Strawberry 1: strawberries and sandcastles

It just wouldn’t be summer without a trip to the seaside. Add just a hint of the beach by serving these bite sized British strawberries, dipped in dark glossy chocolate flavoured with just a hint of orange over a bed of crushed biscuit crumbs or press the mixture into mini buckets or dariole tins for a fun take on a sandcastle.

Serves 6

‘Sand’ Biscuits
225g/8oz gluten free flour
Large pinch of fine salt
1 vanilla pod, slit lengthways, seeds scraped from pod
55g/2oz icing sugar
110g/4oz butter, diced
1 egg yolk
2-3 teaspoons water
6 ice cream cones
55g/2oz butter

Chocolate Strawberries
200g/7oz dark chocolate, broken into pieces
Finely grated zest of 2 medium oranges
2 teaspoons light olive oil
500g/1lb 2oz strawberries, chilled

Method

To make the sand biscuit, preheat the oven to 180oC/160oC fan assisted/Gas Mark 4. Add the flour, salt, vanilla seeds and icing sugar to a bowl or food processor. Add the butter and rub in until fine crumbs. Add the egg and just enough water to mix to a soft dough. Roll the dough out between two sheets of non-stick baking paper, slide on to a baking sheet then chill for 20 minutes.

For the strawberries, add the chocolate, orange rind and olive oil to a bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water, making sure that the water doesn’t touch the base of the bowl. Heat until just melted then stir until smooth. Strain the chocolate through a fine sieve into a bowl, if liked then dip the strawberries into the chocolate and put on to a tray lined with non-stick baking paper. Put in a cool place to set.

Crush the biscuit and ice cream cones into fine crumbs. Melt the butter in a small saucepan, mix in 225g/8oz of the crumbs then pack into 6 small buttered mini buckets or dariole moulds. Chill 10 minutes then loosen and turn out on to small plates. Scatter extra crumbs on to the plates then arrange the strawberries on top, adding little flags or plastic spoons if liked.

Cook’s tip
Short of time? Cheat and use two bars of your favourite brand of flavoured chocolate.