, but don't over blend. The dough should be moist, but you don't want smooth.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit along with your baking stone (if using). Spoon out the batter on the stone so that you make between 6-12 mounds of dough, depending on desired serving size. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown with darker brown peaks. Cool immedietly on a wire rack and serve warm or store in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to three days.



Topping:

1 pint of strawberries
1/4 cup of brown sugar

Mix together and let it set for at least 20 minutes before serving. The longer it sits, the more juice will come out of the strawberries to form the sauce.


Orange Whipped Topping:
Adapted from Optimum Wellness' magazine

1/2 block of store bought tofu or 1 block of homemade tofu
1 container (single serving) So Delicious plain coconut yogurt
2 tbsp or 30ml maple syrup or brown rice syrup
1/2 tsp or 2.5ml fresh orange zest (1 clementine's worth)

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Cut open shortcake and layer if so desired and serve.

This recipe is also a part of Real Food Weekly for the week of April 28th, 2011.

Mitarashi Dango

Mitarashi Dango is a favorite among many in Japan. It has also gained popularity here in the US due to it appearing in Anime (Japanese animation) that is viewed here by some members of the younger population. This simple rice dumpling is served on a wooden skewer and topped with a sweet sauce. I learned how to make this while at my mother-in-law's house in Japan and I soon fell in love with this little bit of heaven. There are many variations of this recipe and I usually make it with a mix that my in-laws send us. However, you can make it with glutenous rice flour that can be found in local oriental markets (Mochiko) or even the kind found in health-food stores (Ener-G Sweet Rice Flour is one brand).

I prefer Mitarashi sauce, which is a mix of sugar and soy sauce, but there are also other types such as Anko (adzuki bean) and green tea dango. Kids tend to like this flavor better than some of the others, I am told, and it disappears fast when I make it at my house. The following is an adaptation of my mother-in-laws recipe, so I'll have it with both the metric and standard measurements.

Mitarashi Dango

Dango Dough

2 cups/200 grams by weight glutenous rice flour or Mochiko (the flour should not poured into the measuring cup, not packed in)
2/3 cups/160 ml warm tap water

Step 1: Mix 200 grams, by weight, of sweet rice flour (Mochiko or Ener G sweet rice flour) with 160 cc of warm water. Add water while mixing little by little. Mix by hand until you reach the consistency that feels like an ear lobe, kind of like Play-Doh that is a little on the dry side. Add more water only if it absolutely feels too dry. The dough will pick up some water while steaming, so be careful.

Step 2: Divide the dough into 5 or 6 balls. Then steam it for about 25 minutes. Bamboo steamers work the best if lined with unbleached wax paper with enough room around the edges to let the steam through.

Step 3: Once it is done steaming, put the dough in the bowl then knead the dough until it gets sticky. You can wait a few minutes if it is too hot to touch. The dough kneads best when still hot and a good tip is to wet your hands with a little cold water, making sure to have your hands mostly dry before going back to your kneading. The dough is done when it is smooth and sticks, but releases from your hand if you pull away.

Step 4: Make a ball between the size of a large marble or a ping pong ball-bite. Place on a bamboo skewer. This recipe makes about 6 skewers with four balls each.

Step 5: Grill on a grill pan until the outside turns to a lighter color. – Grilling is optional.

Mitarashi Sauce

3 Tablespoons/ 45 ml Water
1 Tablespoon/15 ml Wheat Free Tamari
2 Tablespoons/30 ml light brown cane sugar

1 teaspoon/5 ml warm water
1 teaspoon/5 ml potato starch (not flour)

Step 1: Mix water, tamari, and sugar together in a pan over medium heat.

Step 2: Once the sugar is dissolved, mix the 1 tsp warm water with the potato starch in a separate bowl and stir until dissolved.

Step 3: Pour the mixture in the pan into the bowl holding the water/potato starch mix and mix well, making sure that there are not lumps.

Step 4: Return this to the pan and continue to stir over medium heat until the color changes from cloudy to clear and bubbly. Remove from heat once it begins to bubble well and allow it to set up slightly. The sauce should be thick and have a sheen to it. Spread it over the dango balls and enjoy.