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Grape and carrot loaf cake

25/4/2020

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You'll know by now how much I hate waste! I spend a lot of time developing recipes to use up those ingredients that got overlooked for just a little too long and are seemingly past their best.

This always happens to grapes in our household. The bunches are attacked when they are plump, luscious and firm. But after a while, they wither and people start to avoid them in the fruit bowl. Past their best, they are overlooked and, invariably, find their way into the compost or bin! It's time to see these wrinkly old grapes for what they are: young raisins! Too moist still to be substituted for raisins without further dehydration, but perfect for a wet batter mix such as carrot cake!

Et voila! Our grape and carrot loaf cake! A delicious variation of an old favourite: sweet, moist and beautifully textured with seeds and nuts, and complemented by a tangy sour cream frosting.

It's an easy all-in-one-bowl batter method. Just take your time preparing all your ingredients before you start, turn your oven on and away you go...


Grape and carrot loaf
(makes 1 large loaf cake)
 
For the batter:
Self raising flour         200g
Vegetable oil               170ml
Grated carrots            200g
‘Old’ black grapes       80g
Pecans                         50g
Pumpkin seeds           30g
Sultanas                      50g
Granulated sugar       90g
Brown sugar               90g
Medium eggs              3
Vanilla extract            1 tsp 
Fine sea salt                ½ tsp
Cinnamon*                1 tsp
Cardamom*              1 tsp
Zest of 1 orange
Freshly grated nutmeg
*(if you don’t have individual spices, substitute with 2 tsp mixed spice overall)
 
For the sour cream frosting:
Unsalted butter, softened        150g
Icing sugar, sifted                     300g
Sour cream or crème fraiche  100g
 
 
Method
 
Preheat your oven to 160°C (140°C Fan)/320°F
 
Firstly sift together your SR flour, spices and salt.
Now, place your oil, sugars and eggs together in a mixing bowl and beat together. Stir in your vanilla extract and grated carrots. Depending on the size of your grapes and how wrinkled they have become, either half or quarter them and add to your bowl. Now throw in your nuts, seeds, orange zest and sultanas and combine. Mix the final batter by gradually stirring in your flour/spice mix. Don’t over beat your batter at this stage (you will develop gluten which will make your cake rubbery); the flour just needs to be evenly incorporated. Pour your batter into a greased and lined tin – I like to use a large loaf tin for this cake.
 
Place your cake into the preheated oven. The wet batter mix is going to need long, slow baking at a cooler than usual temperature - approximately 90 mins at 160°C. Check the cake after 80-85 minutes. The cake will appear ‘set’ if gently jiggled, will have shrunk away from the sides and a skewer will come out clean. However, it is far easier to use a digital probe thermometer, which takes the guess work out of baking and avoids the disappointment of a soggy middle or bottom. The cake will be ideally cooked in the range of 96°C - 98°C. At 100°C, the moisture in the cake will begin to evaporate, leaving your cake dry and overcooked.
 
When cooked, leave to cool for twenty minutes or so in the tin and then turn out to cool completely on a wire rack before icing.
 
 
To prepare the frosting:
 
Make sure your butter is very soft before attempting to mix your icing. Use the butter softening mode on your microwave, if necessary. Then, to the softened butter add your sifted icing sugar and gently blend in. Once incorporated, you can beat your buttercream until light and airy, then beat in your sour cream or crème fraiche. The slight acidity of the cream cuts through the sweetness giving a wonderfully tart edge to your frosting.
 
When the cake is completely cool, frost and decorate your cake with pecans, orange zest or edible flowers.  
 
Store somewhere cool - remember the frosting contains fresh dairy.
 
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COUNTRY WHITE SOURDOUGH RECIPE

7/4/2020

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So you've made your starter, and you're rightly proud of this bubbling, fermenting pot of life that you've grown and nurtured. Here is our basic country sourdough recipe. This uses a kneading method. Some days, it just helps to bash out your frustrations on an inanimate lump of dough! Remember, this is sloooooowwww dough. All good things are worth the wait!

