Summer has arrived & although the sunshine has been a bit shy just lately, there are some fabulous fruits in the shops right now, ripe for the picking. Summer for me has always meant strawberries & as a child, I would love to both pick & eat them. We grew them in pots in the garden & sometimes would go strawberry picking at a local farm, but they were always lusciously lovely & the mere scent of strawberries brings back those memories instantly! Sunny Summer afternoons spent sitting on the grass, sipping a glass of my Mum’s homemade elderflower fizz (now there’s a recipe!) & pretending it was the finest Champagne, the hum of bumble bees buzzing around & warm sunshine on my face, whilst indulging in a beautiful blanket banquet. This would obviously include a bowl of freshly picked strawberries, washed & dunked in a little sugar before being devoured. This is why I always smell strawberries before buying them (& probably why I get such funny looks from other shoppers!). The sweeter the scent, the sweeter the berry! Sometimes the simplest of treats is the most delicious & satisfying to all the senses – we don’t just eat food with our mouths, all the other senses chip in too!
One of my all time favourite treats is a petite pretty pastry, filled to the brim & adorned with ripe, ruby red strawberries. To call it a jam tart would not do justice to them, as the jam is simply the sweet glue that bonds these beautiful berries together within the pastry cup. These delicate delicacies are another of my childhood favourites & tremendously easy to make, all it takes is a little preparation & of course a little patience too. They also work well with a variety of berries or fruit – try cherries, raspberries, blackberries or blueberries, or why not pineapple, apricots or apples! Ready to bake it happen? Hands washed, aprons on & here we go!
What you need:
For the pastry:
6oz Plain Flour
2oz Salted Butter, room temperature (slightly softened)
2oz Sugar (I use my homemade vanilla sugar – pop a vanilla pod in a jar of sugar overnight & that’s it!)
1 large Egg
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
Zest of half a Lemon & half an Orange, mixed
A little extra Butter & Flour for preparing your baking tin
A little Milk (approx. 2 tablespoons will do)
For the filling:
Half a jar of good quality Strawberry Conserve or Jam
1 punnet fresh ripe Strawberries
300ml fresh Double Cream
1 teaspoon Icing Sugar
1 plastic or metal Drinking Straw (this is an important piece of kitchen equipment!)
What to do:
Firstly, pre-heat the oven to 200*C. While that’s warming up, prepare your baking tin. You’ll need a 12 cup patty tin for this recipe. Simply wipe a little butter around the inside of each cup & sprinkle in some flour on top. Shake out the excess onto a clean worktop (where you’ll be preparing your pastry later). This makes your patty tin non-stick & the pastries will be easier to remove after baking.
Now to prepare your strawberries – give them a wash in cold water & drain well (I usually tip them onto a clean tea towel). This is where your drinking straw comes in! Push the straw up from the bottom to the top of the berry, all the way through & then pull the tiny strawberry tree from the straw. Pop those tiny trees in the composter, ready to turn into lovely rich soil for the next plants! The riper the strawberries are, the easier it is & this will take moments, leaving you with a bowlful of beautiful hulled berries & not a squishy one in sight!
Stand the strawberries on their plumper end & slice the edges off, then set aside for later (pop them in the fridge on a plate covered up, especially if it’s a warm day). Keep the ends to make dinky decorations for your baked tarts. Slice up the rest of the strawberries into thin slices. Again, set aside in a dish for later, but separately from your strawberry hearts (in case they give out any juice).
There are a couple of ways to make the pretty heart-shaped strawberry slices like I have. Either use a small heart-shaped cutter or plunger if you have one or, as the strawberry is naturally shaped that way, simply cut a little V out of the top of the slice & trim the edges to a point at the bottom of the berry. Make sure you wash your hands after this stage & dry well.
Time to make the pastry cups. Tip all the pastry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Using a knife, mix everything together loosely & break up the eggs, then get your hands in & squish the ingredients together to form a firm ball of dough.
