So this is the second, (and third), recipe(s) to go with this Friday’s tasting of Domaine Jones’ wines. To finish we are going to be slurping away at her deliciously light and fun Muscat. A party in the glass, and at only 10% ABV a great way to finish a meal. Muscat is the ‘grapey’ grape, and it sings of summer. Although that said I am quite fond of it with a slice of Christmas pud too! So this Friday I am going to pair it with two lovely light desserts that work as well together as they do with the wine.

Firstly strawberry soup.

This features in my book but it is simplicity itself to make. Wipe clean and hull the strawberries and throw a large handful into a blender with a heaped dessert spoon of icing sugar, 3 fresh mint leaves and a small glass of the Muscat wine. Blitz until smooth. if serving straight away you can add a few ice cubes, otherwise decant into a bottle with a lid and chill until ready to serve. I am using the Charlotte variety of strawberries as they have a fabulous perfume and are lusciously sweet. However if where you are the strawberries are not really ripe yet you can increase the sugar or add a dash of strawberry syrup or liqueur. I like to serve in fun, old fashioned liqueur glasses or teacups. This makes enough for 4 small servings.

Then the sablés, a Breton biscuit, but this is my twist to a classic.

Ingredients:

1 egg

125g salted butter, chilled and cubed

125g castor sugar

a pinch of salt

200g flour

50g rice flour

a sprig or two of fresh lavender (optional)

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 180ºC and prepare two lined baking sheets ready, these take no time at all to make!
2. In a food processor mix the egg, butter, sugar and salt, pulse to a fine crumbs.
3. Add the flours and the lavender removed from the stem. Lavender is strong and you either like it or not so add to your preferred strength, I only wanted a hint so used it sparingly. Rosemary is another good alternative.
4. Tip out onto a floured surface, I used rice flour to roll on.
5. Cold hands are good here so if you are blessed with warm hands put them in the fridge to cool down! You need to work fast and handle the dough as little as possible.
6. Roll out to 3 – 5mm and cut with the cutter of your choice, transfer onto the baking sheet with a palette knife – remember you want to handle these as little as possible.
7. Scrap up any leftover dough and roll out again and repeat. You can do this once as by the third roll they really are too warm and only good for the dog!
8. Prick the biscuits lightly with a fork and pop in the oven.
9. You need to stay where you are and watch them like a hawk as these fellas go from underdone to the poubelle within moments!!!
10. Remove when just turning lightly golden (I was multi tasking and so lost a couple to the composter, we don’t have a dog!) remove from the trays with a palette knife and leave to cool on a wire rack.
11. Sprinkle with golden castor sugar and serve alongside the strawberry soup.

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I purposely made more of these than I needed, this recipe makes roughly 25. So I melted some dark chocolate in a bain maire with some sugar and spices, then used it to top the extra biscuits with and….. voila a goûter for Louis’ lunch box for the next few days!