Miss Foodwise

Celebrating British food and Culture

Baking

Mini Chelsea Bun Crowns

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I’ve been sharing videos and easy baking ideas on my Instagram @Missfoodwise during these strange times, some will be handy to make things easier for you for when you want to get some thing beautiful and delicious on the table quick. I’ve posted a few recipes from my new book Oats in the North Wheat from the South – which came out in full lockdown and saw all my events in the UK cancelled. Luckily I was able to do my BBC Womans’ hour interview over the phone as I would have been sad to miss is.

I also posted some ideas for overnight doughs so you can prep before bed and bake in the morning for breakfast or lunch. This is one of those bakes (there is also overnight bread buns and quick pan pizza for same day baking) that looks great on your table, looks great to give as gifts – I’ve gifted one of the crowns to my neighbours who are doctors and can use some unexpected cheer and sweetness right now….

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Brighton Rock Cakes – from Oats in the North, my new book

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Recipe and extract from Oats in the North, Wheat from the South, published with Murdoch Books and available here >

Usually these buns appear as ‘Rock cakes’ or ‘Rock buns’ in old cookery books, but in 1854 two recipes for Brighton rock cakes appeared in George Read’s The Complete Biscuit and Gingerbread Baker’s Assistant. Read gives a recipe for Brighton rock cakes and another for Brighton pavillions. The latter are made the same way as Brighton rock cakes, but are finished with a topping of currants and coarse sugar that, he says, should be ‘as large as a pea’.

You can still buy Brighton rock cakes in the seaside town of Brighton at the Pavilion Gardens Café. The open-air kiosk at Brighton Pavilion has been selling Brighton rock cakes since 1940, and possibly even longer if we look at Read’s recipe from 1854. Rock cakes are popular throughout Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and often appear in literature. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Hagrid serves them to Harry and Ron, and Agatha Christie also mentions them in more than one novel.

I wanted to share this recipe in publication week of my new book Oats in the North, Wheat from the South because currently I am missing the sunny Brighton beach, the buzzing pier, and the busy Brighton lanes with its independent shop walhalla. I miss the days without worry when we drove over to the UK for a weekend, antiquing, walking, eating… When the Corona crisis is over I’m planning a trip, but I wonder how we will feel post Corona, will we be free of worry or will the way we live change?

But for now, we can bake, do join my #bakecorona on social media.

This recipe only uses one egg, in a time when eggs are dear this recipe might be a solution, other recipes from the book which can be handy during shortages are the Soda bread – to save yeast, the Parkin – to save sugar, the Cornish Heavy cake NO eggs at all, Yorkshire parkin – just oat flour needed, the fat rascalls – just 1 egg needed, Swiss roll – no baking powder but lots of eggs, Flapjack – uses just oats or leftover muesli. And to save an egg, I use an egg less in my pound cake! Happy baking…

This recipe for Brighton rock cakes contains candied cedro, but most rock cakes only contain currants, so you can easily leave it out.

Recipe from Oats in the North, Wheat from the South, published with Murdoch Books and available here >

For 6 rock cakes

  • 225 g plain (all-purpose) flour
  • 100 g raw (demerara) sugar
  • or white sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tbsp mixed spice
  • pinch of sea salt
  • 75 g chilled butter, diced
  • 1 egg
  • 3 tbsp full-fat milk
  • 50 g currants
  • 30 g  candied cedro (optional)
  • 3 glacé cherries, halved, to garnish (optional)
  • nibbed sugar, to garnish (optional)

Method

Preheat your oven to 200°C (400°F) and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, mixed spice and salt in a large bowl. Add the butter and rub it into the flour mixture until it has the consistency of breadcrumbs.

Stir in the egg, then add enough milk to bring the dough together without making it too wet. If the dough is too dry to press together, add a teaspoon of milk. Fold the currants and candied cedro through the dough. Form six rock cakes using two forks – this will help achieve a rugged, rocky look. Place on the baking tray and decorate with the cherries and sugar, if using. Bake in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes until the rock cakes have a golden blush.

Oats in the North, Wheat from the South – Introducing my new baking book

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In my new book ’Oats in the North, Wheat from the South’ I’m showing the reader how the diverse climate of the British Isles influenced the growth of cereal crops and the development of a rich regional baking identity with it. Imports of spices, sugar, treacle, fortified wines
and citrus added flavour, colour and warmth to a baking culture much adored and replicated all over the world.

With the help of historical cookbooks, diaries and newspaper archives, I have given the most traditional recipe of a bake – which means, how it usually appears in old cookbooks – but often also a more recent version of that recipe to show how recipes evolve through a change of taste, economy and fashion.

With a foreword by food historian Dr. Annie Gray.

