Paul serves his scones in fingers with a homemade strawberry and champagne compôte for a modern take on this British classic.
To make the strawberry compôte, put the strawberries, sugar and lemon juice into a large pan and gently mix together.
On a low heat, warm the mixture. Once the sugar has dissolved increase the heat and boil rapidly for five minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter.
Leave to cool for 15 minutes, then stir in the champagne. Pour into sterilised jars.
To make the scone fingers, preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7 and line a baking tray with baking parchment.
Place the flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl. Add the butter and rub in using your fingers until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the eggs and mix in. Gradually add the milk bringing everything together to form a soft dough. You may not need all the milk.
Sprinkle a generous handful of flour onto a work surface. Tip the dough out onto it and sprinkle more flour on top. Use your hands to fold the dough in half, and then turn 90 degrees and repeat. Do this a few times until a smooth dough is formed. If the dough becomes sticky, use extra flour to coat your hands but try not to overwork the dough.
Sprinkle a little more flour onto the work surface. Roll out the dough to 1.5cm/ ½in thick and into a rectangle approximately 22x25cm/9x10in. Trim the edges to neaten the rectangle.
Roll a docker over the surface or prick all over with a fork. Score the dough to mark out finger-sized rectangles (two lines vertically and eight horizontally to make 24 scone fingers).
Brush the top with egg wash and bake for 15-17 minutes, or until risen and golden-brown. Remove from the oven and cut through the scored lines to make the fingers. Leave to cool.
Serve the scone fingers with the strawberry compôte and clotted cream.
This recipe makes more strawberry compôte than you will need, but it will keep for months if stored in an airtight jar in the fridge and can be used for cake fillings, stirred into yoghurt or spread on toast.
