Strawberry Biscuits.

I know, I know, I'm so very behind on the whole strawberries and cream thing. Mr Murray did that whole winning thing agggggessss ago. But for me that was kind of the point. You see what happened was...my tennis club (read: friends that live near by and collectively have nothing better to do that get together for chats and dress it up into clubs so we sound useful....book club, tennis club etcetc, there was no actual tennis achieved on our part) and I had planned a Pimms Party to accompany Sunday's Wimbledon finale (yes finalE).

Turned out one half of tennis club (yes there are pretty much only 2 members, myself included...let me finish my STORY would you) had double booked, and you can't reschedule the Wimbledon final.

Turns out you can though, or at least you can reschedule a Pimms Party and, would you credit it, my TV does this new fangled thing where you can record things and watch them another day. So Sunday was spent, surrounded by strawberries, in complete radio silence. I was NOT going to find out the result if it meant digging a hole and sleeping in it for 24 hours.

It was worth it for me, Pimms Party a day late was brill....but I'm sorry I didn't get this recipe to you in time for me to force you to have your own Pimms Party on Sunday. Ahhh well, I don't think a Wimby final is 100% necessary...you could probably have one next weekend without the police getting involved, the celebrations of the win will probably still be going. With Love and Cake.

Strawberry Biscuits.

adapted from a smittenkitchen.com recipe

A few notes:

• These are biscuits in the American sense....us Brits would more readily call them scones. So do split and butter or clotted cream them if you fancy...though I would highly recommend keeping a vat of Eton Mess nearby so you can combine the two.
• Treat these like you would scones in the making process too; as in, as little pressing and pushing and working as poss. I used my food processor, until the part where you add the strawberries, to help with this.

Makes 9

You will need

1 baking sheet, greased

280g plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

50g granulated sugar

pinch salt

85g cold butter, cubed

about 130g ripe strawberries, large ones quartered, littler ones halved

milk

• Preheat your oven to 220°c.
• Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, either in a bowl or by pulsing in your food processor.
• Rub in the butter with your finger tips or by whizzing in the food processor, until it mostly looks like coarse breadcrumbs with a few pea sized bits of butter left floating around.
• Sir in the strawberries...you don't want to use your food processor for this bit.
• Then add milk, a tablespoon at a time, while gently bringing together to a soft dough. Stop at the point where everything has just come together, it's better that it's a bit straggly than you overwork it to a smooth shiny dough.
• Transfer to a clean floured surface and gently shape into a square, about 2.5 cm in thickness...I think it's easiest and most gently just to use your hands here.
• Cut into 9 squares, 2 cuts one way and two the other, and transfer each square to your baking sheet.
• Bake for 15 minutes until golden and the strawberries have started to go leaky and sticky...mmmmm.