Ancient Capital Of The Peak

The June Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart… er… pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800’s in England.

Bakewell tarts…er…puddings combine a number of dessert elements but still let you show off your area’s seasonal fruits.

Like many regional dishes there’s no “one way” to make a Bakewell Tart…er…Pudding, but most of today’s versions fall within one of two types. The first is the “pudding” where a layer of jam is covered by an almondy pastry cream and baked in puff pastry. The second is the “tart” where a rich shortcrust pastry holds jam and an almondy sponge cake-like filling.

The version we’re daring you to make is a combination of the two: a sweet almond-flavoured shortcrust pastry, frangipane and jam.

So here we have it – the chance to get creative with a Bakewell Tart. I’m so glad though that we didn’t have to recreate the so often seen mass produced horror of a Bakewell like these (sorry Mr Kipling). If we had, I might have had to abstain from the challenge in protest

Image Courtesy of Google Images

There can’t be many dishes as controversial as the Bakewell tart. For starters, there seems to be no kind of consensus on its name. We might call them tarts now, but in Bakewell itself, they’re puddings – as they were generally known for hundreds of years. Personally I think of them as a tart but whatever you wish to name them, they are a true delight.

I only live a relatively short drive from Bakewell but this was the first time I’d actually made the infamous tart, err, pudding.

Like many regional dishes there’s no “one way” to make a Bakewell Tart, but most of today’s versions fall within one of two types. The first is the “pudding” where a layer of jam is covered by an almondy pastry cream and baked in puff pastry. The second is the “tart” where a rich shortcrust pastry holds jam and an almondy sponge cake-like filling. The version we were dared to make was a combination of the two: a sweet almond-flavoured shortcrust pastry, frangipane and jam. The only key components were we make the pastry and frangipane to the letter, the jam/filling was up to us and we could make whatever size tarts we wished. 

Flan-like desserts that combine either sweet egg custard over candied fruit or feature spiced ground almonds in a pastry shell have Mediaeval roots. The term “Bakewell pudding” was first penned in 1826 by Meg Dods; 20 years later Eliza Acton published a recipe that featured a baked rich egg custard overtop 2cm of jam and noted, the pudding is famous not only in Derbyshire, but in several UK northern counties where it is usually served on all holiday occasions.

By the latter half of the 1800s, the egg custard evolved into a frangipane-like filling; since then the quantity of jam decreased while the almond filling increased.

This tart, like many of the world’s great foods has its own mythic beginnings…or several mythic beginnings. Legend has it in 1820 (or was it in the 1860s?) Mrs. Greaves, landlady of The White Horse Inn in Bakewell, Derbyshire, asked her cook to produce a pudding for her guests. Either her instructions could have been clearer or he should have paid better attention to what she said because what he made was not what she asked for. The cook spread the jam on top of the frangipane mixture rather than the other way around. Or maybe instead of a sweet rich shortcrust pastry case to hold the jam for a strawberry tart, he made a regular pastry and mixed the eggs and sugar separately and poured that over the jam—it depends upon which legend you follow.

Regardless of what the venerable Mrs. Greaves’ cook did or didn’t do, lore has it that her guests loved it and an ensuing pastry-clad industry was born. The town of Bakewell has since played host to many a sweet tooth in hopes of tasting the tart in its natural setting.

Despite never having made a Bakewell Tart before I wasn’t daunted by the challenge, unlike many I love making pastry, I conquered my fear of preserves a long while back and have made frangipane several times before (just do a quick search in the side bar if you want to read some of my earlier posts about these topics).

I went for a rhubarb and vanilla jam filling and made both some mini tarts and a rather huge tart too. 

The rhubarb jam was made using this recipe, but to the boiling fruit I added a split vanilla pod (seeds scraped out) and about a couple of tablespoons of hibiscus flowers, not for flavour really but to enhance the vivid pinkness of the gorgeous rhubarb.  That’s the pity with rhubarb, on cooking it can look a bit pallid and that just won’t do.

