Cornbread with cheese and seeds

This is technically the third variation of this recipe on the blog, but I do feel like they are all valid, and delicious in different ways. This is the only version that is fully gluten free, and baking it as a loaf makes the cornbread much fluffier and more decadent.

Serve with a hearty Southwestern style stewy thing, like a beany thing, or a chilli con/sin carne. Heston Blumenthal says, and I agree, that cornbread is a much nicer accompaniment to a chilli than a crispy taco shell.

Ingredients

230g fine polenta/cornmeal

100g gram flour

1 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp each cumin, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, nutmeg

2 eggs, lightly beaten

½ grated sweet potato or carrot (optional but interesting), or alternatively 1 cup sweetcorn

300ml/ ½ pint milk, or dairy-free alternative

1 large handful grated cheddar cheese

A few cherry tomatoes, halved (if you have some spare)

1 tbsp pumpkin seeds

1 tbsp nigella seeds

1 tbsp olive oil

Makes 1 large loaf

Method

Preheat the oven to 200c.

Drizzle the olive oil into the loaf tin, and put it in the hot oven. The oil needs to be hot when you put the batter in, so it might be worth doing this before you weigh out the ingredients and get everything ready.

In a large mixing bowl mix together the dry powder ingredients, add the eggs and milk and mix until you get a smooth batter. Then mix in the veggies (if using) and cheese.

Take the loaf tin out of the oven (be very careful of the hot oil) and pour in the batter. Scatter the seeds and cherry tomatoes (if using) over the top, and bake for about 35-45 minutes, until risen and golden. The cooking time is an estimate as my oven is not the most predictable, so maybe check the cornbread after about half an hour, the classic cake technique of poking with a knife or skewer will work just as well for this.

Raspberry Custard Cake

Adapted from http://www.bakersroyale.com/custards/blackberry-custard-cake/

This recipe is dedicated to Suzy, who got married yesterday. She is always inspiring me to push myself with my cooking and try new things.

This cake is like no other cake I have made before. A pudding-y kind of cake, the batter separates into layers as it cooks, creating a light baked top, and thick custardy base. When it is baked it doesn’t look all that inspiring, sunken, brownish and a bit lumpy on the top. But when you cut into the cake it is revealed as a rose-pink squidgy slice of heaven.

I saw this recipe on an American blog, but have converted all of the measurements into metric. American measurements really bother me – the vagueness of cups is just so problematic, and ounces seem like an entirely foreign concept. Bee Wilson discusses it really well in her excellent book Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat, which I highly recommend if you are a nerdy foodie like me.

Freeze-dried fruit powder is brilliant. It adds all the flavour of fruit without adding any extra moisture. Fruit powder can be found in Whole Food Market and other similarly poncey foodie shops, or you can do what I do, any buy it online from Healthy Supplies. 

Be aware that the batter for this cake is a bit tricky and lumpy, and a lot runnier than cake should be. The first time I made this I thought it was going to fail completely, but it came out really lovely.

Probably makes about 9 servings

Ingredients

4 eggs, separated (at room temperature)

1 tbsp water

150g caster sugar

110g butter (or margarine) melted

40g freeze-dried raspberry powder (or use another kind of fruit powder, like cherry or blueberry)

115g plain flour

500ml warmish milk (I used almond milk)

2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees (150 with fan)

Whisk the egg whites until stiff.

In another bowl, beat the egg yolks, sugar, water and vanilla until pale and creamy. Then add the melted butter and mix for another minute. Sift in the raspberry powder and flour, and mix until fully incorporated.

Add the warm milk and mix again. Gently fold in the eggs whites (as best you can, its tricky). Pour the batter (which will be very liquidy) into a greased baking dish (either 20 or 23 cm - I used a circular lose-bottomed cake tin).

Bake the custard cake for 50 -60 minutes, or until the top is golden and there is just a slight jiggle in the cake. Cool the cake in the pan for three hours before un-moulding.

