Juliet Sear's strawberry and cream shortbread stacks
A wonderful dessert to serve at a dinner party or summer BBQ - Juliet Sear is showing you how to make her crumbly shortbread, layered with fresh berries and a creamy filling. You couldn’t find much more of a quintessentially British treat.
Strawberry shortbread stacks
Makes 6- 7 stacks
Ingredients
125g soft unsalted butter
50g caster sugar plus another tsp for sprinkling
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
200g plain flour plus extra for rolling out
1/4 tsp salt
Cream filling
200ml double cream (50% fat if you prefer)
1 tablespoon icing sugar (plus extra to dust)
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
A punnet of fresh strawberries (approx. 250g) chopped into small pieces
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 170c fan.
2. In a large bowl, by hand, beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla, be careful not to cream. Add in the flour and salt, and mix together until it starts to look like chunky breadcrumbs, be careful not to over mix. On a work surface, lightly knead the mixture and pat down into a circle.
3. Dust the work surface with a little extra flour, as well as onto the dough and a rolling pin. Roll out the dough evenly to approximately 3-4mm, turning every so often adding extra flour underneath if you need, to prevent sticking.
4. Using cutters (can be fluted or even heart shaped), cut out your biscuits, prick each a few times with a fork, and place them on a baking tray/s with space between them and bake for approximately 10-11 mins until slightly golden.
5. When done, sprinkle a little more caster sugar over the warm biscuits and leave to cool on the tray for 5 mins before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
6. To assemble, gently whip the cream, sugar and vanilla until it holds gently soft peaks. Pipe or spoon a layer of the cream over one cookie and then place over some of the strawberries. Top with a second cookie and repeat with the cream and strawberries, then top with the third cookie. Once completed, dust with a little extra icing sugar before serving.