Baking with the boys

Television’s fabulous Baker Brothers reveal how to cook thrilling, filling British food around the clock – and they’re jolly handsome, too, says Carolyn Hart
Baker BrothersThe Baker Brothers, Tom and Henry – the handsome chaps all over Channel 4 in their new food programme, have, as you might imagine, been busy compiling a cookbook to accompany the series.

Glorious British Grub is the result – a slick production featuring roundthe- clock British food. That means recipes for beef, lamb, fresh veg, fish, puddings and late-night savouries all arranged by mealtimes. Thus, for breakfast, you get overnight porridge, bacon butty and teasoaked dried fruit. Lunch – ‘a meal that’s less formal than dinner’, according to Tom Herbert – is all about lamb with rotis, beetroot-cured salmon, poached egg, bacon and crouton salad. It’s not exactly food for girls, but it’s more interesting than the usual recipes trotted out to celebrate British cooking – and ideal if you want something filling. There’s also a terrific section on tea: fruit flapjacks, hiker bars, Bourbons and Battenburg cake all feature.

The Fabulous Baker Brothers: Glorious British Grub, with photography by Chris Terry, is published by Headline, priced £20.


LONDON PEA-SOUPER (pictured above)


Makes 6

  • 5g dried yeast (or 10g fresh)
  • 300ml tepid water
  • 560g strong white flour
  • 10g sea salt
  • 20ml rapeseed oil, plus extra for rubbing on the dough

For the pea soup

  • 1 knob of butter
  • 3 tbsp good-quality olive oil
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 garlic clove, chopped
  • Pinch of paprika, plus extra to serve
  • Pinch of cayenne pepper
  • Pinch of smoked sea salt
  • 500g frozen garden peas
  • 400ml hot chicken stock
  • 4 tbsp crème fraîche with 2 tsp horseradish cream mixed in
  • Small bunch of mint, roughly chopped (12-18 small leaves, reserved)
  • Juice of 1 lemon, zest of half
  • 200g smoked eel fillets, to serve

Stir the yeast into the water with a fork. Weigh the flour and salt into a bowl and add the oil. Pour in the dissolved yeast and stir. Once it comes together into a dough, turn it out and knead for 15 minutes (10 minutes by machine) until smooth and elastic. Put back in the bowl, cover in cling film and leave in a warm place to double in size for 1 hour (whichever is first).

Heat the oven to 240C/gas 9, and put in a baking sheet or stone to heat up. Divide the dough into six balls, roll under the palm of your hands into a good round shape, then cover with rapeseed oil and place in a baking tray. Cover the tin and leave it in a warm place to double in size for 30 minutes (whichever is first).

Place a dish of water on the oven floor for the perfect crust. Bake the rolls for 10 minutes, then turn the temperature down to 230C/gas 8 and bake for a final 10 minutes until golden.

To make the soup, heat the butter and the oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and fry for 3 mins or until soft and just colouring. Stir in the paprika, cayenne and smoked sea salt, then add the frozen peas and the hot chicken stock. Bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for about 6 minutes or until the peas are just cooked. Take off the heat.

Slice the tops off the rolls and remove the inner crumb to make a bowl for the soup. Add the crumb to the soup with the crème fraîche, mint and lemon zest and juice. Blitz with a hand-held blender or add to a liquidiser and blend until smooth.

Pour a little oil inside the bread rolls and season them. Return to the oven for another 5 minutes to harden slightly. Pour the soup into the bread rolls and flake the smoked eel over the top. Serve with a dusting of paprika and the reserved mint leaves on top.


Battenburg

BATTENBURG


Serves 8

  • 100g salted butter, at room temperature
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 2 free-range eggs
  • 50g ground rice or semolina
  • 100g self-raising flour
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • Ruby-red colour paste (from any cake-decorating shop) – or use supermarket red food colour
  • A few drops of rosewater

To finish

  • 5 tbsp apricot jam
  • 1 tbsp water
  • Icing sugar, for dusting
  • 225g almond paste/marzipan

Heat the oven to 150C/gas 2. Grease and line a 6in x 8in Battenburg tin (you can buy these online).

Beat together the butter, sugar, eggs, ground rice, fl our and baking powder in a mixing bowl until smooth. It’s quite a dense cake mixture, which will make a firm cake that holds together well. Lightness and fluffi ness isn’t the aim with this sponge.

Divide about half the cake mixture between two sections of the Battenburg tin. A piping bag is neater, but a spoon will also do. Add some red colour to remaining cake mixture – you want it a deep pink colour – along with the rosewater, and pipe or spoon into the other 2 sections. Bake for 25 minutes until springy to the touch. Turn out on to a wire rack and cool. Once cool, trim the edges.

Put the apricot jam and water into a pan and bring to the boil. Using a pastry brush, brush the cake strips with the hot jam and stick them together so you have a pink and white sponge at the bottom, then vice versa at the top.

Sprinkle a sheet of greaseproof paper with icing sugar and roll out the almond paste into an oblong shape long enough and wide enough to accommodate the sponge. Brush the almond paste with jam, roughly where the sponge will go so that all sides will be covered. Put the sponge on top of the brushed jam and, using the greaseproof paper, roll the sponge up with the almond paste. The paper helps to get a neat fi nish. Trim the edges, and your beautiful Battenburg is made.