Almond and blueberry pudding

From Second Helpings of Roast Chicken by Simon Hopkinson

Here is another Passover (Pesach) dessert recipe, a totally new one that I have only just discovered. I made it on Friday night for the first time (with help from the wonderful Emma) and everyone went mad for it. Hot berries – is there anything better?

I discovered this recipe as I was using this cookbook to score a game of cards that I was playing with my Mum. We always use cookbooks when scoring card games, with a joker to mark the page - whenever a player (usually me) accumulates points, they have to read out the recipe the joker has landed on.

This recipe was found three points in, in the chapter on almonds. It is always very exciting to find a pesach dessert recipe that doesn’t involve separating eggs and whisking egg whites. It sounded so delicious, and easy to make that I wanted to make it straight away. And I am so glad that I did.

The pudding will go a bit cake-y on the top and a bit custardy on the bottom, stained dark blue and purple with berries. It will sink a bit if not serving immediately, but it doesn’t really matter if it does, it is still really delicious. Simon Hopkinson recommends serving it with cream, but I don’t think it needs it.

Serves 5-6, or 4 if everyone wants seconds (which they probably will)

Ingredients:

100g butter or margarine (if you need it to be dairy-free), softened – plus a little extra for greasing the dish

350g blueberries – we used 260g blueberries (that was all we had) and then made the weight up with raspberries. I’m sure this recipe would work very well with other berries too.

100g sugar – plus a little extra for sprinkling on top

2 eggs

100g ground almonds

1 tbsp amaretto liqueur – or similar – we used kosher for Passover triple sec

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (170 w/fan)

Grease a wide and shallow baking dish with a bit of butter or margarine. ‘Strew’ with the berries.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (this works well with a spoon too). Then add the eggs, one at a time, mixing them in thoroughly. Fold in the ground almonds and the amaretto (or similar).

Spoon the almond sponge mixture over the fruit in the baking dish. Sprinkle with a little extra sugar and bake for 40-45 minutes, until puffed up and firm on the top.  

Apple cloud pudding from heaven

From Florence Greenberg’s Jewish Cookbook (first published in 1947)

Happy Passover (Pesach) everyone! Is anybody else really craving a sandwich or a big bowl of pasta right about now?

This is definitely (in my opinion) the best specifically Pesach dessert of all time. I mean, there are other good desserts to have during Pesach, like pavlova and chocolate mousse, but as this one has matzo meal in, it is only really made at Pesach – who would want to cook with matzo meal at other times (except for schnitzels or fried fish)?

I’m posting this recipe now because there are still a few days of Pesach left – I really do urge you to make this if you can. It is seriously wonderful. This pudding is kind of like an apple kugel, but much lighter, and supremely apple-y. If I was Nigella Lawson I would call it a ‘slightly slumped soufflé’.

Serves 4  - could potentially serve more, but everyone will want second helpings

Ingredients:

450g cooking apples

3 eggs, separated

100g caster sugar

3 tbsp fine matzo meal

1 tbsp ground almonds

zest and juice of 1 lemon

½ tsp cinnamon

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190c

Use a bit of butter or margarine to grease a deep-ish baking dish.

Peel the apples and the grate them – don’t core them first, but rather grate around the core (to save you from grating your fingers off). Mix the grated apple with the lemon juice and zest immediately to stop it from discolouring.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff.

Beat the egg yolks with sugar until pale and creamy. Add the lemony apple, matzo meal, ground almonds, and cinnamon. Mix thoroughly, and then fold in the egg whites (it will look a bit gross at this stage).

Pour the apple mixture into the baking dish, and bake for 1 hour. When it is ready it will look cake-y on the top, and light and wobbly in the middle. It isn’t the prettiest of desserts, but it is so ruddy delicious that no-one will care.

Courgette and lime loaf cake

Adapted from How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson.

This is the sixth recipe that I have made from How to be a Domestic Goddess, which is good-going for me (I have a habit of buying cookbooks and not cooking from them at all). Other recipes I have made from the book include chocolate cherry cupcakes (see the recipe here), and burnt-butter cupcakes (which I will write up soon).

