Maximized Strawberry Shortcake

This morning I whipped up a batch of the Basic Almond Flour Muffin/Cupcake recipe in GOOD FOOD to make the perfect cake base for this Maximized Strawberry Shortcake, a Valentine’s Day dessert favorite. Ain’t love grand?

I added some lemon zest and substituted lemon juice for the water called for in the cupcake recipe. I like to mix things up and experiment, and these two changes turned out to be a good idea, although the original recipe is lovely just the way it is. (By the way, if you are an inexperienced baker, remember that baking is chemistry. You can’t change amounts of or skip ingredients the way you can in cooking, which in many ways is a more creative venture.)

Anyway, later in the day I ran across some organic strawberries for the “Strawberry Sauce” recipe also in GOOD FOOD. You know the rest. We couldn’t wait for our meal to be over: Dessert Heaven.

Maximized Strawberry Shortcake Recipe

Ingredients

Basic Almond Flour Muffin/Cupcake:

• 2 cups almond flour (almond meal)
• 2 teaspoons aluminum free baking powder
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup “Spoonable” brand Stevia (or equivalent) and/or Xylitol
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) organic butter, melted
• 4 organic, free range, antibiotic‐free eggs
• 1/3 cup water

Strawberry Sauce:

• organic cream
• stevia, to taste
• vanilla extract
• fresh organic strawberries
• water

Topping:

• whipped cream
• fresh mint (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a muffin tin with silicone baking cups or paper liners.
2. Mix all the muffin dry ingredients together by pulsing them in a food processor.
3. Add the muffin wet ingredients to the food processor and combine them thoroughly with the dry ingredients. Separate into muffin tins (about ½ to 2/3 full) and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.
4. Prepare strawberry sauce by adding frozen strawberries to a sauce pan with a tiny bit of water.
5. Heat the strawberries and water until you begin to get to a “syrupy” consistency.
6. Taste. Add stevia if desired.
7. Finally, add a few more frozen strawberries to the hot sauce to “refresh” the color and consistency of the sauce. Continue heating the sauce just until the newly added berries are heated through.
8. Whip up some organic cream, gently sweetened with a tiny bit of stevia and a whisper of vanilla extract.
9. Slice a muffin in half, add berries and whipped cream and top with mint fresh from my garden. (The only reason I planted mint this year was to decorate desserts.)

Original recipe available on GoodFood.