Bring out the beer bread!

Driving North last weekend I caught two minutes of The Kitchen Cabinet on Radio 4 – if you've never listened it's great fun. 10.30a.m. Saturday morning, hosted by Jay Rayner.

All I heard was beer bread without any yeast. Instantly my “easy bread antenna” twitched. A quick note to self to do a spot of research and what follows is the result.

Beer Bread

Serves 6-8

“The yeastiness of India Pale Ale is an inspired addition to Matt

Tebbutt's recipe for bread – perfect as part of a Ploughmans Lunch”

100g cheddar cheese

375g self-raising flour

3 tbsp caster sugar

330ml ale, such as India Pale Ale

20g butter, melted (optional)

Preheat the oven to 160fan/180c/Gas 4.

Grate the cheddar cheese into a mixing bowl. Sift in the flour and the sugar, then mix well. Then, slowly pour in the beer, mixing as you go, until the mixture comes together to form a wet dough.

Pour the dough mixture into a greased loaf tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 45-50 minutes, or until the bread is risen and golden brown. To check if the bread is cooked all the way through, tap the bottom with your knuckles – it should sound hollow. During the remaining 4-5 minutes of cooking you can brush the crust of the bread with the melted butter, if preferred.

Do I have your attention? Have a look at the photos coming up – I think you'll be glad you did!

The orange drizzle to go with the cake

This is so easy and delicious - as I said previously it turns a cake into a supper or dinner party dessert.

Here's the drizzle cooling :

and again with the cake

or, if you'd prefer to give your guests a choice, serve the drizzle in small jugs

I've frozen the syrup and will, as usual, let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, what's not to like!

Whilst I'm on the subject of freezing - I promised I'd report back on the frozen Lemon Curd Crumble Bars – I defrosted them – in the fridge – and then warmed six of the bars in a pre-heated oven 160fan/180c/Gas5 for 12 minutes.

I served them with vanilla ice cream - in a word whoopee – another perfect freezer dessert of your own making!

My favourite cake – the photo guide

Take it from someone who doesn't “do cake” - this is the exception.

The final bonus – it freezes!

Thank you Ms. Roden

Up to date cake!

Where there's a will there's a way - instead of boiling the oranges, microwave them for 8 minutes on high.

Pierce the oranges with a paring knife – carefully and microwave for 4 minutes then turn and repeat. Make sure your fruits are in a covered vented microwave container. Continue with the recipe marked * in My favourite cake.

A useful tip. Microwave the oranges ahead of making the cake so that they can cool, it will be much easier and safer to prep them, ready to pulverise.

This cake is moist – moist is good but, to use the northern vernacular, it can be “claggy”. I would, and do, make extra “drizzle” to serve with a lemon drizzle cake – here's an orange version that is perfect to serve with the Gateau a l'Orange.

Orange Drizzle

200g icing sugar

250ml orange juice – no bits

Put the sugar and orange juice in a small saucepan and heat gently so that the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer on a low heat for 10 minutes.

Hey presto, a syrupy drizzle to dress your cake and you've turned a cake into a supper or dinner party dessert – serve with a spoonful of clotted cream or vanilla ice cream.

P.s. I've only ever heard the word “claggy” in the North West of the UK. To set the record straight it means “sticky” and apparently is Scandinavian in origin – you live and learn!

Photo guide up next.

My favourite cake …

… from one of my favourite books. I would never describe myself as a baker but every now and again a recipe catches my eye. The following comes from The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden. If you enjoy a book that gives you history as well as recipes then this is one for you. It's a vast tome, in excess of 500 pages!

Page 514 talks about oranges and page 515 gives you :

Gateau a l'Orange

(Orange Cake)

Serves 12

2 oranges

6 large eggs

250g sugar

2 tbsp orange blossom water

1 tsp baking powder

250g ground almonds

Wash the oranges and boil them whole for 1 – 1½ hours or until they are very soft.

Beat the eggs with the sugar. Add the orange blossom water, baking powder and almonds and mix well. *Cut open the oranges, remove the pips and purée in a food processor. Mix thoroughly with the egg and almond mixture and pour into a 23cm cake tin – lined with baking parchment, preferably non-stick and with a removable base. Bake in a pre-heated oven 170fan/190c/Gas 5 for an hour. Let it cool before turning out.

Believe me when I say that I stared at this recipe for years. What put me off baking this cake was the boiling of the oranges for the time allotted, an hour and a half is too long for me watching oranges and it's so easy to become distracted - before you know it you have a burnt saucepan and the rest, as they say, is history.

To bring it up to date … read on.

The best magazine photos

Set out your stall!

Makes life a lot easier.

A useful piece of kit for an even base.

Looking good.

Looking better still!

I'll report back on the frozen bars …

The best magazine … that's gratis and a grumpy old cook.

Most supermarkets have a give away magazine, usually monthly or seasonally. To the best of my knowledge there's only one supermarket in the UK that charges for the privilege and that is Sainsbury's. You can generally find something of interest in all of them but my award for the best is Waitrose Food (WF).

In the April edition – p111 – “The Sweet Spot” gives a recipe for Lemon curd crumble bars, described as a zesty, springtime treat from the WF test kitchen.

I suppose the recipe attracted my attention for two reasons, lemon and crumble – a perfect combination. I did what I always do, set my stall out and prepped all the ingredients so that I could get stuck in whenever I felt like it.

Here's the grumpy old cook bit. The recipe calls for a 325g jar of lemon curd. Oh goodie I thought - I was given a really posh organic lemon curd Waitrose Duchy Organic Sicilian Lemon Curd to be precise – I'll use that. When I took it from the pantry I was not impressed to read that it weighed only 320g. You may think I'm being picky – may be you're right – but if I'm “road testing” a recipe for the first time I follow it to the gram.

I then made matters worse and went on a “curd hunt” and pulled out Waitrose Orange Curd and M&S Sicilian Lemon Curd – guess what – they both weighed 325g.

I feel almost guilty criticising particularly since I think the WF mag is excellent. I realise that originally the “Duchy” label was acquired from The Duchy of Cornwall – in other words Prince Charles and I know that it supports The Prince's Charities. It may be that it goes with the territory but it makes no sense that you're selling what is now a Waitrose product that doesn't fit the WF recipe. Moan over!

I shall now “get a life” as they say! Here are my notes – try making your lemon curd in the microwave – it's faster – check out Saturday 11^th February 2017 – Sweet week – The lemon curd dilemma for the recipe.

I have frozen the bars – watch this space to see what happens.

I served the bars as a dessert, warmed with home-made ice cream – went down a storm!

P.s. If you're not able to pick up a copy of the magazine check out www.eatyourbooks.com and check out Waitrose Food Magazine April 2017 for the recipe.

Photos coming up - see if you're tempted.