I made this cake because I had a lot of courgettes. Or rather, I had some courgettes, and one thing led to another, and they multiplied, considerably (next time I buy two courgettes I will have to separate them). So I have been eating courgettes for days. But I’m not sick of them, because they are brilliant, and as this cake proves, so versatile.

I love the simplicity of an un-iced loaf cake. It seems more acceptable to be eaten throughout the day. Nigella’s original recipe was for a filled and iced cake. When I first made this cake I did make the icing, but even though I reduced the sugar from the original (as I always do with Nigella icing) it was still tooth-achingly sweet, and the wrong consistency. So I decided just to go without, the cake is sweet enough on it’s own and doesn’t need it.

Due to the dampness of the courgettes and the use of oil instead of butter this is a very moist cake – squidgy and delicious. The cake will continue to get more squidgy and delicious each day after it is made.

Ingredients

250g courgettes – this will range from between 1-3 courgettes, depending on how big they are. Weigh before you grate.

60g raisins or sultanas

2 large eggs

125 ml vegetable oil (or other flavourless oil)

150g caster sugar

225g self-raising flour

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

Zest of 1 lime with about 1 tbsp lime juice

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (160 with fan).

Grate the courgettes unpeeled – not too finely, you want strands, not mush. Put the grated courgette bits into a sieve and leave it sit over the sink while you prep the rest of the ingredients, to allow the excess liquid to drip out.

Beat the eggs, oil and sugar together in a bowl until light and creamed together. Then add in the self-raising flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Mix well, and then add the raisins, lime zest and juice, and grated courgette.

Pour the cake mixture into a lined or greased loaf tin, and bake for 45 minutes, or until it is risen and golden. 

Test to see if the cake is ready by inserting a cocktail stick or skewer into the centre of the cake – it should come out clean.

Peanut butter and cherry cookies

Adapted from a recipe I tore out of a Sainsburys magazine

There is something completely cathartic and magical about baking, and I don’t do it anywhere near as much as I should. Cookies are actually really quick to knock together, and oh so satisfying. As the winter carries on and gets even more damp, dark and relentless, treats like these are always welcome.

As you may have noticed, I love cooking with peanut butter. Peanut butter and jam on toast is one of my guilty pleasures. I practically lived off it when I was at university. For me the jam has to be a purple kind as opposed to red – blackcurrant or cherry, never strawberry. Classy people may turn their noses up at ‘pb and j’, but really, it is just another example of how sweet and salty can be the best of friends.

These cookies are absolutely fantastic - they echo the ways in which peanut butter and jam work, but in a more sophisticated and less sticky way. I have reduced the sugar a lot from the original recipe, but they are sweet enough, with delicious bursts of sweet and sour from the cherries.

Makes 24 ish

Ingredients

100g unsalted butter, softened

125g light muscavado sugar (this is les sugar than the original recipe)

200g crunchy peanut butter – I use Meridian brand, which contains no added sugar, salt, palm oil, or anything else other than peanuts - I recommend using it for cooking, but for just eating it on toast it takes some getting used to.

1 large egg

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

200g plain flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract, optional

125g dried cherries – I used dried morello cherries

Method

Preheat the oven to 160 c with fan, and line two baking trays with baking paper.

Mix the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until creamy and amalgamated. Mix in the peanut butter and egg, and then sift in the bicarbonate of soda, flour, and salt. Stir well and add the cherries and vanilla if using. Mix everything together until a soft dough forms.

Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls and space them evenly on the baking sheets, use a fork to flatten them a bit and make some cute groove shapes in the top.

Bake for 12 – 14 minutes – it is a little tricky to tell if they are done because the dough is brown-ish anyway from the peanut butter. They will be soft when they come out of the oven, but will harden up as they cool down. 

Glorious melba toast

Crispy crackers made out of toast, super easy and just wonderful.

Each slice of bread will make 4 pieces of melba toast.