I ended up with a sweet and sticky jam that was still well textured, achieved by cutting the rhubarb into various lengths instead of the uniform chunks specified and not mashing it all to a pulp.  If the jam was going to be for spreading on toast at breakfast I’d probably have gone for a smoother finish but in a rustic pudding like this I believe texture to be nothing but a good thing.

Even before baking the pudding looked inviting, once covered with the pale golden frangipane.

The rhubarb flavour worked really well against the subtle almond backdrop from the soft, delicate frangipane; all encased in crisp, buttery pastry – tart…err…pudding heaven. 

We happily munched the mini tarts with a cup of tea but the large version was served in slices with hot creamy custard – not ideal considering we are now entering the season of summer warmth, but hey ho in the interests of all that is foodie what else could I do?

The recipe:

• Makes one 23cm (9” tart)
• Prep time: less than 10 minutes (plus time for the individual elements)
• Resting time: 15 minutes
• Baking time: 30 minutes

Equipment needed:

• 23cm (9”) tart pan or pie tin (preferably with ridged edges) 
• Rolling pin
• One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe follows)
• Bench flour
• 250ml (1cup (8 US fl. oz)) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability
• One quantity frangipane (recipe follows)
• One handful blanched, flaked almonds

Assembling the tart:

1. Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it’s overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.
2.  Preheat oven to 200C/400F.
3. Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.
4. The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.
5.  When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Jasmine’s notes:

• If you cannot have nuts, you can try substituting Victoria sponge for the frangipane. It’s a pretty popular popular cake, so you shouldn’t have any troubles finding one in one of your cookbooks or through a Google search. That said, our dear Natalie at Gluten a Go Go has sourced some recipes and linked to them in the related alt.db thread.
• You can use whichever jam you wish, but if you choose something with a lot of seeds, such as raspberry or blackberry, you should sieve them out.
• The jam quantity can be anywhere from 60ml (1/4 cup) to 250ml (1cup), depending upon how “damp” and strongly flavoured your preserves are. I made it with the lesser quantity of home made strawberry jam, while Annemarie made it with the greater quantity of cherry jam; we both had fabulous results. If in doubt, just split the difference and spread 150ml (2/3cup) on the crust.

Annemarie’s notes:

• The excess shortcrust can be rolled out and cut into cookie-shapes (heck, it’s pretty darned close to a shortbread dough).

Sweet shortcrust pastry:

• Prep time: 15-20 minutes
• Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)
• Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film
•  225g (8oz) all purpose flour
• 30g (1oz) sugar
• 2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
• 110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
• 2 (2) egg yolks
• 2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional)
• 15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

1. Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.
2. Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.
3. Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

Jasmine’s notes:

• I make this using vanilla salt and vanilla sugar.
• If you wish, you can substitute the seeds of one vanilla bean, one teaspoon of vanilla paste or one teaspoon of vanilla extract for the almond extract

Frangipane:

• Prep time: 10-15 minutes
• Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula
•  125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
• 125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
• 3 (3) eggs
• 2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract
• 125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
• 30g (1oz) all purpose flour

1.  Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Annemarie’s notes:

• Add another five minutes or more if you’re grinding your own almonds or if you’re mixing by hand (Heaven help you).

Algo Es Algo; Menos Es Nada!

Algo es algo; menos es nada or roughly translated – half a loaf is better than no bread! Never were truer words spoken. Oh how I wished I’d made a lovely rustic country style loaf to go with our dinner yesterday but I didn’t and it meant we were without bread, I was sure we’d some in the freezer but it must have all been used because when I went to get some to heat through the freezer was bare.

We had a lovely warm salad of sweet chorizo and butter beans but without the bread to mop up all the rusty coloured, highly flavoured oils it was lacking, with all the will in the world it couldn’t be the great delight I had in mind. 