Lightly dust your work surface with a little flour & place your ball of pastry on top. Roll it out until about 3-4mm thick. If it sticks to your worktop, slide a pallet knife underneath it & add a little more flour to your worktop. It is a sticky pastry, so don’t worry if it does this (the taste is worth the effort).
Once rolled, take a circle cookie cutter slightly larger than your patty tin & cut out twelve circles. Place each circle in the prepared tin & using the end of your rolling pin, gently dab each one into place.
Pop half a teaspoon of jam into the centre of each pastry cup & top with some strawberry slices. As jam grows, please do not be tempted to fill up the pastry cup with huge dollops of it – it will expand & spread all over like molten lava & it will burn. Leave the spoon in the jam for later, we’re going to use it again after baking.
Place the tarts in the centre of the oven & bake for 8-10 minutes, until the jam is bubbling around the berries & the pastry has turned a golden hue.
Once baked, remove the tin & place on a cooling rack. Gently slide your pallet knife under each tart & carefully lift out onto your cooling rack.
While your tarts are still warm, scoop another half teaspoon of jam onto the filling of each. Don’t worry about spreading it over the fruit, it will be fine. Allow them to cool completely before the next stage.
To get the strawberry pastry decorations I made, you’re going to need a small calyx cutter (or small star) & a small heart cutter. You can buy these online or at any good baking retailer.
Roll out your pastry as before & cut out a dozen of each shapes, along with a few spares too (just in case!).
Place the hearts on a sheet of greaseproof baking paper on a flat baking tray. Using your little finger or a small brush, dab a drip of milk on the top centre of the strawberry shape, then pop your star on top & leave a couple of the points hanging over the top. Press lightly to attach & there you go – one strawberry pastry shape! Repeat with the rest & brush them all with a little milk (or use your finger to wipe the milk on), then bake for 8-10 minutes in the centre of the oven.
When cooked, use a pallet knife to carefully lift the pastry strawberries onto a cooling rack. They should lift easily off the greaseproof paper, plus you have a clean baking tray – no washing up! Leave to rest until completely cooled. You can make these the day before & pop them in an airtight container until you’re ready to use them.
Once your tarts are cooled, whip your double cream with the icing sugar until thickened & you can make firm swirls with your beaters (the icing sugar helps the cream hold it’s shape when piped). Scoop into a piping bag with your preferred nozzle (or just a bag with the tip cut off if you like).
Pipe swirls of cream, starting at the outer edge & working your way towards the centre, getting the cream taller as you pipe.
Place the pastry strawberry on top, tilting it at a slight angle & a strawberry heart on either side of the cream. Repeat until you have decorated them all & set them onto a pretty plate. If you’re serving them later, cover them & keep in the fridge until then. They will keep overnight (as long as nobody eats them!).
That’s it! Perfect served as part of an elegant afternoon tea, a special soiree, or simply as a sumptuous strawberry treat with a chilled glass of fizz, these plump little pastries will certainly bring some sunshine to your day! Stay hungry! A 😉 x
Sitting at my desk writing my blog this morning, drinking a cup of tea as the warm sun is sparkling through last night’s rain on the window, it occurs to me that we’re hurtling into Summer rather rapidly. The changeable weather is free-wheeling, which is giving us all wardrobe issues (cue carrying various rainproof supplies – brolly, raincoat, shoes instead of sandals, to name a few!). We layer up in the damp, chilly morning, only to find that by lunchtime it’s blazing brilliant sunshine! One thing that is benefiting from all this random weather is the garden. Our pots of plants are flourishing & fabulous flowers are blooming between splashes of rain & sporadic sunshine, giving us some glorious fruit & vegetables to look forward to, hopefully very soon!
Husband calls me the Bee Whisperer, because I’m always rescuing them. The bees are very important to us & we should look after them – after all, no bees means no fruit & veggies (or wine, beer & chocolate!). If you see one resting on the ground, he’s probably just tired & needs a rest. Gently move him to safety (use a piece of paper to slide underneath) & give him an energy boost – dissolve a little sugar in some tepid water & put it in a little bottle cap next to him. Trust me, once they’re rested & recuperated, they will buzz back with all their little friends (aka the Pollinators!).
