Strawberry shortcake

Name: Strawberry shortcake
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 8

Pudding & Cake Serves 8 50 min

Both light and rich, shortcake is perfectly complementary to crème fraîche and strawberries. Whipped cream is good in place of crème fraîche (and more traditional), but it gives an unadulteratedly sweet finish – so take your pick. A little later in the season, try this with raspberries and poached peaches for a Melba-style shortcake.

Ingredients

120g plain flour
60g cornflour
1 tsp baking powder
100g caster sugar
100g softened butter, diced
2 egg yolks
drop vanilla extract
350g strawberries
1 tbsp icing sugar
juice of 1 orange
200ml crème fraîche
icing sugar, for dusting

Method

Prep time: 20 min

Cooking time: 30 min

Step 1
Preheat oven to 160°C/Gas 3.
Step 2
First make the shortcake. Sift the flour, cornflour and baking powder into a bowl and stir in the sugar.
Step 3
Rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Step 4
Stir in the egg yolks and vanilla and bring the mixture together into a dough.
Step 5
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 5mm thick and cut it into eight 9cm rounds.
Step 6
Place on a baking tray lined with baking parchment and bake in an oven preheated for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and leave to cool
Step 7
Purée 150g of the strawberries with the sugar and orange juice. Pass the purée through a fine sieve if you prefer a smoother finish
Step 8
Slice the remaining strawberries.
Step 9
Put a shortcake biscuit on each of 4 plates, put a dollop of crème fraîche on top, then add the sliced strawberries and some strawberry sauce. Place the remaining biscuits on top, sift over a little icing sugar and serve.