Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan/ Gas 4 /350°F and line 2-3 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. For the shortbread, in a mixing bowl, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla until soft and pale. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the flour, mix just until a rough dough is formed.
3. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured work surface and squeeze together, then roll out to about 1cm in thickness.
4. Tip: The dough should be quite crumbly, don’t worry if it breaks apart at the edges when rolling out, simply pat together. Avoid overworking the dough so that it keeps its short and crumbly texture once baked.
5. Using a 5cm cutter, cut out 30 shortbread rounds.
6. Arrange on prepared baking sheets then bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Tip: These won’t spread a lot while baking so you don’t need to space them apart too much. To hold their shapes even better, chill for 15-30 minutes in the fridge before baking.
7. Remove from oven and leave to cool on wire rack for about 10 minutes, then carefully remove shortbread from baking trays and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
8. For the Chantilly cream, whisk the cream, vanilla and icing sugar until thick.
9. Spoon this into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle.
10. Quarter the strawberries and set aside.
11. To assemble, pipe a small amount of cream onto a shortbread biscuit, place 3 pieces of strawberry on the cream.
12. Pipe another small amount of cream on top to help the next shortbread biscuit placed on top to stick. To finish, pipe small dot of cream on top and garnish with a strawberry piece and finish with an edible flour. Assemble all the shortbread’s and dust with icing sugar before you serve.
13. Tip: Change up the berries, raspberries & blueberries are beautiful too. The unbaked shortbread dough can be made in advance, wrapped in clingfilm and can stay in the freezer for up to 3 months.