Almond shortcakes with strawberry rippled cream

Almond shortcakes with strawberry rippled cream

Ingredient

• 400ml thickened cream
• 150g strawberries
• 60g pure icing sugar, sieved
• 500g strawberries (about 2 punnets), trimmed and cut into wedges
• Baby basil, for garnish

Almond shortcakes

• 70g almonds
• 300g plain flour
• 50g rice flour
• 120g raw caster sugar
• 1 orange, zest only
• 220g cold butter, coarsely grated
• 1 egg, beaten for eggwash

Method

1. To make the almond shortcakes, preheat oven to 160C.
2. Spread almonds on an oven tray and roast, stirring occasionally, until browned (3-4 mins), then coarsely chop and set aside.
3. Combine flours, sugar, orange zest and a pinch of salt in a bowl, add butter and rub in with your fingertips until coarse crumbs form.
4. Turn onto a work surface, bring together with the heel of your hand, then press into a 1cm-thick rectangle and place on a tray lined with baking paper. Refrigerate to rest (30 mins), then cut into rounds with a 7cm-diameter cutter. Brush with eggwash, scatter with almonds and place on oventrays lined with baking paper.
5. Bake until just golden (12-15 mins), cool completely on trays, then store in an airtight container until required. Almond shortcakes will keep for 1 week.
6. Macerate some strawberries in sugar and set aside for 10 mins. 
7. Whip the cream and once the juices of the macerated strawberries start to run, ripple through the whipped cream.
8. Combine strawberries with remaining cream and icing sugar in a bowl and toss to combine, refrigerate until required.
9. To serve, spoon a little cream mixture onto shortcakes, pile strawberries on top, scatter with baby basil and serve.

This recipe first appeared on Gourmet Today TV, aired on TVM on 20 May, 2016.