For many of Britain's foodies, summer means one thing – strawberry season. Nowadays there are all sorts of strawberry varieties grown in the UK, prolonging the season until mid to late September (if we’re lucky).
Not only that, these tasty little gems are actually packed full of antioxidants, vitamins and nutrients, so there’s really no reason not to make the most of them this summer. And what better way to enjoy them than with delicious double cream? If you’re looking for inspiration, you’ve come to the right place – here are eight of our favourite recipes, from some of Britain’s best chefs and food writers.
Graham Campbell provides a twist on strawberries and cream by setting his as a panna cotta. To start, Graham purées his strawberries, before rippling them through his panna cotta mix and setting them in glasses. Slices of strawberry at the top and bottom provide a bit of extra freshness and texture, making this a wonderful summery dessert.
Tom Aikens has always championed fresh British produce, and his strawberry and Champagne dessert is quintessentially English. Poaching the strawberries with mint lends them grassy freshness, and the dish is finished with a decadent Champagne sabayon with a shortbread biscuit on the side.
If you’re after an interesting take on strawberries and cream, Marcello Tully’s clever sponge cake might be just the ticket. Marcello combines black pepper sponge with tangy lemon curd, fresh strawberries and Chantilly cream to make an elegant petit four – perfect for any dinner party or special summer occasion.
Nathan Outlaw’s reinvention of another British classic is very smart and although there are lots of components, there’s nothing too technically difficult involved, plus most of it can be made ahead of time. Nathan whips up a sponge cake and fills it with a double cream mousse and strawberry gel, pairing it with some vanilla-macerated strawberries, an Earl Grey tea ice cream and Earl Grey syrup.
Anna Hansen’s adventurous dish uses a couple of interesting ingredients to elevate the humble afternoon tea. She uses toasted hazelnuts in her scones to add earthiness and texture, whilst the addition of ground tonka bean lends a lovely vanilla aroma, with clove and cherry flavours.
Gluten-free cake can be a tricky thing to get right, but Victoria Glass hits the nail on the head with this beauty. She combines rice flour, egg, bicarbonate of soda and white wine vinegar to create her light and fluffy ‘Wimbledon Cake’. Victoria bakes the sponge in a cake ring, before drizzling over a vanilla icing and filling the hole with a mound of whipped cream and strawberries. A true showstopper.
Elderflower and strawberry make fantastic partners, so it’s a shame that the elderflower season is relatively short. Thankfully this recipe uses cordial, so you can make it year-round! Angela Field makes choux buns and fills them with strawberry compote and whipped elderflower cream to create this dainty crowd-pleasing dessert.
Sumayya Usmani’s simple but effective summer dessert combines strawberries with a much-loved exotic fruit – the mango. Just slice your strawberries and mangoes – preferably Pakistani honey mangoes, says Sumayya – into bitesize chunks, and serve with saffron-infused whipped cream and crushed pistachios over the top. What’s not to love about that?
Many of us have been more than a little put off this quintessentially British dessert by sweaty, cloying ready-made versions, but if you make the whole thing yourself the result is far superior, and absolutely worth the effort. It's actually a lovely, relaxing way to spend a summer afternoon – bake a bit of cake, whip up a custard, a coulis and a compote and gradually layer up. The result? An underrated summer showstopper.
Strawberry shortcake is a simple but wonderful thing – just fresh strawberries, whipped vanilla cream, and crumbly shortcake biscuit at it's heart, with a dollop of strawberry compote in for good measure if you feel the need. It's equally good as a rough and ready dessert at a summer dinner party or as part of an afternoon tea, but either way, this is a classic that always goes down well.
