Skye strawberries with whisky & lemon syllabub & shortbread biscuits

Shirley Spear: Chef

Ingredients: serves 4 - 6

Berries:

2 punnets of fresh strawberries, washed and hulled.

Syllabub:

250ml double cream
finely grated rind and juice of 2 large lemons
225g caster sugar
2 tbsp Isle of Skye blended whisky.

Shortbread:

375g plain flour
125g white rice flour
375g slightly salted Scottish butter
125g caster sugar

Method:

Syllabub:

Whisk all together until thick and floppy. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. The syllabub may need another whip before serving.

Shortbread:

Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Work the sifted flour into the creamed mixture until it forms a firm paste.
Knead it lightly on a well-floured board. Roll it out until quite thin and cut biscuit shapes with a cutter of your choice.
Using a palette knife, lift the biscuits onto a well-buttered baking sheet.
Bake on the centre shelf of a moderate oven, Gas Mark 5, until pale golden in colour.
Remove from oven and sprinkle liberally with caster sugar while still warm.
Lift on to wire tray to cool and firm-up. Store in an airtight tin.

Serve:

Put the strawberries into serving dishes, pretty glasses, or sundae glasses. Just before serving, pile the whipped syllabub on top of the strawberries and serve with a shortbread biscuit on the side.

If the strawberries are quite large, you may prefer to cut them into halves or quarters. You could also present a mixture of summer berries in the dish.