Country White Sourdough

(makes 1 medium loaf)
 
Plan ahead. Sourdough will always be at least 2 days in the making. Feed your starter about 8 hours (overnight is perfect) before you are ready to make your sourdough, so that it is lively and active before you begin.
 
300g strong white flour
80g wholemeal flour
120g active starter (liquid, 100% hydration)
250g water
8g fine sea salt
 
Measure your dry ingredients into a large bowl. Place your starter and water in a separate bowl and mix roughly together. Now pour these into the dry ingredients. Mix with your scraper until all the ingredients are combined and a rough dough has formed. Turn out onto your clean work surface and knead for 15-20 minutes until you have an elastic dough which doesn’t stick to your fingers or to the work surface. Alternatively, place in your mixer with the dough hook attachment and mix on medium for about 7 minutes until the dough comes cleanly away from the sides of the bowl. Form the dough into a ball and place back into your lightly floured bowl. Cover with a large plastic bag or a baking cloth and leave to prove.
 
After 30 minutes, fold and stretch your dough: using your scraper, turn the dough carefully out onto a lightly floured surface – with the ‘top’ of the dough now underneath. Taking the 4 points of the compass in turn, pull the dough gently to one side then bring over to the middle point of your dough (as if you were making a paper windmill). When all 4 ‘corners’ have been brought into the middle, turn your dough back over and place back in the bowl, so that the top of the dough remains uppermost. Repeat folding action every half an hour. This is the ‘bulk proof’ stage and should take 3 or more hours. Stretch and fold your dough about 6 times during this stage. Each time you will be building the strength of your dough and improving the final loaf.
 
After 3-4 hours (depending upon ambient temperature) you are ready to shape your dough. Don’t expect it to have doubled in size like a yeasted dough. It will not need de-gassing. Using the round side of your scraper, carefully tip out the dough onto a lightly floured surface, so that the ‘top’ of the dough is now lying underneath on your floured countertop.  Shape your loaf by stretching the edge of the dough and bringing onto the middle, like when stretching and folding your dough during the first prove. Go around the entire circle of dough, then flip and place it seem side down on your counter, ensuring there is no flour underneath the seam.
 
Now you can ‘tighten’ your ball by dragging it towards you and allowing the friction of the counter to resist the movement. This should cause the ‘skin’ of your ball of dough to tighten a little. Adjust and do the same in a few different directions around your ball. Do not over-tighten. A few little stretches are all it takes. You don’t want to tear the skin that is containing your dough under tension.  When you have a tight ball, place seam side up into a pre-floured proving basket – wholemeal flour works best here, as the bran prevents sticking (do not use rye flour). However, a well-shaped loaf will not stick in your banneton. It is essential that you pay attention to the tightening of the dough at this stage. If your loaf collapses when you tip it out, ready to bake, it could well be you have not tightened sufficiently before placing in the basket. If you have no proving basket, flour a good quality linen cloth well, placed inside a round 1litre bowl (eg Pyrex bowl). This prevents your dough relaxing into a puddle whilst it proves for a second time.
 
Cover with a loose-fitting plastic bag or baking cloth for about 3-5 hours (depending upon ambient temperature) until the dough appears ready. At this stage, the dough will bounce slowly back when pressed gently with a floured finger. If it bounces rapidly back, it needs a little longer. If the indentation remains, you have over-proved your dough. Alternatively, you can place the dough in the fridge when it appears to be nearly ready, say after 3-4 hours, and leave overnight.
 
When the loaves are ready to bake, turn them out onto a lightly dusted peel. Be gentle with your loaves at this stage. Slash the loaves at an oblique angle of about 30 degrees, to allow extra expansion in the oven. Place in a very hot oven, pre-heated to 240°C. As you place the loaves in the oven, spray the walls, ceiling and floor of your oven with water, avoiding the loaves themselves.  Now turn down your oven down to 220 °C and bake for 35-45 minutes for the larger, until golden or dark brown, according to preference.  Alternatively, bake inside a pre-heated Dutch oven or cast iron casserole dish – the lid will keep in all the steam that is released by the dough during the first 15 mins, after which you can remove the lid and continue to bake and crust over. To check reliably whether your bread is baked, place a probe thermometer into the centre. A loaf will be reliably baked when the thermometer reads 95°C or more.
 
