Sweet bread

Envious as we are of those of you with an "artisan bakery" within walking distance, we have grown accustomed to the joy of home bread making and enjoy all the more the occasional pleasure of glorious bread by master bakers, such as Robert Swift and Phil Clayton
But we are busy people, so our daily bread is generally a basic white or brown loaf. Nothing wrong with that, but come the weekend it's nice to treat ourselves.

This is a sweetened dough, spiked with candied lemon peel and lightly spiced with cardamom.  Delicious, still slightly warm from the oven, with cold butter and marmalade and if you don't scoff the lot in a single sitting any leftovers make fantastic pain perdu or bread and butter pudding.  

I used my food processor to mix the dough - but this can, of course, be made by hand.

1 teaspoon dried yeast
50g sugar
1 teaspoon salt
200ml tepid milk
70g melted butter
450g strong white bread flour
2 eggs
40g chopped candied lemon peel
20g poppy seeds
8 - 10 cardamom pods, dehusked and the seeds crushed.
Marmalade

Method 1
Place all the ingredients in a food processor and mix until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Method 2
Add the yeast to the milk and stir to mix thoroughly.
Beat the eggs and add to the milk, then add the melted butter.
Place all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir to distribute the peel and seeds evenly.
Add the liquid and bind together.  Turn out on a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.

Once the dough is mixed, cover with a damp cloth or oiled clingfilm (we prefer not to use plastic if we can help it, so a wet tea towel is our go to cover) and leave for at least an hour until it has doubled in size. 
"Knock back" the dough to remove any large air bubbles.  This simply means kneading and folding the dough until the bubbles are dispersed. Cover it again and leave for another 30 minutes, while you pre-heat the oven to 190ºC
Place your baking sheet or griddle plate in the oven to heat up as the oven heats up.

Carefully remove the baking tray from the oven and place the loaf on it.  Return to the oven for 30 - 40 minutes, until well risen, golden and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.  Transfer to a cooling rack
While it is still warm, brush the top with marmalade for a gloriously glossy and sumptuously sticky finish.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2019 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Rhubarb and custard

A classic pairing, be it poached rhubarb and thick, warm, yellow custard; a bag of boiled sweets or the children's TV programme of the 1970s.
Bird's custard powder, the basis of so many oceans of yellow bliss, was invented by Alfred Bird, a Birmingham chemist in 1837, because his wife was allergic to eggs.  Whilst Birds is now owned by premier foods, the Custard Factory still stands in Digbeth and is now a collection of creative and digital businesses, independent retailers and event venues.
I have been trying to find out when rhubarb and custard sweets were first introduced, but no conclusive evidence has yet to be unearthed.  Dr Annie Gray, the food historian, tells me that boiled sweets became popular in the late 19th century, when the prohibitive tax on sugar was lifted in 1874
and small sweet shops sprang up around the country.

However, it appears that rhubarb and custard sweets do not contain rhubarb

Here is the classic combination, paired in a cake.
120g butter
120g sugar
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
80g custard powder
40g self raising flour 
300g rhubarb
Extra sugar to taste.

Slice the rhubarb into 5cm lengths and place in a wide pan and add no more than 50ml water.  Poach gently until just soft.  Remove from the heat and add sugar to taste; some rhubarb is sweeter, some as mouth-puckeringly sour as you can possibly imagine, so be guided by your tastebuds.  Just don't make it oversweet, it is going into a cake and you will need the flavour contrast.
Set aside to cool while you make the cake mix.

Pre-heat the oven to 165ºC and grease a 22cm cake tin

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy and very pale in colour.  Beat in the eggs and the vanilla.
Carefully fold in the custard powder and flour and spoon the mixture into the cake tin.
Lift the rhubarb out of its juice and lay it across the top of the cake.
Place in the oven and cook for 25 - 30 minutes, until the centre springs back when lightly pressed.

Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then run a palette knife around the edge and invert the cake onto a plate, turn it over again onto a cooling rack.
Serve still warm or at room temperature with extra custard.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2019 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk