Having made the lovely Almond & Elderflower Cookies last week with resounding success, I was filled with confidence as to biscuit making and the logical next step seemed to be a Strawberry Shortcake dessert.
I had seen a Lemon Shortbread & Strawberry Stack recipe that looked perfect and after some research, managed to track it down.
The cookie dough came together without any difficulty, however I have to say that I much prefer the previous approach to cutting out cookies (roll into a sausage, wrap in cling film, refrigerate and slice rounds from it) than this one - roll out the dough and cut out rounds, then re-roll, cut out more, until you've no dough left.
I think this way runs the risk of over-handling the dough through repeated rolling, however having said that, my biscuits seemed none the worse for their repeated rolling. I'll definitely go for the sausage approach in future though, as it is by far and away the easiest - and I'm all for easy!
I had no difficulty making the dough stretch to 9 biscuits and even had a little bit left over!
The biscuits took a cup of tea and a daydream to cook (or 15-20 minutes) and let go of the parchment with no argument. In fact, they were very well behaved - especially considering how thin I had made them.
I left the assembly of the stacks until after we'd had our main course, just in case the cream decided to make the biscuits soggy. It was a relatively simple job to build the stacks. I didn’t worry about piping the cream, but dolloped it on with aplomb and have to say that it made the stacks appear to be ready to burst with cream peeping out from in between the strawberries, in luscious promise.
After a bit of a debate as to whether to bother with the coulis, I'm so glad I did. I went with a strawberry coulis, instead of raspberry, for ease and the cost’s sake. For all that I had made a sugar-free coulis it provided the delicious moisture that balanced the cream, without being appallingly tart, and brought the whole thing together.
I was really chuffed with how they looked. In fact, so pleased was I that I demanded to be there when Son & heir had his delivered, just so that I could see his face. So there we are - it's strawberry time, so if you don't make these stacks, you're seriously missing out on a fabulous dessert!
Aside from that, I’ve obviously caught the baking bug, as I wanted to make some more muffins for Son & heir's break times. Well, I suspect I may have to do that - again.
You see, the muffins I made - Camembert & Redcurrant - are so utterly, utterly divine that we've already eaten half of them. *blush* I also know that I've got the other half of the Camembert in the fridge and the remainder of the ingredients were store cupboard staples (for us, anyway!).
Prior to the advent of these muffins, our absolute favourite was Cheese & Bacon muffins. Now anyone who has ever had a Cheese & Bacon muffin will be able to confirm what a hard act to beat they are.
I've got to say that these Camembert & Redcurrant muffins are currently jostling for the first position - and it's only latent loyalty to the Cheese & Bacon ones that's keeping them out!
There's a beautiful subtlety to the Camembert ones. A creaminess and overtly "dairy" sense to them, which is both offset and complemented (how does it do that?) by the Redcurrant Jelly.
I suppose the tartness of the Redcurrant offsets the creaminess of the cheese & yoghurt, whereas the sweetness complements the inherent sweetness of the Camembert. However they do it, you just HAVE to make some. This is one of those "if you do nothing else in your life, you just have to make these muffins" situations.
The other good thing, is that they are the work of less than an hour to prepare and have cooked. Now, for these results, I'd spend a long old time baking these - but no, it's just a matter of cutting up some cheese, weighing and measuring ingredients, mixing together and baking. Could it get any easier?
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