I was hoping to tell you that I’d bought a house today. A cute 1930s Victorian farmhouse with tall ceilings and lots of big windows. It was a blank slate on the inside, so I could have made it exactly how I wanted it to be. It was going to be the Cookie and Kate studio! I was going to have a beautiful, functional kitchen for the first time in my life! I was going to grow a garden in the side yard!
Of course, I got carried away and decorated it all before it was officially mine. Then, the owner took it off the market, for reasons that I won’t bore you with, so it is not mine. I’ll just keep living in this rent house, with its low ceilings, dingy kitchen and beige bedroom walls… which now seem even lower, darker, and more like stained cargo khaki shorts. First world problems. On the upside, I have strawberry shortcake to share today! The idea came to me after I nailed one of the baked goods for the cookbook, which I am so excited to share with you next spring. I had to figure out how to make strawberry shortcake before summer ended. Here it is. This one tastes like classic strawberry shortcake, but it is made with whole grains and it’s naturally sweetened, too.
I used coconut milk instead of heavy cream, and there’s no butter required in the shortcake, so it’s easily made vegan. The only trick with coconut milk is that you really must use regular (as in, not light) coconut milk for the recipe to work well, and you’ll need to chill one can (not both) in the fridge overnight. Or hey, use regular whipped cream instead. Either way, while this recipe is more wholesome and nutritionally redeeming than standard strawberry shortcake, it is not a low fat recipe. At the risk of sounding paranoid, a couple health-related notes about ingredients—please buy organic strawberries, as conventionally grown strawberries are the fruit with the highest pesticide content. Also, please buy coconut milk that comes in BPA-free cans (like the Native Forest brand and Trader Joe’s). The high fat content of coconut milk draws the BPA out of the liners, even more so than acidic tomatoes do. I was shocked when I learned that recently.
Make it vegan: Use maple syrup instead of honey.
