Our Pick Your Own strawberries won’t be ready until early July, so in the meantime grab a punnet of our English strawberries from the farm-shop and whip up this delicious dessert!

This recipe is taken from ‘Short & Sweet; The Best of Home Baking’ by Dan Lepard and is the ideal summer pudding for a picnic or BBQ.

For this recipe you’ll need the following, all of which can be found in the farm shop. Sadly we don’t sell ready-made pastry, however we do sell the components to make your own (an additional recipe is featured below!)

• 1/2 quantity sweet shortcrust or almond pastry
• Flour for rolling
• 125ml milk
• 2 tablespoons cornflour
• 1 egg white
• 50g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 200ml crème fraîche
• 400g strawberries

Method

1. Chill the pastry for 30 minutes then roll it out and line a shallow 24cm tart tin.
2. Blind bake at 170 degrees celsius for about 30 minutes, until it is golden in colour. Remove the non-stick baking paper and beans halfway through.
3. Whisk the milk with the cornflour, egg white, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan until smooth, then heat, whisking constantly, until boiling.
4. Remove from the heat, spoon into a bowl and cover with a plate to stop a thick skin from forming as it cools.
5. When cold, beat in the crème fraîche and spoon this into the pastry case.
6. Destalk the strawberries, slice in half and fan them over the top.

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Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

Makes just over 500g (enough for two 20cm tarts or 10-12 mince pies!)

• 250g plain flour
• 50g icing sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 150g unsalted butter, cold but pliable
• 2 egg yolks
• 15ml ice-cold water

Method:

1. Spoon the flour, sugar and salt into a bowl.
2. Break the butter into small pieces and rub this through the flour until it vanishes.
3. Stir the egg yolks with the water and mix this into the flour to form a very soft and smooth paste.
4. Pat into a flat block, wrap well and chill for at least 30 minutes before using it as it needs time to firm up.

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