Praise for Oats in the North, Wheat from the South:

”An excellent and diligently written book celebrating some super-tasty British treats”
—  JAMIE OLIVER

A feast for the eyes, as well as the stomach, meticulously researched and beautifully photographed, this is a true love letter to the food Britain does best. One to savour, and treasure, but most of all, one to bake from!’
—  FELICITY CLOAKE, THE GUARDIAN

”While this is a book that you just long to bake from instantly, it is also one to be read, and savoured, as it brings alive the link between culture, climate and cuisine.”
—  NIGELLA LAWSON

“It’s a love letter to British baking and all that that implies. It brings together buns and bakes that you’ll find in every local shop, and cakes and breads that have long since disappeared. Here you’ll find recipes both old and new, resurrected for the future, together with the stories that make them such a window onto both the past and the present. The joy of Regula’s writing is that through it all, we realise that it takes an outsider looking in to show us who we truly are.This is a beautiful book. It is a lyrical book. It is a book full of good things, modern and old, with a multitude of real heritage and imagined tradition behind them. Enjoy.
 — Dr Annie Gray, food historian

Virtual Book Tour!

As the Covid19 Pandemic hit right in the week of my book launch we had to cancel all events in the UK and the US and do as much virtually as we could. Here is a great selection of podcasts and interviews!

BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour – Last guest that episode, find it here >

Olive Magazine Podcast – find it here >

Tea & Tattle Podcast – find it here >

Cooking with an Italian Accent podcast – find it here >

Borough Market‘s Borough talks – find it here >

Sunday Post interview – find it here >

At the Sauce Podcast – Available soon

Further listening:

Gastro Podcast, The Great Pudding Off (2019) – Find it here >

 

Book reviews that could be helpful:

Nigella Lawson’s Cookbook Corner >

Shiny New Book’s Review >

Desperate Reader’s Review >

My Custard Pie’s Review >

Extract on the Telegraph >

Try a few recipes

Belgian Buns over on the Telegraph >

Carrot cake with cashew topping on the Telegraph >

Chelsea Buns over on The Sunday Times >

COVID19 measures: Large outlets will send even outside the UK, for local delivery the independent book stores mentioned below have stock and are happy to send to you.

For sale at

Amazon UK and Waterstones UK

And Indie bookstores with in particular the following stores:

In the UK

Cookbookbake in Brighton (also shipping to you)

Warwick Books in Warwick (also shipping to you)

Toppings & Company in Edinburgh, Ely and Bath (also shipping to you)

Browsers Bookshop in Woodbury (delivers locally)

In Australia

Dymocks (@dymocksbooks:https://bit.ly/2REYCok
Readings (@readingsbooks) :https://bit.ly/34EU6LL
Booktopia (@booktopiabooks) :https://bit.ly/2K9rZuH

In United Stated (UK edition, US edition coming end of 2020)

Omnivore Books @OmnivoreBooks in San Fransisco: https://omnivorebooks.myshopify.com/

’Oats in the North, Wheat from the South’ Published with Murdoch books in Britain, Australia and New Zealand in April and the US later this year (with a different title: ‘The British Baking Book” and cover) with Weldon Owen.

A remedy for a dry throat: Papo Secos and Port

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Not long ago I travelled to the incredible Douro Valley in Portugal where I was a guest of the Symington family, a family business who owns several port and wine vineyards or ‘quinta’ in the region. Our focus this time was on Graham’s port, for whom I also hosted an event in my house this month.

We arrived in Porto at the location where all the barrels and bottels are resting. An impressive cellar with barrels and tall ‘foedre’ as far as the eye can see, on the side wall there are barred cells with vintage ports that date back to the early decades of the last century. In the air there is the smell of ageing wood, must and a deep dark scent of port wine.

After lunch and on our way to the Douro valley, we make a stop to experience the delights of the traditional ‘pastel de nata’ or custard tart paired with a 10 year old port. My travel companion, prolific pastry chef and chocolatier Joost Arijs and I are glued to the glass window that separates us from the pastel bakery. There is no way to keep someone with his profile and a Bake Off judge and author of several books on baking away from where the action is. We walk the steep streets of Porto slightly tipsy, the delayed flight and boozy lunch with port pairing certainly got to our heads, but since all of us have had busy lives at home, it is a welcome opportunity to unwind.

There is just a sigh of light left in the Douro Valley when we arrive at the calm riverside village. Dinner is traditional dried salted cod and the Symington family’s wines to go with it. On the table I spot the bread basket, something that makes me weak in the knees when done well. There are a couple of huge breads in there, looking like a baby’s bum. I stare at them but am so full with the late lunch, custard tarts and salted cod that I can’t even fit dessert in, let alone a baby’s bum sized bun.