Pour the condensed milk into a saucepan with the butter & chocolate. Heat gently to melt, stirring carefully until everything is fully combined & melted into a dark, delicious pan of gooey gorgeousness (resist the urge to taste it – it will be quite warm!). Turn off the heat & leave to one side to cool for a couple of minutes.
Remove the biscuit base from the fridge & pour the chocolate sauce on top & return to the fridge to set for an hour.
the kettle 
Hungry for more? Thought so! These sweet shots of fast fruity cheesecake can be prepared in moments. As these are individual portions, I prefer to serve them in some pretty wine glasses, such as Champagne saucers, Martini glasses or just large wine glasses (you can use tea-cups for children’s portions – the handles make it easier for them too). Aprons on, hands washed & here we go!
Spoon or pipe swirls of the strawberry Mascarpone generously over the crushed biscuits, or perhaps add a few chopped fresh strawberries to the mixture beforehand. If you’re going to pipe it, forget using a nozzle, just snip the end off a piping bag instead.
Top with a couple of fresh strawberries, dust with a little icing sugar if you like & serve immediately. I like to slice them 3/4 of the way to the top & leave them attached, then fan them out on these dinky desserts. If you don’t want to use strawberries, try using apricots, raspberries or blueberries, swapping the jam for whichever fruit you use. If you fancy something a bit special, cherries go very well with the delicate almond flavour of crushed Amaretti biscuits – just sprinkle a few toasted almonds on top to decorate before serving. Bellissimo!
So when you need to whip up a dessert storm, try these swift, sweet solutions for after dinner! Stay hungry 😉 A x
hearts in their hundreds as treats for people to give to their beloved, dipping each one in melted chocolate, decorating them by hand & turning my kitchen into my own little chocolate factory! By the time I’d finished, I really didn’t want to see, smell or taste chocolate for a few weeks after! Last year, my Husband was suitably spoiled as always, with a selection of his favourite handmade chocolates decorating a rather large, milk chocolate frosted heart-shaped chocolate cake (I think there was just enough chocolate in it!).
This year, I wanted to do something a bit different & as it was birthday 
achievement (they’re quite fiddly & I’m not very patient). I won’t bore you with the details, but as it took me about a couple of hours to create each one from scratch (not including the centres), you can appreciate that I couldn’t watch them being eaten (the Husband kept wandering into another room every time he ate one, so I wouldn’t see).
Bake them all for about 8-10 minutes, until golden & then gently transfer them to a cooling tray. These will be crisper than the other recipe, so they should be firmer.
Remember all the little heart centres that you baked? Simply pipe a small splodge of buttercream into them & make little layered lovehearts, for bite-sized treats. You can always drizzle melted chocolate over the top of these if you want to make them extra special.
Any leftover jam can be put back in the jar & left in the fridge until you need it (don’t throw jam away!). The same goes for the buttercream – just wrap up the end of the piping bag & fold over the snipped end, then keep it in the fridge to use on random cupcakes or chocolate puddings. If you’re really feeling adventurous, tip it into a bowl & add more icing sugar until a bit firmer, then use it to pipe some buttercream roses onto cookies (if you make a mistake, scrape it off, shove it back in the bag & start again – great for teaching kids & keeps them entertained for ages).
For Christmas, I simply used a tree cutter & drizzled them with melted chocolate (mix a little milk & plain chocolate together for a richer flavour), then simply adorned them with some sugar sprinkles. Why not try making cute reindeer cookies too! Simply use an upside-down gingerbread man cutter to shape your cookie dough & decorate with rolled out fondant or modelling chocolate. They are so easy to make & perfect treats for sharing.
so I don’t have to do much apart from put them on a plate. Then there are perfectly plump pancakes. I’m not talking about the delicately thin, elegant crêpes we usually eat on Pancake Day though. Breakfast pancakes are duvet-like delicacies – substantially thick, warming & with a fluffy filling. What they shouldn’t be is fiddly, time-consuming & boring! Now I’m not saying you need to be standing around the stove, flipping fluffy pancakes for all you’re worth at stupid o’clock (as if I would suggest such a thing!). The best way to get your pancake fix without the faff is to make a batch in advance & keep some ready made in the fridge (or freezer if you really want to be organised).