To make, preheat your oven to 180 degrees c.

Get some slices of brown bread, and toast them in a toaster.  Cut the crusts off, and then cut each slice in half horizontally through the middle, so that you have two thin squares of toast, crisp on one side, fluffy on the other. This sounds tricky, but it really isn’t, use a regular bread knife and it will be fine. 

Cut each slice in half diagonally to create two triangles, and arrange all the toasts, fluffy untoasted side up, on a baking tray. Bake for about 15 minutes until completely crisp and curling at the edges.

Leave them to go completely cold until you box them. Serve with smoked mackerel pâté, humous, this amazing pumpkin seed dip, some posh cheese, or whatever else you fancy.

Sorry about the light...

Little orange fairy cakes

I had been planning on making orange and passion fruit cupcakes, but I realised a little too late that the seal had gone on my jar of passion fruit curd, and it had gone a bit fizzy. In a way though, I’m glad. I probably would not have set out to make plain orange fairy cakes, but actually, they were brilliant, and by sticking to one strong flavour, they really worked. I am the kind of person that always ends up over-complicating things. Always done with the best of intentions, sometimes I just can’t leave things alone, and quite often it ends up a mess. One of my intentions for the year is to keep things simple. I wish someone would say this to the contestants on Masterchef Professionals before someone else puts black olives in a dessert, or clay on a potato.

These cakes will turn out a lot better if you use a proper fairy cake/cupcake pan, as opposed to just jamming filled cupcake cases on a flat baking tray.

 Makes, annoyingly, 26 – don’t just jam all the mix into 24 cases, as they will be too full and you risk creating mushroom cloud cupcakes.

For the fairy cakes:

250g unsalted butter, softened

250g self-raising flour

225g caster sugar

4 eggs

pinch salt

zest of 1 big orange

3 tbsp orange juice

2 tbsp milk

For the orange buttercream:

250g unsalted butter, softened

200g icing sugar

2 tbsp orange juice

zest of 1 lemon

toppings:

Crushed pistachio nuts

Pieces of crystallised ginger

Dried cranberries

180c with fan, 16 minutes

Cream together the butter and sugar, and then add the flour, eggs and salt. Mix together until a thick batter forms – this could be done in a food processor. Add the orange zest and juice, mix well and then add the milk and mix again. Add a little more milk if the batter still seems too thick. It should have a 'nice dropping consistency', ie. plop nicely off the teaspoon into the cupcake case. At this point you could throw in a handful of sultanas or dried cranberries if you wanted to.

Use a teaspoon to fill your cupcake cases no more than two thirds full and bake for 15-20 minutes, until risen and golden on the top (with my oven this took 16 minutes).

 Lift the cakes out of the tray as soon as possible and let them cool on a cooling rack.

Make the buttercream by beating together the butter, icing sugar and zest, and then gradually incorporating the orange juice (make sure the butter is really soft otherwise it will go lumpy). Use a piping bag or a knife to spread the icing over the fairy cakes – you want it to be thick, but not insanely so – the cake has a lovely light texture and orange flavour, and you don't want to overpower it.

Decorate the cakes with crushed pistachios, crystallised ginger, dried cranberries, or whatever else you fancy. Once the cupcakes are iced, put them in the fridge for a few hours to harden up the icing.

Red berry granola

Adapted from http://www.cannellevanille.com/gluten-free/my-basic-granola-recipe/

Hello folks, happy autumn. How was your summer?

I know that ‘how was your summer’ can be a pretty loaded question. Summer is that magical time where you are supposed to have adventures, and yet somehow expectations and reality never seem to match up. Well, for me at least. Maybe things are turning around though, because this year I actually had a really brilliant summer, and seeing as I didn’t even go on holiday, I think that is quite an achievement.

In mid-August, I went away with a group of 18 friends to a yurt camp in an organic farm in Cirencester, and I think it was one of the best weekends away I have ever had.