The next morning I wake up from the light peeping through the shutters of my room in one of the Symington’s family homes. Opening the shutters on an early morning in a quiet house where everyone is still asleep, letting in the crisp air is like breathing in life itself and with the view over the vineyard that greeted me I had to stop and take it all in. Downstairs breakfast waited for us, with juice made from the oranges growing in the garden and a basket of buns to make me weak at the knees again. On my plate, a large baby’s bum bun, I tear the two halves apart and smear the crusty bread with butter… few things are better than the simple delight of good bread and good butter….

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Copper pudding pot in collaboration with Netherton Foundry

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Win this specially designed copper pudding basin and my book Pride and Pudding!

I’m very excited to share with you that I’ve designed a copper pudding basin in collaboration with Netherton Foundry. If you don’t know Netherton Foundry yet, they are an artisan maker of extraordinary spun iron, cast iron and copper cookware from Shropshire, UK. Husband and wife team Neil and Sue have created a brand that makes the hearts of foodies skip a beat, their wares are practical, versatile, durable and they look beautiful. I’ve met Neil and Sue years ago online and we’ve been talking about collaborating ever since.

I talked to Neil about creating a pudding basin because I felt there was something missing in the pudding market, a durable non ceramic pudding basin that has little cutouts where the string can be fitted in when closing a basin with baking paper. I was thinking spun iron, but Neil, being so experienced suggested copper. It’s not just a material that perfectly manages the heat, copper is also traditional for the more decorative jelly moulds and basins and it can be immersed into water without hurting its fabric. The basin is tin-lined, just like the original historical ones.

This week Netherton Foundry is holding a competition so you can win a copper pudding basin (worth £ 142) and my book Pride and Pudding (Murdoch books)!

To win the competition you need to do this before 10 november:
If you have social media accounts, please do one or all of the following:
Follow @nethertonfoundry and @RegulaYsewijn on Twitter then find the pinned competition tweet on the Netherton Foundry page and retweet it.
OR find the competition post on Netherton Foundry Facebook and like it and the page and then share the post.
OR follow us on Instagram, find the competition on the Netherton Foundry insta and like it, comment and tag 2 friends…

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When it comes to Mincemeat, you have to plan ahead

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Mincemeat is an ancient recipe that gives you a taste of Medieval times gone by when the usage of this mixture was widely common for sweet as well as savoury dishes. That is if you were well off, dishes with these rich ingredients were the privilege of the very rich and one of the first recipes dates from the 14th century scroll presumably written by the chef of King Richard II.

Mincemeat is best made at least a month in advance so that the flavours can mature. You can use it for different recipes: as a filling for Mince pies of course but also for Eccles cakes and a couple of other British bakes.

The combination of fruits and spices for mincemeat is often diverse, but raisins, currants and candied lemon, cedro and/or orange peel are standard. Some old recipes also contain prunes, dates, figs or candied ginger. Spices are usually cinnamon, cloves, mace and nutmeg. There is always grated apple or pear and sometimes also lemon or orange juice – mostly from Seville oranges (these are very acidic and also the basis for English marmalade – see recipe here).

You can make the mincemeat in this large quantity and store it in the fridge for up to 6 months in sterilised preserving jars.

And then for a little joyeus news: my new book ‘Brits Bakboek‘ has been nominated for ‘Het Gouden Kookboek’ a prestigious kookbook award in the Netherlands. I’m absolutely chuffed and honoured to be nominated as the only Belgian on the list!
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Pork Pies van mijn nieuwste ‘Brits Bakboek’

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Vanavond was de technische proef op Bake Off Vlaanderen ‘Pork Pies’ uit mijn nieuwste boek ‘Brits Bakboek’! Een Britse klassieker die vaak in de pubs geserveerd worden, maar ook voor een picknick is het ideaal. Je maakt het op voorhand en laat het afkoelen. Die pies kan je ook vrij goed invriezen voor toekomstige feestjes of hongertjes.

Het traditionele deeg voor de Pork Pie is hot water crust, dit is essentieel! Doordat het vet voor de hot water crust gesmolten wordt, krijg je een zeer gelijkmatig deeg dat ook veel gelijkmatiger zal kleuren in de oven, terwijl je bij andere degen de vetstof in de bloem wrijft met je vingers wat tot inconsistenties kan leiden in de gebakken korst. Hot water crust is een beetje taaier dan blader-, suet- of korstdeeg maar daardoor kan dit deeg ook nattere en zwaardere vullingen perfect aan zonder natte bodem – of soggy bottoms – te vrezen. Het gebruik van een kleine hoeveelheid aan bloem met een hoger eiwitgehalte draagt ertoe bij dat het deeg meer tegen een stootje kan….