 
Notes on refreshing your starters:
 
Wheat starter: Wheat starters can be kept in a liquid state (usually 100% hydration) or a stiff state (usually 50% hydration). This recipe uses a liquid starter. To refresh your liquid starter, take 100g of starter (discarding or using the rest) and add 100g water and 100g of flour, ie equal parts flour and water. If using a new recipe, always check whether a stiff or liquid starter is required and adjust your overall water/flour quantities in the recipe, if necessary. Leave the refreshed starter at a warm room temperature for 8-12 hours before using. If it is not required straight away, simply place in the fridge after a few hours. Your starter will keep refrigerated for a couple of weeks (and can even be dehydrated or frozen!), but it is best to refresh it every 7 days even if not being used.

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Pane Pugliese (Semolina bread)

1/4/2020

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Pane Pugliese
(makes 1 large loaf)
 
Although many of my recipes are inspired by the Tuscany region, this recipe is a Southern Italian treasure from the Puglia region. Pane Pugliese is made with either all or the greater part hard durum wheat – fine semolina or ‘semola rimacinata di grano duro’. The finest example of this is Pane di Altamura, now granted PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) status. The loaf is a beautiful pale gold in colour and has the characteristic crumb and crunchy crust of a semolina bread. It is utterly delicious and well worth a try.

If you wish, you can use all semolina for this recipe. Simply replace the bread flour in the biga and dough with more semolina.
 
 
Ingredients
 
Overnight biga:
Strong bread flour        100g
Tepid water                   100g
Fresh yeast                        2g
 
For the dough:
Strong bread flour        100g
Fine durum semolina   400g
Tepid water                   300g
Biga, from above          200g
Fresh Yeast                      10g (or 5g instant dried yeast)*
Sea salt                            10g
*if you intend to prove overnight in the fridge, reduce the amount of yeast to about half.
 
 
Method
 
The night before, mix together the ingredients for the biga and leave, covered, overnight at ambient room temperature.
 
Make the dough by combining the above ingredients and knead for 10-15 minutes until you have a smooth elastic dough. Leave, covered, in an oiled bowl for 30 mins, after which you can stretch and fold your dough. Cover once more and leave for a further 30 minutes.
 
When your dough has significantly increased in size, after this first prove of about 1 hour, tip it out onto a lightly floured surface and shape tightly into a ball. Place into a floured banneton, cover and leave to prove again for 1 – 1½ hours, depending on ambient temperature. Alternatively, place in the fridge and allow to prove slowly overnight*.
 
Pre-heat the oven to 240°C.
 
When your loaf is ready, slash the top with a sharp knife or baker’s lame and either slide from a peel onto a hot baking stone, or bake inside a preheated cast iron pot. Turn oven down to 220°C and bake for 45-50 minutes. If baking in a cast iron pot, remove the lid after 15 minutes to allow the loaf to develop a golden crust. The loaf will be baked when the crumb reaches 95°C.
 
Leave to cool on a cooling rack.

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RHUBARB & BLOOD ORANGE FRANGIPANE TART

30/3/2020

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Rhubarb is seasonal and abundant. Here we've coupled it with the last of the Spanish blood oranges, but any orange will do!

Ingredients:

For the sweetcrust
75g icing sugar
125g butter
1 medium egg
250g plain flour

For the filling
4-5 sticks of rhubarb
250g sugar
250g water
1 orange (or blood orange)


For the frangipane
150g caster sugar
150g butter
3 medium eggs
150g ground almonds
30g plain flour


​
Method:
This recipe involves making 3 elements - the sweetcrust, the filling and the frangipane - separately, and assembling together at the end.

