Every year when strawberry season rolls around, the first thing I want to make with them is strawberry shortcake. For the last few years the Rich and Tender Shortcakes with Strawberries and Whipped Cream from Cook’s Illustrated has been my go-to recipe, but this year I wanted to try one of Deb’s. So, I made the Easy Drop Berry Shortcakes (also in Smitten Kitchen Keepers).

The shortcakes came together very quickly and without a lot of fuss. I substituted the cream for an (unsweetened, unflavored) coconut milk creamer that I’ve been using in my tea, and it seemed to work fine. They are a sticky mess to shape and cover in sugar though, so be prepared. I got six out of the batter, and had a hard time getting them roughly evenly sized. Next time I’ll portion them out before I start coating them in the turbinado sugar.

I checked them at 10 minutes and they weren’t done, at 13 they weren’t really browned at all. At 16 they looked just about right. I did find they stuck to the silicon baking mat I used, even once they’d cooled. Nothing a spatula couldn’t solve but I was a little surprised.

I used all strawberries for the filling, and I mixed them with the sugar the day before, right after bringing the berries home from the farmer’s market. They sat in the fridge overnight, and I took them out to add the lemon juice and let them come up to room temperature when I started making the shortcakes. This is a bit different than what Deb calls for in this recipe, where there’s less juice drawn out of the berries, and they’re mostly kept whole. But if you’re doing all strawberries I don’t see why you wouldn’t want that excess liquid, which your shortcake will sop right up.

We prefer our shortcakes, crumbles, pies, etc. with vanilla ice cream, so I skipped the whipped cream. The shortcakes are not very sweet, which made them a perfect companion to the sweet berries and ice cream. There were not quite enough berries for my taste — looking at the photos you can kind of tell Deb’s not using a ton of berries — so I chopped up some more for the second night, and put the remaining two shortcakes in the freezer for another day.