For the record, this recipe was inspired by Grain Free Foodies Strawberry Shortcakes. I'd bought blackberries from Sprouts Farmers Market as a treat to go with my Thanksgiving Dinner. Gone are the days I can just eat fruit at will, at least while I'm doing the leptin reset and trying to stay under 25 grams carbs each day for the duration. According to the package, blackberries had less carbs than blueberries, so I chose to buy some blackberries.
Thanksgiving has changed so much for me since beginning GAPS. Gone is the carb-feast in which I indulged for more than four decades. I thought I was doing pretty low carb with GAPS, but tightening up my diet with the leptin reset I'm surprised at how many carbs I had been eating on GAPS, simply because I was eating vegetables and fruit. So this year was to be more of a challenge than ever before. While shopping, I thought I would just do blackberries and some plain whipped coconut cream [affiliate link]. Then on Thanksgiving I started looking around for something a bit more like dessert and that when I came across the shortcakes at Grain Free Foodies. I entered the recipe into a site I use for calculating carbohydrates and the amount was just too high, mostly due to the amount of honey [affiliate link] in the recipe, so I started tweaking. First I halved the recipe and lowered the honey, and then messed around with the ingredients. I was delighted with the results.
Since I have not been eating anything sweet, the shortcakes actually tasted slightly sweet to me. I whipped the coconut cream, spooned a dollop onto my shortcake and garnished with a blackberry. It was special to me. My husband was not impressed at all, which I figured would be the case since he still eats and drinks sugar products on a daily basis.
My oldest son, who I've been slowly moving toward full GAPS for the past two years doesn't eat sweets very often, but he does expect “dessert” to taste sweet, so I created a blackberry sauce to drizzle over his dessert.
I bought these miniature cake tins last year, and have never had a chance to use them, but they worked perfectly for this recipe: Wilton Tasty Fill Set of 4 Mini Cake Pan Set (this is my Amazon affiliate link)
Blackberry Shortcake
- 4 Tablespoons Bob's Red Mill Organic Coconut Flour [affiliate link]
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 large eggs [affiliate link]
- 2 Tablespoons raw honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla [affiliate link] extract
- 1/8 teaspoon sea salt [affiliate link]
Makes four miniature shortcakes.
Mix all ingredients together using a hand mixer. If you don't have these miniature cake pans you can use cupcake tins, this recipe should yield six cupcakes. Butter tins liberally. Spoon batter equally into tins. Bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes.
Blackberry Syrup
- 6 blackberries, crushed
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- 3 Tablespoons honey
Heat butter in a small skillet, add blackberries. Crush them with a potato masher or fork. Allow to cook for 2-3 minutes. Berries will liquify. Add honey. When the honey melts (mine was thick and sticky) and the product is liquid, press through a sieve to remove the seeds. Bring to a boil and stir constantly over medium heat for 4-5 minutes. As the mixture boils it becomes slightly thicker. Allow to cool before drizzling over shortcakes. If it thickens too much once cooled down, warm it slightly and it will turn liquid again. This had a texture of jelly to it when it cooled down.
Whipped Coconut Cream
I used the coconut cream from two cans of Natural Value full fat coconut milk [affiliate link]. If you put the cans into the fridge a few days ahead of time the coconut cream will solidify at the top. Carefully remove the coconut cream, place in a chilled bowl, add two teaspoons vanilla and whip using a hand mixer. If you want to sweeten, gradually beat in two tablespoon honey. This looks and tastes very much like whipped cream.
Building the Shortcakes
Place one shortcake on a dessert plate. Spoon a dollop of whipped coconut cream into the little cup on the shortcake. Press in three whole blackberries. Spoon on more whipped coconut cream, drizzle blackberry syrup over the top and garnish with one blackberry.
Plain Jane version: Place shortcake on a dessert plate, dollop whipped cream on, garnish with one blackberry. Check yesterday's blog post for the Plain Jane version.
I'd love to hear about your Thanksgiving. Did you make it GAPS legal? What is your favorite GAPS legal holiday food?
- Shortcake
- 4 Tablespoons Bob's Red Mill Organic Coconut Flour
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 large eggs
- 2 Tablespoons raw honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon sea salt
- Syrup
- 6 blackberries, crushed
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- 3 Tablespoons honey
- Coconut Cream from 2 cans of coconut milk
- Shortcake:
- Mix all ingredients together using a hand mixer.
- If you don't have these miniature cake pans you can use cupcake tins, this recipe should yield six cupcakes.
- Butter tins liberally.
- Spoon batter equally into tins.
- Bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes.
- Syrup:
- Heat butter in a small skillet, add blackberries.
- Crush them with a potato masher or fork.
- Allow to cook for 2-3 minutes.
- Berries will liquify.
- Add honey.
- When the honey melts (mine was thick and sticky) and the product is liquid, press through a sieve to remove the seeds.
- Bring to a boil and stir constantly over medium heat for 4-5 minutes.
- As the mixture boils it becomes slightly thicker.
- Allow to cool before drizzling over shortcakes.
- If it thickens too much once cooled down, warm it slightly and it will turn liquid again.
- This had a texture of jelly to it when it cooled down.
- Whipped Coconut Cream
- Carefully remove the coconut cream, place in a chilled bowl, add two teaspoons vanilla and whip using a hand mixer.
- If you want to sweeten, gradually beat in two tablespoon honey.
- Building the Shortcake
- Place one shortcake on a dessert plate. Spoon a dollop of whipped coconut cream into the little cup on the shortcake. Press in three whole blackberries. Spoon on more whipped coconut cream, drizzle blackberry syrup over the top and garnish with one blackberry.
- Plain Jane version: Place shortcake on a dessert plate, dollop whipped cream on, garnish with one blackberry
This sounds delicious. Thank you.
This sounds yummy! We have made the strawberry shortcake recipe before and loved it.
I cooked my first ever full Thanksgiving meal this year. It was all GAPS legal! So yummy 🙂 We had a roasted turkey breast, stuffing, green beans with shallots and almonds, cranberry sauce, Elana’s drop biscuits (with less honey), mashed fauxtatoes, and pumpkin pie. I din’t miss a thing from the usual Thanksgiving fare!
@Tiffany, congratulations and your Thanksgiving Dinner sounds delicious! I have to say I missed having pumpkin pie this year doing the leptin reset. But it’s not forever and I will have pumpkin pie one day again. 🙂
Just made these tonight using less honey and skipped the cream. My husband and I both loved them! Thanks for the inspiration!
Julie, awesome, thanks for letting me know. 🙂 I thought they were a little sweet myself so it is good to know they are fine with less honey. Do you remember how much less you used? Thanks for stopping by and commenting! ~Starlene
I used about 1 1/2 tablespoons on the cake and 2 tablespoons in the sauce. We don’t really eat sweets, but they seemed very sweet to us. I’m very excited to find your site. I’m not on a GAPS diet, but I am allergic to many things (gluten, wheat, yeast, sugar and all sweeteners other than honey and agave), so your recipes work perfectly for me. Thank You!
Hi Julie, oh you’re so welcome, and I’m so glad you are finding my recipes to be useful! Thanks for letting me know how much honey you used, it is helpful for future reference and for others wanting to try the recipe. GAPS does eliminate a lot of allergenic foods – I think sometimes people think they won’t be able to use my recipes because they are suitable for GAPS but really most people can eat these foods and they are delicious.