For the sweetcrust:
  • Beat 75g sifted icing sugar together with half a pack (125g) of softened butter.
  • Beat in 1 medium egg - about 50-55g worth. If you only have large eggs, remove a little of the white.
  • Now fold in 250g of plain flour, using your hands when it becomes easier and handling as lightly as possible.
  • Form into a dough, wrap and rest in fridge for 30 min before rolling and lining a well-greased flan tin. Reserve scraps for patching.
  • Prick the base all over and chill again before baking blind at 180C. Bake it blind, so you have a cooled, baked case to fill.

For the filling:
  • Cut 4-5 sticks of rhubarb into 5cm chunks and cook in a syrup of 250g sugar in 250g water for about 5 mins.
  • Allow to cool in syrup, then remove and reserve syrup.
  • Now slice an orange into thinnish slices (about the thickness of a pound coin) and cook in the reserved rhubarb syrup until tender. Reserve a few of the orange pieces and some of the rhubarb pieces to decorate the top of your tart!
  • Place the rest of the cooked rhubarb in with the leftover oranges in syrup and cook down until you have a jammy compote. Leave to cool. This will be used to cover the base of your tart.

For the frangipane:
  • Now make your frangipane. I make mine with ground almonds, but feel free to sub with other nut flour, such as hazelnut. 
  • Beat 150g softened butter (preferably unsalted) together with 150g caster sugar.
  • Mix in 3 medium eggs (about 150g, if you only have large eggs to hand).
  • Stir in 150g ground almonds and about 30g plain flour. Essentially, this is a classic sponge mixture with almond flour instead of regular flour.

Now you're ready to assemble! 
  • Cover the base of your cooled baked tart shell with the rhubarb and orange compote, then top with the frangipane.
  • Take your reserved few pieces of cooked rhubarb and cut into thin strips, ready to decorate the top of the frangipane with the cooked orange slices.
  • Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.
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PORRIDGE BREAD

29/3/2020

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​Porridge bread  (Makes 1 large loaf, 2 small or about 8 rolls)

For the porridge*:
80g              porridge oats
220g            boiling water
*alternatively, use 300g leftover porridge
 
For the dough:
300g            above porridge
330g            strong bread flour
180g            tepid water
10g              fresh yeast (or 5g instant dried yeast)
8g                fine sea salt
 
 
Method:

First, pour over the boiling water over your oats, mix and set to one side to cool. Alternatively, use any leftover porridge you may have.
 
When cool, place with the tepid water in a bowl or mixer. Add the flour, salt and yeast, ensuring the yeast is kept separate from the salt, at least initially. Mix with your scraper until all ingredients are combined and a rough dough has formed. Turn out onto your work surface and knead for 15 minutes or so, until you have an elastic dough which doesn’t stick to the work surface or your fingers. Alternatively, knead in your mixer, using the dough hook attachment for approximately half the time. Form the dough into a ball and place back into your lightly floured bowl. Cover with a large plastic bag or a baking cloth and leave to rest for about an hour.
 
Now it’s time to fold and stretch your dough: using your scraper, turn the dough carefully out onto a lightly floured surface – with the ‘top’ of the dough now underneath. Taking the 4 points of the compass in turn, pull the dough gently outwards then bring over to the middle point of your dough (as if you were making a paper windmill). When all 4 ‘corners’ have been brought into the middle, turn your dough back over and place back in the bowl, so that the ‘top’ of the dough remains uppermost. Rest, covered, for a further 15-20 minutes so the dough can relax again.
 
Now, you are ready to shape your dough ready to place into a tin, a proving basket or into rolls. Carefully tip out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Turn the dough back over so that the ‘top’ of the dough is now uppermost. Divide into portions for rolls or loaves, then shape into a smooth ball, or oval if baking in a tin
 
If shaping your dough in an oval to fit a tin, remember to grease your tin before placing the shaped dough inside, with the seam concealed neatly underneath.
 
Cover your loaf/loaves/rolls whilst they prove for a second time for about an hour until they appear nicely ‘bloated’ and are approximately double in size.
 
Preheat your oven to 240°C.
 
