Strawberry shortcakes

I grew up with a strawberry shortcake duvet cover and pillow (this exact one) and a strawberry shortcake doll whose head smelt of strawberry in the way some toys did in the 80’s. A heady, plastic-y, vanilla-strawberry scent that I could not get enough of. For a 5-year-old me, climbing under that duvet with the strawberry doll was as good as it gets.

The smell of strawberries has remained one of the smells I like the best. To me the scarlet fruit smells of caramelised sugar and vanilla and the green tops (the calyx) smell of grass or tomato vines.

I have a soft spot for actual strawberry shortcakes. These are some I made a week or two ago. They fly pretty close to scone territory, but I didn't have any dolls called Scone. An oversight perhaps - it's a pretty good doll/dog/guinea pig name if you ask me. So strawberry shortcakes it is.

These shortcakes differ from scones in that they are a little lighter and less sweet, thanks to some yoghurt in the mixture. There is vanilla and lemon zest in the batter, and once stamped out into squat little dough rounds, they are topped with sugar for a crunchy top.

I have made them with roasted strawberries this time, but they are just as good with some chopped fresh. I’ve given you a method for both. My rule is if the strawberry tastes good, use them fresh, if they are squishy or over/under ripe - roast them.

I use some fennel seeds with the strawberries as they bring something unexpected and the sweet backnote of the seeds works brilliantly with the strawberries, somehow making them taste even more intensely of themselves.

In a break from tradition for both scones and shortcakes I use yoghurt here instead of cream. Yoghurt is my preferred dairy for almost all sweet things. It adds creaminess but also acidity. When it's hot outside and with other sweet elements on your plate, yoghurt works brilliantly.