Spelt and apple cake with bay cream

My wholegrain conversion continues apace. The more I learn about the benefits of eating the whole grain of a cereal, as opposed to roller milled white flour where the bran and most of the nutrition is sifted out, the more I’m enjoying the taste and flavours of Stoneground Wholemeal flour.

This cake uses spelt flour for a lovely nutty flavour and includes one of my favourite spices - bay.

Ingredients:

220g Unsalted butter

170g Golden caster sugar

30g *Bay sugar (see below)

3 large eggs

1 egg yolk

180g wholemeal spelt flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp fine salt 

50g sour cream*

50g whole milk

*Bay sugar - 10g fresh young bay leaves, 60g golden caster sugar 

100g double cream

1 Bramley apple

2 Granny Smith apples

30g Unsalted butter

Method:

Line and grease 2 x 9 inch sandwich tins and preheat your oven to 160°c (fan).

Make your bay sugar by removing the stalk and central rib from the bay leaves. Add the 60g of sugar and blitz in a blender or spice grinder until a fine green sugar is achieved. Use some in the cake and save the rest to flavour your cream and decorate the cake.

To make the cake add the soft butter to the stand mixer along with your two sugars*(see note on bay sugar) and use the beater attachment until the mixture is pale and fluffy, approximately 5 minutes. Meanwhile combine the flour with the baking powder and salt. Add the eggs and egg yolks gradually to the butter/sugar mix then add the flour mix – take care not to overmix, just beat until the mix starts to come together. Add the sour cream and milk – the mixture should be loose enough to drop off a spoon.   

Evenly divide amongst the tins and smooth the surface. Bake for 16-20 minutes until pulling away from the sides of the tin and dry to the touch on the surface. A cake tester inserted into the cake should come out clean.

Allow to cool in the tins for a short time then turn out onto a cooling rack. While the cakes are cooling prepare your apple compote by dicing all the apple into small 1cm cubes and gently pan frying in the butter until starting to soften. Remove from the heat and cover the pan – this way the apple will continue to cook but the granny smith apples will hold their shape.

Whip the cream until thick, adding 20g of bay sugar to flavour and sweeten.

To assemble the cake pipe a ‘dam’ of the thicken cream around the edge of one cake then fill the central area with the cooled apple mix. Spread or pipe more cream over the apple in an even layer then place the second cake on top. Dust with icing sugar and decorate with the remaining bay sugar.

Desert island baking

A new feature in the blog. I’m not sure I’d actually like baking on a desert island (too hot!) but the premise is, if you could only choose 10 baking tools to take to a mythical desert island (with a climate of your choosing) what would they be?? I’m going to share my favourites with you and it would be great to hear yours - let me know in the comments section!

No. 1 Plastic dough scraper.

In my kitchen tools have to earn their space in a drawer or cupboard and my dough scraper could certainly win an Olympic gold for hard graft! This simple piece of curved plastic is, literally, my right hand when I’m making bread. Look for one that is stiff enough to chop and move your dough about when mixing and dividing but with a slight flex and curve that hugs the bowl. The best dough scrapers come with different shapes on each edge making them very multipurpose. Use the right-angled edge to scale into various weights, chopping cleanly through the dough without tugging and stretching. The curved edge works to clean bowls and the straight edge is perfect for cleaning messy work surfaces – just scrape off the loose debris, rub a little water into the surface to soften the dough then scrape off with your magic tool!

Baking know how:

As we start the move into warmer month's, bread bakers need to consider adjustments to the temperature of their ingredients and their baking environment to prevent dough proving too quickly.  All winter we’ve been warming our water and hunting out warm spots in the house then suddenly spring moves into summer and the ambient temperature in your kitchen steadily climbs - it catches us all out every year.

You might be thinking quickly proved dough is a bonus but slow really is better for flavour and digestibility. Last month I talked about a piece of baking kit that I love, the digital thermometer, and using it will help you manage and control the dough fermentation process (AKA proving). To keep our dough at a nice steady 25°c (see last month's column) you’ll find you'll need much cooler water and may need to reduce the amount of yeast in your recipe (this is expressed as a bakers % based on flour weight – come to one of my classes and learn more.) One final tip, as temperatures rise, use your fridge to store your proving dough otherwise you risk a pancake even before your dough makes it to the oven.

What I’m reading

Andrew Whitley is truly a hero in the world of bread - he founded the Real Bread campaign in 2008 and is still recognised as a leading figure and inspiration in the world of nourishing, nutritious bread made only using simple ingredients – no e-numbers, improvers or nasties! This diminutive easy-to-read book, published in 2014, covers the basics of sourdough baking including getting your culture started, delicious recipes and troubleshooting your bakes. I recommend this book to many bakers starting out on their ‘Next Loaf’ journey.

If having read this book you're still struggling with inconsistent bakes book yourself on one of my sourdough baking classes – I get comments like this from my students!

“I took part in your sourdough course and life hasn’t been the same since! I have had NO failures in bread making. Thanks so much for what you gave me! Paul Barritt Feb 2023.

 https://thedobook.co/products/do-sourdough-slow-bread-for-busy-lives

Upcoming classes

9th March - Advanced sourdough baking

23rd March & 26th March - Easter baking

12th April - European baking

4th May Sourdough baking

7th May Italian baking

15th June Sourdough baking with pizza