When the dough is ready (slowly springing back when you prod gently with a floury finger), place into your hot oven. Spray around the floor and walls of the oven to create steam then quickly close the oven. Turn down the oven to 220°C and bake until golden brown on top and bottom. Rolls will take 12-15 minutes, a small loaf will take about 25-35 minutes and a large loaf, 40-45 minutes. If you have a probe thermometer, the bread is cooked when the centre of the loaf reaches 95°C.

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Tuscan Schiacciata (flatbread)

29/3/2020

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 Schiaciatta – literally ‘squashed’ or ‘flattened’ – is a Tuscan version the popular Italian flatbread focaccia. Their shape and size can vary, much like pizzas, but they are generally thin, resembling giant crackers in some cases. To stretch so thin the dough must be very well rested, so this dough should be made well ahead of time and can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days. I like mine to have a varied thickness rather than uniform, so I prefer to hand stretch, leaving some parts very thin and crispy and others with a bit more of a chew. Like focaccia, you can top with a variety of different toppings, but going with the classic olive oil, scattered herbs and flaky sea salt is never a disappointment. This recipe is also perfect for when figs are in season, but substitute for whatever you have to hand. Black grapes make a delicious alternative.
 
Schiacciata (makes 1 large tray, approx. 40cm x 30cm)
 
Ingredients
For the dough:
360g 00 flour (or half plain, half bread flour)
50g wholemeal flour
6g fresh yeast (or substitute 3g dried instant yeast)
260g tepid water
40g oil
7g salt

 
Suggested toppings:
A few tablespoons of olive oil
A scattering of flaky sea salt
A few sprigs of rosemary
 
 
Method
 
Mix and knead the dough for about 10-15 minutes until strong and elastic. Leave covered for 30 minutes in an oiled bowl. After it has rested, stretch and fold the dough and return to the bowl. Repeat after another 30 minutes then place, covered, in the fridge for up to 5 days. If you want to use the same day, simply make in the morning to use in the evening.
 
Two or three hours before you wish to use the dough (less, if a very hot day) remove from the fridge.

​Preheat your oven to 240°C.
 
Prepare a shallow tray, preferably the largest baking tray you have that fits your oven, by smothering in olive oil. Now place your dough, with the top side uppermost, onto your tray. Use the weight of the dough to gently stretch the dough to fit your tray. Encourage the dough to stretch from underneath, rather than ‘pushing’ the top of the dough, which risks tearing it. Concentrate on thinning particularly thick areas, but don’t get too hung up on uniformity. The wafer-thin parts will be delightfully crispy, the thicker parts more like pizza. If struggling to fit the area, cover and leave to rest in the tray for a few minutes. When you return, the dough will have relaxed and be more than ready to stretch further.
 
When stretched, cover the dough and leave for a further 15-20 mins, unless it is a particularly warm day and it looks as if it is ready to go.
 
Just before baking, scatter the rosemary, drizzle generously with olive oil and top with flaky sea salt. Place in the oven and reduce the temperature to 220°C. Bake for 20-25 mins until crisp and golden.
 
When baked, remove from oven onto a rack. Enjoy while warm.

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Potato Bread

29/3/2020

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Potato Bread  (Makes 1 large loaf, 2 small or about 8 rolls)

For the potato:

300g           potatoes (peeled weight)
280g           water
 
For the dough:
300g            above cooked potato, riced or mashed
350g            strong bread flour
180g            above potato water
6g                fresh yeast (or 3g instant dried yeast)
8g                fine sea salt
 

Method

First cut your peeled potatoes into rough chunks, about 2cm cubes. Place in a pan with about 280ml of water and bring to the boil. Boil for about 15 minutes until just tender but not falling apart. Drain and reserve the potato water. This starchy liquid will be used to make your dough beautifully soft. When cool, either mash your potatoes or place through a potato ricer.
 