The chorizo was a sweet (dulce) variety, but you could use any you like with no detriment to this dish. Chorizo is a very famous Spanish pork sausage, coloured the most beautiful shade of red by the use of paprika – the kind used varies depending on the type of chorizo. There are many varieties of chorizo available so it is worth experimenting with a few different kinds; some come cooked and sliced thinly to be used as a tapas along with other cooked or cured meats.

I would highly recommend that you buy dried beans and soak them overnight, before cooking as per your recipe instructions. They have a much superior flavour and texture to those sold in cans. The butter beans I used came from Delicioso and were of the Judion de la Granja variety (a much larger than average bean).

They can be hard to get and pricey so feel free to replace with them with regular butter beans, it will still be incredibly nice, I just like using different ingredients (not that you’d have guessed) and the drama of the large beans.

For the greenery I used a spring cabbage that I’d shredded and blanched and a bag of mixed leaves, which added both texture and a variety of flavours as some were peppery and others very sweet. I also tossed through some chargrilled spring onions and asparagus tips.

For colour I scattered a little sweet paprika over the beans. The variety I used mimicked the sweet variety used in the chorizo being a sweet sun-dried paprika from ‘El Ruisenor’ with its own Denomination of Origin (D.O.C Murcia); another buy from Delicioso.

Moral of the story? Always make sure you have a fresh loaf to hand.

The Recipe:

• Olive oil
• 1 loop of chorizo
• 4 spring onions
• 20 spears of asparagus (tips only)
• 1 small spring cabbage (shredded and blanched)
• 200g mixed salad leaves
• 100g cooked (still hot) butter beans
• Sweet paprika for sprinkling

1. Dice or slice the chorizo and fry gently in a little olive oil, do this slowly to allow all the paprika stained juices from the meat to escape.
2. Meanwhile griddle the asparagus tips and spring onions until tender and charred.
3. Add the cabbage to the frying pan with the chorizo and heat through, now add the asparagus and spring onions.
4. Finally add the salad leaves and toss together.
5. Plate up the salad and then scatter with the still warm butter beans.
6. Sprinkle with paprika.
7. Serve with plenty of bread

Hey There Mr Postman

Doesn’t the sight of a postman (delivery person) heading towards your door with a parcel make you heart beat that little bit faster with excitement? Even more so when you’ve a good idea what is coming and your awaiting eagerly? Well it does for me anyway

Wednesday saw the arrival of my lovely new camera, a Canon 50D and two lenses, one of which is a macro that this fabulous blog recommended in a fabulous photography hints & tips post.

I must also say thank you to the lovely people (Dan in particular) over at Talk Photography, a forum I’ve joined recently in the hope that with a bit of gentle guidance and support my photography skills might improve dramatically. I’ve only been a member there around a week and already they’ve given me loads of top quality advice and have been incredibly patient and helpful towards this novice photographer.

Hopefully you’ll all be noticing a difference in quality very soon

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I love this time of year; when the garden blooms. I particularly love how my ‘edible’ garden grows though and I thought I’d share a few ’snaps’ with you

Courgettes

Peas

Various Herbs

Many more herbs and vegetables are on the grow so expect to hear much more about my home grown produce in the very near future!

Memories Maketh The Meal

When I was fourteen I went on a holiday to Gumbet in Turkey, at that time the resort was rather quiet with just a few local shops and a couple of restaurants but from what I can gather it is now a thriving tourist resort – I’m glad I went when I did, although I most likely wasn’t saying that at the time (in typical teenage fashion I suppose).

Other than the distinct difference in the culture compared to the UK and the rather interesting dolmus rides to Bodrum, the most memorable part of the holiday was the food! 

Bodrum had a huge (bazaar) market, selling everything from fresh fruit and vegetables, to dairy produce, to livestock! Never before have I seen live chickens for sale at a food market and to be honest I did find the whole experience rather unnerving. From what I can remember the market was absolutely packed to the brim and the market traders expected you to haggle away, they at the time seemed to be pestering the tourists a fair bit but I don’t really suppose they were doing so, anymore than a market trader here shouts out his or her wears but for a rather lacking in self confidence youngster it is not all that surprising that it was all a little unsettling … now however I’d love to go back and dig in!