What I loved was how we all came together to create incredible food for the whole weekend. With an epic roast chicken Friday night dinner feast, and Becky’s incredible shakshouka with eggs from the farm, and baba ganoush with aubergines roasted in the campfire. One of the best experiences for me was a moment on Saturday night, where we had all forgotten to make dinner before it got dark. Standing in the field kitchen as curry genius Gavin’s sous-chef, stirring two giant pots with a headlamp and two boys hanging out of a tree above my head dangling lanterns over the stove, was definitely surreal, but absolutely brilliant – I felt like the kitchen queen.

One of my contributions to the weekend was granola that I made for breakfast time. I had never made granola before, although I have it for breakfast for most days. I was amazed at how much better homemade granola is – it was a revelation. Served with almond milk (uht and perfect for camping), it went down really well.

When we went to the yurts, I made the granola using gluten-free large rolled oats, and it was perfect – the oats stayed separate, perfectly crunchy and it didn’t go stale despite making it a week before. I’m sure it would have lasted another week, had we not finished it so quickly. When I came back, I made another batch using regular rolled oats (Quaker brand), and it didn’t work at all – the oats lost their shape and clumped together – it didn’t stay as crunchy and went stale very fast. I’m not sure if it was the gluten-free-ness of the first lot of oats that made them so perfect, or just the fact that they were better quality.

Makes a big box-full

450g large rolled oats (gluten-free if you can get them)


1 cup blanched almonds, roughly chopped

1 cup pecans, roughly chopped

½ cup pumpkin seeds

¾ cup apple and raspberry juice
(I used Coppela brand)

¾ cup maple syrup

90 ml coconut oil


1 level tsp ground cinnamon


1 level tsp fine sea salt


¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
 (seriously)

1 cup dried cherries

1 cup dried cranberries

½ cup dried apricots (diced)

Preheat oven to 160C. (150 with fan)

Combine the oats, nuts and seeds in a big bowl (save the fruit for later).

Put the apple and raspberry juice, maple syrup, coconut oil, cinnamon, sea salt and black pepper in a small saucepan. Gently heat until coconut oil is liquefied, and the salt is dissolved. Don’t let it boil.

Pour the warmed liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and quickly stir it all together. Spread the mixture evenly in a flat layer over two baking sheets.

Bake for 15 minutes, take the granola out of the oven and stir everything around. Put back in the oven and bake for another 15 minutes, take out and stir again.

Depending on the heat of your oven, you will need to bake the granola for another 10-15 minutes after that, but you should be able to judge how quickly it is toasting after the second round of 15 minutes. So in all, the granola will take 40-45 minutes until it is golden and toasted, and all the moisture is gone.

Let the granola cool completely in the trays before you box it. It will become crunchier as it sits. Stir in the dried fruit when completely cool. Store in an airtight container for a few weeks. Serve with milk or yogurt, or use to crumble over desserts.

Of course I have my eyes closed...

Lemon and lime ice cream pavlova

Here is another recipe adapted from Evelyn Rose, this time from ‘New Jewish Cuisine’ – new as in written in 1988.  She is a bit like the ‘Delia Smith of Jewish cooking’ not necessarily all that interesting, but the recipes always work. One of my earliest posts is one of her recipes – A chicken pie to unify and lead the Jewish people, and I wrote then that I didn’t get on with her writing style and found the recipe difficult to follow. This time I definitely found it easier – maybe I have leant more about cooking and following recipes in the two years since that post, or maybe I am just more intuitively tuned to desserts. Probably a bit of both to be honest.

As long as I can remember, this dessert (originally known as lemon shaum) has been on of the ultimate special occasion desserts, made by both my Mum and Grandmother, and loved by all. As I have said previously, I am so blessed and privileged to come from such a rich food heritage: most of my earliest memories are of the dishes cooked by my grandmothers and great-grandparents – roasted duck, fried fish, split pea soup, chicken soup with kneidelach, lemon meringue pie, apple pie, and the best chocolate mousse on the planet. So when the family came together to celebrate my maternal grandparents’ diamond wedding anniversary, I really wanted to make them a special dessert.

