Instructions

For the fruit base

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F).
2. Wash and drain the strawberries.
3. Hull the strawberries and place them directly into a round ceramic baking dish, about 23 cm (9 inches) wide. If the strawberries are large, halve or quarter them. Otherwise, I prefer to leave them whole.
4. Sprinkle the vanilla sugar and cornflour (cornstarch) over the strawberries.
5. Use a spoon to gently mix everything together.
6. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the strawberries have softened a little, but they still hold their shape. At this stage, the strawberries would have oozed very little liquid, or none at all.

For the cobbler topping

1. Place the butter, flour and baking powder into the bowl of a stand mixer.
2. Using the flat paddle attachment, beat until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
3. Add the salt, sugar and lemon zest.
4. With the flat paddle attachment on low speed, slowly add the milk until you have a soft, sticky dough. You may not need all of the milk.
5. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface.
6. Gently pat the dough together and shape it to a thickness of about 2 cm (1 inch).
7. Using a floured scone or cookie cutter, cut out 10 to 12 rounds from the dough.

Assembling the strawberry cobbler

1. Arrange the cobbler topping on top of the partially cooked strawberries.
2. Brush each cobbler topping with some milk.
3. Generously sprinkle demerera sugar over the cobbler topping.
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the cobbler topping is lightly golden.
5. Let the strawberry cobbler settle for about 5 minutes before serving.
6. Dust with icing sugar (powdered sugar).
7. Serve hot with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.