Image Courtesy of Google Images

We were self catering so we did indulge in an awful lot of the local produce, all of which was amazingly good, and when we ate out we went to local food outlets rather than the places aimed at the influx of tourists; even though it did mean most of our meal planning was pot luck (non of us speak any Turkish and many of the Turks didn’t speak much English), pointing at the menu and just going for it, I hasten to add that the majority of the food was superb. Delights included stuffed vine leaves fried aubergines stuffed with spiced minced meat, beans and tomatoes simply stewed in olive oil, lots and lots of simply grilled fish dressed with gorgeous (taste of the sun) lemon juice and herbs, koftes and of course the essential kebab (which I hasten to add is nothing like the foul item sold in fish & chip shops throughout the UK). I could go on and on but I’m not going to, there are many Turkish cookbooks out there you could read or just head over to this fabulous Turkish food blog.

One last food I need to tell you about (because I made a version of it the other night and that is the whole point of this article) is Lahmacun – basically a type of Turkish pizza, in the form of a pitta type bread topped with a spiced very finely mined meat. The first one I had was at the hotel we stayed in near the pool, sipping a cool salty yogurt drink called Ayran – the hotel owner knowing we were keen to try local food was nice enough to bring us the lahmacun to try, I was on cloud 9, they were so good!

I’ve tried several recipes before which are similar in nature to this delightful food but non of the were quite right, the combination of a Rick Stein recipe and a Greg Malouf recipe I used the other night was perfect, joy oh joy! The topping was Rick’s and the bread Greg’s – together they worked perfectly. I am entering this to YeastSpotting because I need to shout out about how good this is!

The key element to bring everything together is to ensure you have a good handful of herbs (I used parsley & rocket) and lots of lemon juice for squeezing over to bring the true Turkish delight into your kitchen; it helps if the sun is shining too though but hey you can’t always have everything can you?

I served the lahmacun with some spinach cacik, recipe from the New York Times.

This added some extra moisture and a cooling/calming element to the hot dish, essential considering how warm the day had been. I could have done with the view below though to round the evening off

We All Knead Something Delicioso!

For years and years I’ve had my eye on the Sullivan Street Bakery recipe for no knead bread, and the other weekend I finally got round to baking it! Thank you Coby for finally giving me the inspiration to do it. Oh how did I put it off for so long? How could I do that? The only semi rational reason I can think of is the time factor, but even that should not have been enough … note to myself (and all of you) do not let anything put you off making this bread, it is to die for.

What is there not to like? A crisp, lightly golden exterior yielding a chewy, flavoursome interior that just makes you want to rip the bread apart with your bear hands and devour with no added extras.  If you can find the inner strength though do try it dipped in lovely olive oil or spread with a good butter (home-made always goes down well).

I can assure you that Jim Lahey (of Sullivan Street Bakery) is one very clever baker, to come up with such a simple recipe for a bread this good he must be. The concept is a bread which is not kneaded at all, and develops it’s texture, gluten and flavour through an incredibly long rise. (12-18 hours.- but the longer time the better.) It is baked at a high temperature in a heavy, covered, roomy pot, which is preheated which mimics the effect of a real bakers oven. My choice here was a Chasseur Cast Iron Round Casserole Blue 22cm which was roomy enough to let the bread rise sufficiently in baking, a slightly smaller pot would work also. I scattered the bread dough with cornmeal before baking which helped add to the crusts fabulous texture and slightly nutty flavour.