Now place your potato and starchy water in a bowl or mixer. Add the flour, salt and yeast, ensuring the yeast is kept separate from the salt, at least initially. Mix with your scraper until all ingredients are combined and a rough dough has formed. Turn out onto your work surface and knead for 15 minutes or so, until you have an elastic dough which doesn’t stick to the work surface or your fingers. Alternatively, knead in your mixer, using the dough hook attachment for approximately half the time. Form the dough into a ball and place back into your lightly floured bowl. Cover with a large plastic bag or a baking cloth and leave to rest for 30-40 mins.
 
Now it’s time to fold and stretch your dough: using your scraper, turn the dough carefully out onto a lightly floured surface – with the ‘top’ of the dough now underneath. Taking the 4 points of the compass in turn, pull the dough gently outwards then bring over to the middle point of your dough (as if you were making a paper windmill). When all 4 ‘corners’ have been brought into the middle, turn your dough back over and place back in the bowl, so that the ‘top’ of the dough remains uppermost. Rest, covered, for a further 20-30 minutes so the dough can relax again.
 
Now, you are ready to shape your dough ready to place into a tin, a proving basket or into rolls. Carefully tip out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Turn the dough back over so that the ‘top’ of the dough is now uppermost. Divide into portions for rolls or loaves, then shape into a smooth ball, or oval if baking in a tin. Be gentle with this dough and don’t be too worried about tightening your chosen shapes, as this soft, tender dough is easy to tear. Feel your way and be guided by your dough.
 
If shaping your dough in an oval to fit a tin, remember to grease your tin before placing the shaped dough inside, with the seam concealed neatly underneath.
 
 
Cover your loaf/loaves/rolls whilst they prove for a second time for 45-60 minutes until they appear nicely ‘bloated’ and are approximately double in size.
 
Preheat your oven to 240°C.
 
When the dough is ready (slowly springing back when you prod gently with a floury finger), place into your hot oven. Spray around the floor and walls of the oven to create steam then quickly close the oven. Turn down the oven to 220°C and bake until golden brown on top and bottom. Rolls will take 12-15 minutes, a small loaf will take about 25-35 minutes and a large loaf, 40-45 minutes. If you have a probe thermometer, the bread is cooked when the centre of the loaf reaches 95°C.
 
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Quick and easy pitta Breads

29/3/2020

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Quick and easy pitta breads (makes 12)

For the dough:
​

600g   Strong white bread flour*
15g fresh yeast (or 7g instant dried)
2 tbsp olive oil
300g tepid water
10g fine sea salt
*or substitute plain flour, if you don’t have bread flour.
 
 
Method

Place the dry ingredients in your bowl, ensuring the salt is on one side, the yeast on the other. If you don’t have ready yeast, follow the instructions on the packet for activation. Now add the water and oil and, using a dough scraper or your hands, bring the mixture together into a rough dough. Take out of the bowl and need for about 10 minutes until you have a smooth and elastic dough. Place back in a lightly dusted bowl, cover and rest for 1 hour at room temperature.

Preheat your oven to 240-250°C, with a good quality baking sheet or baking stone in place to get super-hot.
 
After about an hour or so, remove the dough and divide into quarters. Take each quarter, squash it a little, then divide into 3 pieces and form each into a small ball with a tight seam underneath. Each piece should finish up as a smooth ball, with no edges or rough bits showing. Cover once more and leave to rest for a further 15 minutes.
 
Take the first 4 balls and roll out into ovals about 20cm long and even thickness. Place them on a lightly dusted peel, or onto a silicone sheet that can be slid straight into the oven. Slide into your oven and bake for about 5 minutes. They should puff up in the oven. Remove after 5 minutes and cover with a linen cloth whilst you cook the remaining two batches. Keep covered whilst they cool, so the pittas remain soft and pliable. If you don’t, they will dry and crisp up.
 