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Persimmon roll cake

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Turns out I’ve never experienced a persimmon in its prime. Doubtful about the overly ripe state of my bunch I was assured that this is how a persimmon should be eaten. Carefully cutting into the skin and scooping out the jammy flesh. A whole new world of persimmon opened… how on earth have I never tasted a ripe specimen before? I like them quite hard, eaten pared like a peach but this is something else. It opens up so many possibilities. The flesh scooped on thick yoghurt or even a creamy dessert or ice cream.
A thick jam to spread on toast, eat with a good blue cheese or use as a filling for a light sponge cake.
American readers have told me their mothers used to make persimmon pudding and persimmon biscuits. Possibilities with persimmon are plenty, that is if you have the patience to let the orange baubles ripen enough for them to almost burst.

Having received a bunch of persimmon as a gift, the fruit still beautifully attached to their wilted branches, I wanted to make the most of this little crop….

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Hot Cross Buns – The Tale Of English Buns # 2

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Bake them on Good Friday: The history and tales behind these spiced buns are plenty and intriguing, steeped in folklore dating back as far as Anglo-Saxon Britain. This is perhaps one of the most iconic of buns. Recipe from my new book Oats in the North, Wheat from the South, out with Murdoch Books (2020)

Every year well before Easter Marks & Spencer starts piling up Hot Cross Buns from chocolate & salted caramel to blueberry and marmalade. Marmalade I can understand as you do add candied orange peel to the dough, but chocolate & salted caramel and blueberry just creates a whole different bun, the cross being the only reminder of a traditional Hot Cross Bun. But what is traditional or original with a recipe as old as this one? If you scroll down to the recipe you might discover I too dare to add something which isn’t traditional from time to time.

The tradition of baking bread marked with a cross is linked to paganism as well as Christianity. The pagan Saxons would bake cross buns at the beginning of spring in honour of the goddess Eostre – most likely being the origin of the name Easter. The cross represented the rebirth of the world after winter and the four quarters of the moon, as well as the four seasons and the wheel of life.

The Christians saw the Crucifixion in the cross bun and, as with many other pre-Christian traditions, replaced their pagan meaning with a Christian one – the resurrection of Christ at Easter. …

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Digestive Biscuits

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Update on my life: it’s been a little quiet on here because we’ve just bought a new house, sold our current one and are preparing for our move to the woods in April! Right now I’m planning my vegetable garden and new kitchen which is very exciting indeed. My aim is to go for durable and craftsmanship. The latter will probably mean I’ll be able to afford the kitchen cabinets this year (at least I hope so, or it will be vegetable crates!!) and the doors will maybe have to wait until next year. For my fittings I’m going for old established companies who have proven themselves with their quality. My impressive Esse stove will be the main feature, wood fired and surprisingly rated A+ with practically non-existent CO emissions due to new techniques. It’s an exciting time and I can’t want to show you how I get on, especially with vegetable growing! Also, I’m hosting a popup dinner in London 16/2 with Ms Marmite lover at her Underground Restaurant, it will be a (vegetarian) Flemish feast with Belgian beer! To book go here >

But on to the news of the day and that is Digestives!

An icon in British biscuit fare, it is illegal to call a digestive ‘digestive’ in the US and it could be one of the reasons the Beatles* split… Impressive for a rather plain looking tea dunker, but yet the biscuit is so adored that the chocolate covered one was elected as the number one biscuit to dip in your cuppa. This leaves the Rich Tea (see my recipe here) on second place, followed by the Hobnob and the plain digestive in fourth place. Shortbread to my amazement came in on ninth place, but then again I do never dunk a shortbread finger into my hot drink even though it’s shape lends it to this action perfectly.

A digestive and a hobnob are quite similar, but the hobnob uses rolled oats and white self-raising flour, while the digestive calls for wholemeal flour and baking powder. Digestives were developed in the 1830’s by two Scottish doctors in the aim to create a biscuit that could aid digestion, hence the name ‘Digestive’. The most popular Digestives are those produced by McVitie’s who started baking them in 1892. However, a recent glance at the packaging revealed their use of palm oil instead of good old butter, something that really infuriates me. It is probably cheaper and more stable to use palm oil, but really when I treat myself to a stack of biccies I want butter and no compromise.

Digestives were often called malt biscuits and the original patent granted for them was titled “Making Malted Bread”. Cassell’s Universal Cookery Book from 1894 gives a recipe for ‘Malt Biscuits’ following: “the recipe for Digestive Biscuits with malt as below may be followed…” He suggests that using ground carraway seeds are a suitable flavouring for persons who suffer from flatulence, but he also mentions that any other spice is optional too.

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