And facing our fears

Confession: I have never made biscuits before! I’ve always been intimidated by the reliance on butter as a key ingredient for the taste and texture, and worried that my inexperience and a dairy free substitute would result in a subpar result. One might say I’ve been engaging in avoidance behavior due to a feared outcome.

In this week’s session of exposure based therapy, I mean a baking blog post, I decided to face my fear head on.

Hypothesis 1: This recipe would yield tender, flaky biscuits suitable for strawberry shortcake, minus the dairy.

Hypothesis 2: Together with whipped “cream” and strawberries, this would be a delightful treat for a summer dinner.

Method

Recipe Source:

https://www.noracooks.com/easy-vegan-strawberry-shortcake/

What excited me about this recipe is how it was marketed as easy and vegan, which meant it had already been tested with non-dairy ingredients.

Dairy-Free Modifications:

This recipe is fully vegan, meaning no dairy included! Here are the products I used:

For the vegan butter, I used my standby, Imperial brand margarine.
Making this nut-free, I used soy milk instead of almond milk. You’ll mix this with apple cider vinegar for a buttermilk substitute, per the recipe instructions.
Instead of using coconut cream, I used Rich’s Whip Topping - also found on Amazon, but you can check your local store! I found mine at Johnny Pomodoro’s. You can also use this ready-made, great option from So Delicious.

Procedures:

The most involved part of the process is baking the biscuits. This involves mixing your dry ingredients, cutting in your butter, and then mixing in your "buttermilk” into the dough before shaping and cutting out biscuits.

The recipe instructions warn you that this might get sticky and messy, but mine was VERY sticky and messy. Reflecting back, it’s possible that I overpoured my soy milk ever so slightly. If that’s the case, it made a big difference. If it wasn’t, then something about my technique or this recipe did not generalize. I ended up adding more flour as I formed the biscuits. Sadly, as a result of the messiness, there are no process photos.

As you can see, these biscuits were difficult to form nicely, and baked quite flat.

When I added more flour, the result was a lot better.

Once you’re ready to assemble, you’re supposed to cut each biscuit in half, pipe some whipped cream and layer sliced strawberries on the bottom half, gently place the top back on, and top with more whipped cream and strawberry.

Results

An aerial perspective, or perhaps tall Reviewer #1’s point of view

As you can see, when I used the biscuits that did not get as much rise, I just used two instead of cutting one in half.

Discussion

To be honest, these were ok. I found the biscuits to be a bit chewy, rather than soft and crumbly (the “short” in shortcake). As mentioned above, this may be a user error; I may have overpoured my liquid and had to overcompensate by adding more flour, which certainly would affect the texture, making it heavier rather than light. I also had to cut in my butter substitute by hand rather than with a pastry cutter or food processor. I also didn’t have any prior experience of baking biscuits to draw from, nor an idea of how they are really supposed to taste. They weren’t bad, but they weren’t great. So, hypothesis 1 was only partially supported.

However, I’d say hypothesis 2 was definitely supported! Once we added the whipped cream and strawberries, this became a delightful treat on a hot summer evening. The combinations of textures helped us feel immersed in the experience and relax into the weekend.

Can I wholeheartedly recommend this recipe? Not based on my results. But acknowledging my lack of experience and technique, it is possible that it has nothing to do with the recipe itself.

Allergen statement:

This recipe is already free from dairy, both as originally written and with my adaptations. It is also fully vegan, so it is egg-free as well. This recipe can also easily be made nut free, by swapping out the almond milk for soy milk or another plant option, as I did. Be careful to choose a nut-free butter substitute as well, such as Imperial brand margarine (used above), or Country Crock Plant Butter made with olive oil).

Future directions:

On the upside, we enjoyed a fun dessert, and I faced my fear! I finally broke the cycle of avoidance, and it wasn’t as bad as I imagined. Even though my baking results kind of fulfilled my feared outcome, namely a less than outstanding result, I am appreciating the journey of learning, discovery, and progress. And if I have to taste a few more strawberry shortcakes along the way, so be it.

Do you have any experience with dairy free biscuits or strawberry shortcake? Would you try this recipe? Drop a comment here or on Instagram @dairyfreewithemily!

Strawberry Shortcake