When cool, they can be kept in an airtight container for several days or frozen immediately.
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Wildes curd lemon cake

15/10/2019

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This cake was created to use the delicious curd cheese I brought back with me from Wildes Cheese after a delightful day spent learning about cheese-making. Philip and Keith run this small urban artisan dairy in Tottenham, North London. On reading about their passion for their craft I knew that this is where I wanted to learn. They say they were drawn to cheesemaking “because it’s pure magic, a form of alchemy”. Now, where have I heard that before?!!
​
The curd cheese’s soft and velvety texture is perfect for making a rich bundt cake, especially paired with the sweet sharpness of lemon. The resulting cake is light and moist, in spite of its characteristically dense crumb. And it’s wickedly moreish!
​Ingredients
​
For the cake
375g Self Raising flour
75g ground almonds
375g golden caster sugar
300g unsalted butter, softened
225g curd cheese
75g creme fraiche
Zest of 2 lemons
Juice 1 lemon (approx 50ml)
Seeds from 1 vanilla pod
5 medium eggs (or 4 large - approx 250g), beaten
1½ tsp fine sea salt
2 tbsp homemade or good quality lemon curd

For the drizzle
Juice 1 lemon
50g caster sugar

For the icing
Juice 1 lemon
250-300g icing sugar 
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Method

Pre-heat your oven to 170°C.

First prepare your bundt tin, by greasing and covering with granulated sugar. Set to one side.
Zest two lemons and rub into your caster sugar. Now cream together your softened butter and caster sugar, until light and fluffy. Mix in the curd cheese and crème fraiche. Now split and scrape the seeds from your vanilla pod and stir in together with the lemon juice and ground almonds.
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In a separate bowl, sift together your self raising flour and salt. Add about 1/3 of your beaten eggs to your creamed butter mixture, then fold 1/3 of of the sifted flour. Repeat twice more until all your flour is incorporated. Don’t overmix at this stage.

​Taking a spoonful at a time, arrange about a third of your cake mixture evenly over the base of your bundt tin.  Now in small regular dollops, smear a tablespoon of lemon curd around the top of the mix. Cover with another third of the cake mix and repeat with another tablespoon of lemon curd. Finally, cover with the final third of the mix. Your cake batter should come ¾ up the bundt tin, leaving about 3-4cm at the top for the cake to rise in the oven. Don’t overfill your tin.

​Place in the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes, checking for browning after about 40 minutes. You may need to cover or rotate in the oven at this stage. Your cake will be ready when the internal temperature reaches 96°C. Don’t let it go much over 100°C or it will begin to dry out. If you don’t possess a digital thermometer, use the clean skewer test to check when your cake is ready.
Whilst the cake is baking you can prepare the drizzle. Mix together the juice of one lemon and 50g caster sugar.
When your cake is cooked, leave it for about 10 minutes in the tin then turn out onto a wire rack. Using a spoon, drizzle your lemon mix evenly over your cake and leave to cool completely.
Finally, when completely cool, prepare your final glaze by mixing together the juice of one lemon and about 250-300g of icing sugar. You are looking for as thick a glaze as you can manage to still ‘pour’ from a spoon. If you take it too far and it will only ‘dollop’, add a tiny bit more liquid – lemon if you have it, water, if not – and get it back to a pouring consistency. Do not make this ahead of time as it will set.

​Once you are happy with the consistency, pour or spoon over the top of your bundt. Don’t worry too much about evenness, the more rustic the better. And on that note, now is your chance to cover up any slip ups you may have had getting your bundt out of the tin! Believe me, no one will care once they start tucking in.

Finally, decorate with any flowers or edible greenery in your garden or window box. I particularly like rosemary with lemon cake, but you could equally use lavender or violets at this time of year.
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Autumnal blackberry, apple and hazelnut tart

30/9/2019

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​Our communal village orchard is heavy with wonderful produce right now. The plums, mulberries and greengages are over, but now the apples, pears, quince and medlars now have their chance to shine. Even the hedgerows enclosing the old orchard are bearing blackberries and nuts to gather.
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With my basket laden, I set about baking something to use the village bounty. The nuts are, as yet, too young and fresh to grind down to a useful flour, so I used ground almonds – but if you have your own hazelnuts, do use once they’re dried. Just grind them down to a fine meal. The young cob nuts will be fine for the crumble topping.
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.​Makes one large tart or 3-4 individual tarts
 

Ingredients:
 
