Strawberry Sherbet With Shortbread Fingers

-SHORTBREAD FINGERS-
30 g Caster Sugar
55 g Unsalted Butter
55 g Plain Flour
30 g Semolina
15 g Skinned and Chopped Hazelnut

1. Dissolve the sugar in the water in a saucepan over a gentle heat. When
it is all dissolved turn up the heat and bring to the boil. Simmer to
reduce the syrup in volume slightly and thicken the consistency. Cool and
then chill.

2. Hull the strawberries and puree them in a blender with the lemon juice.

3. Mix together the strawberry and lemon puree with the stock syrup and
then pass through a fine sieve.

4. If you have an ice cream maker, pour in the sherbet and set to 40 – 45
minutes to churn and freeze. Alternatively, freeze in a shallow container
in the freezer until the sorbet is slushy. Remove from freezer and whisk
until doubled in volume. Return to freezer.

5. Repeat this process twice more to ensure that any ice crystals are
broken down and dispersed and the resultant sherbet is creamy and light.

Skin Hazelnuts

6. Spread hazelnuts on a baking sheet and roast in a hot oven for 4 or 5
minutes until the nuts are golden and the skins start to lift. Tip onto one
half of a clean dry tea towel. Fold the second half over the hot nuts and
rub with the tea towel until the skins rub off. Shortbread Fingers

7. Preheat oven to 150c / 300f / Gas Mark 2. Grease a flat baking sheet.

8. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

9. Mix together flour and semolina and sieve. Add nuts.

10. Gradually work the sifted flour and chopped nuts into the creamed
mixture until it forms a dough.

11. Blend the few crumbs in with your hand to make it all stick together.
Gently knead it on a lightly floured surface until smooth. This is a
fragile dough – which is why it is so crumbly and rich to eat – so handle
it lightly and carefully. Heavy handling will cause the butter to oil out
and the biscuits to be hard instead of crispy and crumbly.

12. Roll out lightly to a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Exact size is
unimportant since you will be cutting it into finger shapes. Crimp the
edges with the back of a fork and make fork marks all over the dough in
even lines. This is partly traditional and partly to prevent the biscuits
from bubbling up in places.

13. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes until lightly coloured. Dredge with caster
sugar. Mark into finger shapes. When cool, lift with palette knife onto
cooling rack until cold.

14. The biscuits only become crisp when cold.

15. They make lovely accompaniment to mousses, fruit salads and ice cream