I’m the one in the top right hand corner flashing their knickers – as my Mum said ‘see, even then you were an exhibitionist.’

The pavlova is incredibly light, with an almost foamy or marshmallowy texture in the middle. Originally this recipe is just with lemon, but we tried it with lime too once, and never looked back.

It is very sweet, but the lemon and lime cut through it and make it incredibly refreshing and not stodgy at all. It is great dish for any kind of dinner party as it can be made well in advance, and its rectangular shape means that it is easier to slice and portion than a traditional round pavlova.

If you are celebrating Rosh Hashanna (Jewish New Year) this week, this would make an ideal dessert at a festive meal, especially due to the hot weather forecasted.

Special thanks go to my Mum, both for teaching me how to cook, and for helping me with this dessert and providing the freezer space.

Ingredients

For the meringue:

4 egg whites

¼ tsp cream of tartar

225g (1 cup) caster sugar

2 level tsp cornflour (mix the cornflour into the caster sugar)

(I know this seems like a high number of ingredients for a meringue, but don’t skip any out. The meringue needs to be really sturdy to survive the freezer intact)

For the ice cream:

4 egg yolks

125g (½ cup) caster sugar

3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

3 tbsp fresh lime juice

Grated zest of 1 lemon

Grated zest of 1 lime

275ml (½ pint) double cream or 225ml non-dairy cream

Method

I don’t mean to sound like a GSCE exam invigilator, but really do read all the steps before getting started. Be aware that you will need a lot of freezer space, and it is probably a massive pain in the arse to make if you don’t have access to a freestanding mixer. Sorry about the quality of the photos.

Preheat the oven to 150 c with fan. Line 2 baking trays with grease-proof/baking paper, each piece marked on the reverse with a rectangle drawn 28cm long and 12cm wide. This may seem tedious, but this is a centrepiece dessert, and so really worth making sure that the layers are the same size.

To make the meringue layers:

Whisk the egg whites, sprinkled with the cream of tartar, until they hold stiff, glossy peaks.

Mix together the caster sugar and the cornflour and then add it to the egg white mix, 1 tablespoonful at a time, whisking until stiff again after every addition.

Use a tiny amount of the meringue to 'stick' the baking paper onto the baking tray. Spoon the meringue equally into the two rectangles, and use a fork to even it out.

Put the meringues in the oven, and reduce the temperature to 140c and bake for an hour until the meringues are crisp to the touch and will lift off the paper easily (be very careful when you do this, it is fragile).

To make the ice cream filling:

Start this as soon as the meringue goes into the oven.

Put the yolks and sugar into a saucepan – stir until creamy, and then add the citrus juices and zest. Cook over a gentle heat, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. Take it off the heat and stir for a further minute, and then pour it into a bowl and refrigerate until completely cool. This will take about half an hour.

Whisk the cream until it stands in soft peaks, and then beat in the cold lemon custard/curd, one tablespoon at a time until completely amalgamated into the cream.

On a tray, spread out a piece of foil large enough to cover the entire pavlova. Place one rectangle of meringue on it, spread the filling evenly over the whole thing, and then lay the second meringue on top. Freeze uncovered until solid, and then wrap carefully in foil and keep in the freezer.

Take it out of the freezer about 20 minutes before serving – it should be served semi-frozen, so that the lemon-lime filling has the texture of soft ice cream. You can keep it in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Rhubarb and Frangipane Tart

Here is another guest post, this time from the wonderful Naomi. Naomi, her husband Simon and I spend many Friday night dinners together, and I am always completely blown away with the dishes they make. They always seem to be trying something new and exciting, which I find so inspiring. Recent highlights include dhal-stuffed butternut squash, okra and tomato stew, and homemade elderflower cordial, with elderflowers picked outside our local pub The Queensbury. 

