Strawberries, strawberries

Whilst the northern hemisphere enjoys autumnal feasts and the fruits of the season such as persimmons, apples and pears, we in the Southern Hemisphere are enjoying the fruits of our late spring, such as strawberries.  My mother always said you should make a wish when you eat the first strawberry of the season, and so I still do, enjoying that fresh, tart taste of early fruit.

This month’s bake sale where I currently work had strawberries as the theme. Since I always, for some reason, make biscuits, I opted for these Frangipane Jam Drops, using strawberry jam.  The recipe, as usual, comes from Australian Women’s Weekly.

Preheat the oven to 180C.  Grease oven trays and line with baking paper. Beat together 125g butter, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 110g caster sugar and 120g ground almonds with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add one egg, beating until just combined.  Stir in 100g plain flour.

Drop level tablespoons of the mixture onto the trays, leaving a good gap between them.  Using the handle of a wooden spoon, make a small hole in the top of each biscuit.  Fill each hole with a little strawberry jam. Bake for about 15 minutes.

Verdict: easy to make, but eat on day 1, as they are not a ‘keeping’ biscuit.  Personally, I thought they were a bit soggy after 2 days, which is not the point of baking biscuits really is it?

Other strawberry themed things this week included the strawberry fair to raise money for the Mary Potter Hospice (see last year’s post on this) and this tisane from tleafT, berrylicious, which contains hibiscus, rose hip, apple, elderberries, blackberries, strawberry and raspberry.  It is quite delicious and just right for summer days ahead.

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