Nigel Slater’s midweek treat: peach and blackberry shortbread

Serves 6. Ready in 1 hour.

A nutty shortbread makes a simple base for summer fruit. I like to marry almond shortbread with raspberries, hazelnut with blueberries, and pistachio with peaches or apricots. You could add some sort of dairy produce under the fruit, though I rather like using the juice of the fruit with a little caster sugar instead.

Heat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Line a shallow-sided baking tin measuring 20cm x 30cm with a piece of baking parchment.

Cut 225g of butter into small pieces, put it in the bowl of an electric mixer with 75g of golden caster sugar and 75g of light, soft brown sugar, add half a tsp of vanilla paste or extract, then beat until light and creamy.

Grind 65g of shelled pistachios, then mix with 60g of ground almonds.

Combine 175g of plain flour and 60g cornflour and add a couple of generous pinches of sea salt. Briefly mix the dry ingredients into the creamed butter and sugar. Pull the dough into a ball and press into the baking sheet. Take care not to compact the dough, patting it gently to fit the baking sheet. Prick the surface. Scatter a handful of finely chopped pistachios over the top.

With a large knife, score the dough into 12 pieces (six deep, two wide). Bake for 15-18 minutes until pale gold. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with caster sugar. Run your knife through the score lines. Let the shortbread cool before lifting the pieces from the baking tin.

Halve, stone and then thickly slice 4 white peaches. Toss them with 250g of blackberries and 1 tbsp of sugar and set aside. Serve the fruits on top of the shortbread with some extra pistachios.

• Take care not to overmix the butter, sugar and dry ingredients, which will toughen the shortbread.

• The finished biscuits are fragile. Use a palette knife to remove the shortbread from the tin.

Photograph by Jonathan Lovekin