For the pastry:
300g plain flour
75g cold butter, cubed or grated
75g lard (or equivalent white, vegetable fat), cubed
75g cold water
 

For the frangipane filling:
120g ground  hazelnuts (or almonds)
120g caster sugar
120g softened, salted butter
120g eggs (2 large)
 

For the fruit filling:
3 medium cooking apples
Two generous handfuls of foraged blackberries
2 tbsp sugar
 
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For the crumble topping:
50g plain flour
50g cold butter, cubed
60 sugar
30g jumbo (or regular) oats
30g hazelnuts (or use your favourite nut), coarsely chopped
Method

First make your pastry by rubbing together your plain flour and your fat. If you struggle with getting your fat* evenly rubbed in, try grating your cold butter instead of cubing it. You want your handling to be as light as possible at this stage, so just use your fingertips to rub in until you have a breadcrumb-like mixture. At this stage, there should be no lumps of fat remaining as these will stay un-combined when you make your dough and spoil your pastry crust.

​Now add the very cold water to your ‘breadcrumb’ mixture, reserving a little. Hydrated flour will create gluten naturally, which means chewy pastry instead of a light, crisp crumb. Adding as little water as possible will reduce the amount of gluten that forms. Now combine, first with a knife, then your hands. Add all the water only if needed. Work into a ball, handling for the minimum amount of time possible before you have a cohesive, homogenous dough. Wrap and set aside in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest (up to 3 days in fridge or freeze at this stage).

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​Now prepare your fruit: peel and core your apples, then dice into medium-sized chunks, add the washed blackberries and sugar and cook over a low to medium heat until nicely softened. No ‘al dente’ here!
Set aside to cool.

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When the dough is rested, dust your board and rolling pin with flour and roll the pastry to the thickness of a pound coin (no more than 3mm). Grease your large tin (25 - 30cm diameter) or smaller tartlet tins (3 or 4, depending upon depth). Line your tin(s) with the pastry, leaving a little over to trim after baking and keep a little raw dough back to make any repairs half way through your blind bake.. Prick the base with a fork and chill once more for at least half an hour. Preheat your oven to 180C (160C fan).

When rested, remove pastry case from the fridge, line with baking paper and weigh down with baking beans (substitute with pennies or dried beans, if necessary). Now we’re going to bake the case before we put our jammy fruit in, to avoid a soggy bottom. Nobody likes a soggy bottom. Blind baking keeps your case crisp when using a wet filling.

Bake a large case for 20-25 minutes, the smaller ones for 15 mins. Now remove the paper and use any left-over raw pastry dough to patch and repair, if necessary, before returning to the oven for another 10 minutes or so. The bottom of your pastry case should be completely dry and baked, if it is a light golden brown, take a small bow. Trim off any excess pastry and set aside until your cooked fruit is cool.
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​While your pastry case is baking, make your frangipane and crumble mixture.

​For the frangipane, simply beat your softened butter and sugar together. They should be soft and well combined, but do not need to be ‘creamed’ together. Now add the large eggs and combine. If you only have medium eggs, use 2 ½ (you will need about 120g). Finally mix in your ground nuts. Mix well – you are not using any gluten here so you can be reasonably vigorous when combining your ingredients. The key is ensuring you start with well-softened butter to make life easy. Set aside until ready (or keep in fridge for 24 hours).


For the crumble topping, lightly rub together your flour and butter, stir in sugar and coarsely chopped hazelnuts and oats. Unlike your pastry, odd lumps of butter in your crumble are fine. Any left over mixture can be frozen in an airtight container and used for muffins etc.
 
When ready, place a layer of the mixed fruit over the base of your pastry case, then cover with the frangipane. Finally scatter your crumble topping and bake in the oven for 30 – 40 minutes for a large tart, a little less for the smaller tarts. When ready, the frangipane will be risen, cake-like and golden brown.
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Eat with pleasure. You have spent time making a thing of beauty from things you have foraged. Take your time to savour. Enjoy.
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    Our workshops are run by award-winning sourdough baker Helen Underwood.

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