Honeyed, Poached Peaches and Petticoat Tails

Well, I bought this shortbread baking dish from Lakeland a few weeks ago and I've been itching to try it; it's ceramic and a thing of beauty and makes proper petticoat tails! I also have the vintage Scottish Women's Rural Institute Cook Book, chock full of recipes for shortbread, so I thought I'd give one a try. As I was serving the shortbread with the honeyed peaches I chose a recipe that didn't appear to be too sweet. The resulting shortbread was light, crumbly and buttery, but not sweet and good for serving with fruit. However, my chief taster (DH) thinks a sweeter version would be better as a tea-time treat (children didn't seem to mind lack of sweetness though, but I am inclined to agree with the DH) so I shall try a few more recipes in the book and publish one which will be good for eating with a nice cup of tea. Anyway, on with the recipe! For the peaches

Take one peach per person; wash them and stone them and place them in a baking dish with a teaspoon of honey per peach drizzled over the fruit. Bake in a medium oven for 30 minutes.

For the Petticoat Tails

Whilst humming Flower of Scotland to yourself, cream 4 oz of butter with 2 oz of caster sugar. Add 8 oz of flour and 2 oz of cornflour sifted together, lightly bringing the whole lot together to for a soft dough. Gently press the dough into the petticoat tail dish and prick dough with a fork OR roll dough out to a 1.5 cm thickness, place on a baking sheet, prick with a fork and mark out 8 portions with a knife, being careful not to cut through the dough. Bake for 30 minutes at 170 degrees until golden brown. When completely cool, turn out the shortbread and sprinkle with caster sugar.

I served the peaches and shortbread with home-made yogurt as I have a minor obsession with good digestive bacteria! But enough of my quirks! Enjoy your baking my wee chookie eggs!