Strawberry Shortbread and Strawberry Shortcake

June is peak strawberry season in the UK. We visited an amazing ‘pick your own’ yesterday. The plants were dripping with strawberries, but most were not yet ripe due to our rather poor spring. However, we still came back with a bounty of berries needing to be used straight away. This variation on classic shortbread includes little bursts of strawberry flavour in the form of freeze-dried berry pieces. A perfect summery variation 🙂

When combined with whipped dairy-free cream and fresh strawberries, these make a cracking  strawberry shortcake dessert.

Strawberry Shortbread (dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, sesame-free, soya-free, vegetarian and vegan)

makes approx. 12

• 225g plain flour
• 75g golden caster sugar
• 150g dairy-free margarine (I used Pure sunflower)
• 1 vanilla pod (I left it out as didn’t have one, but it’s much nicer with)
• 50g granulated sugar, to sprinkle
• 1/2 cup freeze-dried strawberries

– Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade/Gas Mark 4

– Line a baking sheet with parchment

– Sift the flour into a bowl and stir in the sugar and vanilla

– Add the dairy-free spread and rub in with fingers. Once it starts to combine, bring together to form a soft dough. Mix in the strawberry pieces.

– On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1cm thickness.

– Cut into even sized shapes.

– Place on the lined baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Then turn the baking sheet round and bake for another 10 minutes.

– Once the shortbread is golden brown remove from oven. Leaving it on the baking sheet, dust with the granulated sugar. Cool on the baking sheet.

Strawberry Shortcake (dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, sesame-free, vegetarian and vegan)

per dessert

• 2 strawberry shortbreads
• whipped dairy-free cream (Soyatoo makes an excellent one, available in a rice milk and coconut milk versions too)
• fresh strawberries

– Place a shortbread on a plate

– Decorate the top with strawberries and then dollop on plenty of cream

– Sandwich on another shortbread

– Decorate with more more cream and strawberries

– Serve straight away