Naomi made this delicious rhubarb tart a few weeks ago, and it was so incredible that I have been pestering her for the recipe ever since. I have had frangipane tarts before, and normally the fruit/almond ratio isn’t quite right and they get a bit dry and cakey – but this one was perfect: sweet and sour, with just the right amount of goo. The straight-lines of the rhubarb also made it very easy to serve equal portions.

And now for Naomi's recipe: 

Serves 6-8

Approx 500g rhubarb (I’ve found one 400g pack will just about stretch, but any less than that and it can look a little sparse)

3 tbsp caster sugar

2 cups water

a few cardamom pods (to taste)

1 sheet good-quality puff pastry

1 free-range egg for an egg wash

For the frangipane filling:

75g unsalted butter

60g caster sugar

125g ground almonds

2 egg yolks

½ tsp vanilla extract

Method

Pre-heat oven to 200˚C – I didn’t have a fan oven and put mine to this temperature, although I’ve seen some recipes with higher temperatures.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - -

1: Put the butter, sugar, ground almonds, egg yolks and vanilla essence in a bowl and mix until it is an even paste. I did this by hand, but you could use an electric mixer or food processor to speed things up. Mixing by hand, I found it easiest to cream the butter and sugar together first, and then add the almonds, egg yolks and vanilla essence after that, so that I had fewer lumps of butter through the frangipane mix.

2: Once mixed, put the frangipane mixture in the fridge and chill for 10-15 minutes or until required – if you do this first, then it can chill while you do everything else. (I have also made it where I mixed up the frangipane the day before and left it in the fridge over night.)

3: Cut the rhubarb into strips (about 2 inches/4-5cm in length), and with thick sticks of rhubarb, you may want to cut the sticks in half lengthwise as well. In two batches, place the rhubarb into a saucepan and pour in one cup of water and one tablespoon of caster sugar and some bashed cardamom pods/seeds/ground cardamom to taste. I have also made it all in one batch, but you just have to be very careful that the rhubarb cooks evenly! Still only use one cup (approx. 250ml) of water, but all three tablespoons of sugar.

4: Mix gently and bring to a simmer for no more than 3 minutes until the rhubarb is just tender and starting to soften. You want it to still hold its stick-like appearance and not go too soft for presentation purposes on the tart. I found that 2-3 minutes was plenty – my first batch went too soft in three and a half minutes! And another batch went too soft after 2 and a half (it clearly depends on the thickness and size of the rhubarb pieces). Transfer to a plate to cool as soon as you think it is ready to take out of the pan – it will keep cooking a little in the hot syrup/juices otherwise.

5: Repeat with remainder of rhubarb, water, cardamom and caster sugar, but keep the juices/syrup from the previous batch (in a cup/bowl/jug etc).

6: Remove pastry from packaging and lay flat. Roll out if needed. Score a 2cm border all around the pastry sheet, taking care not to cut all the way through. Prick the base of the pastry with a fork within the score lines.

7: Remove frangipane from fridge and spread onto pastry within the scored inner square lines. If too cold it might be a little difficult to spread due to firmness, but it should be pliable with fingers to spread out and break up evenly (I love cooking with my hands instead of implements).

8: Place rhubarb sticks onto frangipagne in vertical side-by-side lines.

9. Strain (or pick out any cardamom pods etc) and reduce the juices/syrup from when you cooked the rhubarb to a slightly thicker syrup. When thickened, pour over the rhubarb – this will form a beautiful glaze on top of the tart (and if you used any spices will add a hint more of that flavour). You might not want to pour it all on (or use a spoon to pour some on) as if the glaze gets over the pastry it might get in the way of the egg wash and may also encourage the pastry to burn in the oven. Ideally the glaze only goes on the rhubarb/frangipane bit in the middle, and not the pastry edges.

10: Brush edges of pastry with egg wash and place in oven for 35-40 minutes until pastry is cooked and edges are risen and golden.

Serve warm with cream or ice-cream.

Matching tablecloth not mandatory, but definitely adds to the whole dessert experience

Please click here to see the latest on the campaign to try and prevent the Queensbury pub from demolition http://savethequeensbury.info/