Heat up a large skillet or frying pan on a medium heat – your pan needs to be nice & hot before you start cooking your pancakes.
Remove each pancake, one at a time & lay on the plate with a strip of greaseproof paper in between each one to separate them.
If you’re serving them immediately, cover the plate with an upside-down mixing bowl to keep them warm & transfer to the table. If not, leave them to cool & wrap a couple at a time in clingfilm, then put them in the fridge or freezer. You can put them in an airtight container too, just keep them separated with the greaseproof paper strips, then serve when you want some. To reheat your pancakes, simply pop a couple in the toaster for about 30 seconds to warm through & that’s breakfast prepared!
These fabulous fluffed up pancakes don’t have to be dull either! They are perfect with an array of fresh fruit, beautiful berries or just a squeeze of fresh lemon juice & a drizzle of golden syrup. If I have a couple of punnets of fresh berries going spare, I’ll put them in a saucepan with some golden syrup & simmer gently until they become soft & squishy, making a warm fruit sauce to pour on top. These soft little flatcakes also taste scrumptious with scrambled eggs – great if you fancy something a bit more exciting than cereal (which is obviously for midnight snacks).
to serve them is to splodge spoonfuls of apricot jam in between the layers with whipped cream, top with a couple of fresh raspberries, then drizzle with pureed peaches – open a tin of peaches, chuck them in the blender, whizz up with a squeeze of lemon juice & pour into a serving jug! If you don’t want to use cream, maybe use strawberry or raspberry ice cream instead. These sumptuous stacks of sweetness look impressive & are really quick to assemble (especially if you have a few pancakes already made). There would have been pictures, but they never last long enough!
until it was silky smooth (although simple to make, profiteroles need strong arms & plenty of stamina). Once baked & filled, these piled up plump little pastries would be generously glazed with glossy, rich chocolate sauce & adorned with sparkly spun sugar. I would watch in amazement as my Mum swiftly whipped a sugar-dipped fork through the air & glittery, golden sugar strands would appear as if by magic! Although I don’t tend to make spun sugar very often, I do still make proper profiteroles & once you have tried them, you’ll be hooked too. So, hands washed & aprons at the ready!
Once cooled, your profiteroles are ready! If you are preparing them in advance, you can freeze them a few at a time in a single layer – they crisp up beautifully after a few minutes in a warm oven & you’ll be able to dish up a dessert at a moment’s notice.
Generously drizzle warm, chocolate sauce over them & serve! You want the recipe for chocolate sauce, don’t you? It’s really easy to make & one of my favourite “chuck it all in a pan” recipes. I make jars of this & store it in the fridge or the cold pantry, then warm it up to make it runny enough to pour over cupcakes (it tastes fabulous spread on hot toast too). Here it is!
the leaves, all the way around & it should come out. The more ripe the strawberries, the easier it is.
When you’ve finished, you should have a beautiful strawberry sponge square cake (yes, I’m aware it’s not square, just go with it). Dust lightly with icing sugar all over the top (use a tea strainer for this & you only need about a teaspoonful of icing sugar to do the whole thing) & serve immediately.
could just hide the rest in the fridge for nibbling on later (I think you’ve earned it!). If you don’t like strawberries, use blueberries or even your favourite jam. One of my favourite variations is to make a tiramisu filling instead of using cream, then mix some Sherry or Brandy with an equal amount of espresso coffee to drizzle over the sponge & replace the icing sugar on top with finely grated dark chocolate. Decorate with a few coffee beans & a sprig of fresh mint.