I went on to serve slices of this gorgeous bread with a lovely Spanish inspired salad, with an array of produce from the fabulous online store Delicioso. Delicioso sell a lovely variety of both Spanish food, drink, kitchen equipment and skin-care produce, all of which is of a great quality and not unreasonable prices, but the key thing that makes me go back to them time and time again is their stunning level of customer service; for example on my last order one of the items I chose was going to be unavailable for a few days so to speed up delivery (it came the following day) Delicioso provided me with a superior (and more expensive) product at no extra cost

So what did I use in my salad? Well it was based around smoked Idiazabal cheese, Idaizabal cheese is sharp, pungent, very well defined, slightly piquant, with a mild and brilliant smoked flavour. Idiazabal, a town in which sheepherding has been an economic and social mainstay for centuries, is an exceptional place for cheese making. Sheepherders still do credit to their craft by making Idiazabal cheese with pure, raw Latxa sheep milk, which is coagulated and pressed into rounds. The Denomination of Origin for Idiazábal Cheese was created in 1987 and defines the basic regulations for the manufacture of the product. Only unpasteurized milk from latxa breed of sheep can be used. The minimum ageing period is two months. The more aged cheeses take on a unique, somewhat acidic flavour and a delicious aroma.  

I served the cheese with a simple salad of lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes which I complimented with some lovely small beans called habitas fritas  

Gorgeous olive oil with fruity flavour and rich yellow colour brought all the ingredients together.

All in all a perfect summer meal and certainly very delicioso indeed

Oh Summer Nights

I’ve said it before, and no doubt I’ll say it many times again, but Rachel’s Baking Secrets: From Cookies to Casseroles, Fresh from the Oven (Rachel Allen) really is an inspiration of a book.  Rachel’s way of writing makes all the recipes sound so inviting, it’s almost like having a conversation with her in the kitchen while you bake;  that alone is enough to make me love the book but the stunning photography which makes your mouth water clinches the deal – this is one book not to be missed out on. 

We’ve had some gorgeous weather here recently, on Tuesday the temperature on our (south facing sun trap) patio reached 42 degrees Celsius which is very rare indeed. In the heat I always end up having a conflict with myself and the weather – I love to bake and my desire for that never dwindles but the heat does rather dampen my spirit and ability to spend time in the kitchen; thus, I have to come up with bakes I can put together quickly and leave to their own/the ovens devices while I seek either the sun or shade depending on my mood Having said that I adore the array of produce available over the warmer months and if to enjoy them at their best means I have to ’slave over a hot stove’ then I will – I will not deprive my belly of these summertime delights.

Enough about me and back to the recipe at hand. Yesterday I had a need to bake, I don’t mean I had to bake for a special occasion or for a particular event but that I had an overwhelming desire to bake, and that bake had to suit the weather – dense, heavy fruit cakes were most certainly out of the picture as were chocolate cakes as I sometimes find they can be a bit sickly in the hotter weather; only sometimes mind you. I settled on Rachel Allen’s lime yoghurt cake with rosewater and pistachios from Rachel’s Baking Secrets: From Cookies to Casseroles, Fresh from the Oven, to me the recipe shouts of the Middle East, I can just imagine myself eating a slice of this while sipping some mint tea overlooking the ocean; and then I’ll pinch myself and come out of the dream I’d love to visit Israel one day, you’ve only got to visit the lovely Ilana’s blogged visit to see why.

The cake did not disappoint in the slightest, moist, slightly sticky from the rose water and lime syrup, it is sweet but not overly so as the lime gives a slight sharpness to counteract the sweet floral notes of the rose water. I chose to serve mine with whipped double cream which I folded an Israeli product called malabi syrup through which was a gift from the ever lovely Francesca who if I ever visit Israel would love to meet. To me malabi syrup tastes a bit like liquid Turkish delight, sweet and floral but with a fruity undertone. Francesca tells me that the brand of syrup I have contains raspberry juice and that would explain the fruitiness, other brands I gather use strawberry or cherry juice but raspberry is the most traditional.

Scattering with rose petals makes for an extremely pretty presentation for this very delicate cake but they are by no means essential, if you want to do so then you can buy them from The Spice Shop amongst other places. As for the scattering of the pistachio nuts, I think they’re vital, you need the change in texture, that slight crunch but above that the salty flavour they bring really makes the cake spring to life and shine in all its glory.