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Decadent, delicious, and piled high with coconut whipped cream! This vegan strawberry shortcake is the perfect dessert for summer celebrations. It’s delicious, easy to make, and always a hit!
Strawberry shortcake is always a hit. But what about vegan strawberry shortcake? Is it possible to replicate the classic summer dessert made with sweet, buttery biscuits and fluffy whipped cream?
OH YES.
Strawberry shortcake isn’t all that hard to veganize. I’ve made this recipe for numerous celebrations, served it to vegans as well as non-vegans, and it always gets rave reviews. In fact, I’ve had folks tell me they prefer the coconut whipped cream to traditional whip. (It’s some truly decadent stuff!)
So fire up your oven and get ready. You’re going to want to enjoy this one all summer long.
Jump to:
- Ingredients You’ll Need
- How It’s Made
- Variations
- Leftovers & Storage
- More Vegan Strawberry Recipes
- The Best Vegan Strawberry Shortcake
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Non-dairy milk. Soy milk, almond milk, cashew milk, and oat milk are all good options. Basically, feel free to use just about anything other than canned coconut milk, as long as it’s unsweetened.
- Apple cider vinegar.
- Flour. We’re using plain old all-purpose flour. As far as substitutions, you could probably get away with spelt of whole wheat pastry flour. An all-purpose gluten-free flour blend should work if you need to keep the recipe gluten-free, but I haven’t tested this, so no promises.
- Sugar. Make sure to use organic sugar to keep the recipe vegan. Conventional sugar may be bleached using animal bone char.
- Baking powder.
- Baking soda.
- Salt.
- Vegan butter. This is available in most supermarkets near the regular butter. Miyoko’s and Earth Balance are a couple of popular brands to look for.
- Fresh strawberries.
- Coconut cream. Coconut cream can be purchased in cans at most supermarkets, usually in the international foods aisle.
- Maple syrup. We’re using this to sweeten our whipped coconut cream. You can substitute with another liquid sweetener such as agave if you’d like.
- Vanilla extract.
Tip: If you can’t find coconut cream, it can be extracted from full fat coconut milk. Chill the cans overnight then drain off the liquid. The solid part that remains is coconut cream.
How It’s Made
The following is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you’d like to skip right to the recipe!
Start by making the biscuits. They’ll take some time to bake, and you can prepare the fillings in the meantime.
Stir the milk and apple cider vinegar together in a small container. This is your vegan buttermilk. Make sure the milk is cold. Stick your vegan buttermilk into the fridge to keep it cold while you mix the dry ingredients.
Whisk your dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Tip: Your non-dairy milk might curdle a bit when you add the vinegar, particularly if you’re using a high-protein variety like soy milk. This is normal and nothing to worry about.
Add sliced up vegan butter to the dry ingredients. Make sure the butter is cold, right from the fridge. Use a pastry cutter or fork to cut the butter into the dry ingredients, until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.
Pour the vegan buttermilk into the dry ingredients, and gently stir everything up to create a shaggy dough. Stop stirring once it’s mixed. Overworking the dough will give you tough biscuits.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently press it out into a large rectangle of about 9 by 12 inches. Dip a round biscuit cutter into flour then use it to cut circles in the dough. Don’t twist the cutter.
Arrange the dough rounds in a cast iron skillet or on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, making sure they’re just touching each other (but not jammed together). Brush the tops with non dairy milk and pop them into the oven to bake.
Prepare the fillings while the biscuits bake.
First, clean and slice the strawberries. Add some sugar, stir them up and let them sit for a while to release their juices. You can optionally mash some of the berries with a fork if you’d like.
To make the coconut whipped topping, simply place chilled coconut cream in a large mixing bowl (discard any watery liquid in the can). Beat the mixture until it’s fluffy, then beat in a few tablespoons of maple syrup to sweeten the mixture.
Assemble the shortcakes once your biscuits are cool. Slice each biscuit in half, then stuff it with some strawberries and whipped coconut cream. Pile some more strawberries and whipped coconut cream on top.
Variations
- Roasted strawberry shortcake. Use roasted strawberries instead of fresh ones. They’re extra sweet and gooey!
- Switch up the berries. Make vegan blueberry shortcake or raspberry shortcake instead!
- Use store-bought whipped cream. If you’re in a hurry or can’t find whipped coconut cream, try a commercial vegan whipped cream instead. Reddi-wip has a couple of vegan varieties and all Whipt products are all vegan.
- Flavored berries. Add some extra flavor to your strawberries by using maple syrup instead of sugar, or adding some vanilla extract, black pepper (yes, this totally works), or powdered ginger for some zip.
Leftovers & Storage
Store the components of this vegan strawberry shortcake recipe separately.
The biscuits will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for about 3 days or in the freezer for about 3 months. The strawberries will last about 3 days in an airtight container in the fridge, and the coconut whip will keep for about 5 days.