Food & Drink - April 2011
Perfect Puddings
A Food & Drink feature (April 2011)
In the space of a very busy week, I recently spent three days in Dorset and shot up to London for a day. The Dorset trip was to shoot photos for a book of wood fired oven cooking which we are writing and which should be published later this year. Three days cooking outdoors in a wood fired oven in a very cold spell might be enough to put anyone off so we’ll leave that theme until the weather warms up. The trip to London however, involved a subject close to my heart and very appropriate for pretty much any season - puddings!
As producers of award winning sticky puddings we are sometimes credited with a degree of expertise on the subject of puddings in general. Whether or not this confidence is entirely misplaced is open to some debate, but I suppose we may have more to say on the subject than many. That aside, Optomen Productions, who make The Great British Menu, The F Word, Market Kitchen and many other popular TV shows, invited me to be a judge on a show called Perfect. Each episode of the show challenges two chefs to produce Perfect examples of the episode’s chosen subject. One week maybe Thai, then Family Suppers, or Bread and in this case Puddings.
For each episode three judges are invited who have some relevant expertise. My co-judges were Warren Goff and Stacie Stewart. Warren of Caprilatte Ice cream produces award winning goats’ milk ice cream. Stacie bakes cakes and patisserie in Sunderland, regularly appears on TV and was runner up in Masterchef 2010. I am very much hoping that Stacie will come and run a baking class at Manna from Devon later this year in exchange for some bread making tuition from me.
The chefs are anonymous whilst the judging takes place so we were wheeled in and out throughout the day as things were cooked and set up and the chefs hidden away again. In round one, the chefs had to produce a classic crumble. One did a rhubarb and apple version, very light with perfectly cooked fruit but rather spoiled by serving it with cream, ice cream and custard. The other kept it very simple with a rustic blackberry and apple version with vanilla ice cream. This was my favourite but my colleagues disagreed with me and the rhubarb won the round.
In round two, the chefs had to produce a simple dish, one that any of us could easily throw together with readily available ingredients. One chef produced a treacle tart with clotted cream whilst the other made a banana butterscotch pudding. Both of these ran the risk of being hideously sweet but neither overdid it and the Treacle Tart I found to be perfectly balanced; however, once again I was swimming against the tide and the butterscotch won. From the producers’ point of view this was a perfect result as both votes had been split and the chefs were now tied at one all.
Everything now hung on the last round in which the chefs had to produce the ultimate pudding, a perfect example of their craft. Would they go crazy with innovative combinations or keep it simple but excellent? One chose the latter course with a chocolate mousse cake whilst the other stuck his neck out with a cream cheese soufflé, poached berries and basil granita. The basil granita almost blew this dish as it was unnecessary and too strong a flavour for the dish. The chocolate was divine but a little too one dimensional to really knock your socks off.
The soufflé won the round giving Bill Granger a narrow victory over Paul Merrett. Bill is an Australian chef who has written many books and is currently based in the UK. Paul has appeared on many TV shows including ‘Economy Gastronomy’ and runs ‘The Victoria’ in Sheen, West London.
The highlight of the day for me was the treacle tart which I expected not to like but which may have converted me. I’ve reproduced the recipe here and can vouch for its simplicity.
Paul Merrett’s “perfect“ Treacle Tart
• 375g ready-made pack dessert pastry
• 200g day-old bread, brown or
white, crusts removed.
• 600g golden syrup.
• 150g butter
• 50ml double cream
• 1 egg, beaten
• Good pinch of salt
• Zest of two lemons
• Clotted cream to serve.
- To bake the tart case you will need a baking tray and a flan ring or loose-bottomed tart tin, 23cm in diameter and 2cm deep. Paint the inside of your flan ring with a little melted butter and dust with flour.
- Heat the oven to 200C/Gas 6.
- Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface until it’s about 4mm thick. Roll the pastry up on the rolling pin, then carefully unroll it over the flan ring. Push it down inside the ring, making sure the sides are covered too. Any overhanging pastry can be removed with a sharp knife.
- Rest the pastry for 30 minutes in the fridge. When you remove the flan ring from the fridge, prick the base with a fork to stop it puffing up in the oven.
- Crumple some greaseproof paper, then smooth it out flat. Use this to line the base and sides of the flan ring. Fill the centre with baking beans or rice and bake for about 15 minutes. Your tart case is now ready for action.
- Turn the heat in the oven down to 180C/Gas 4.
- To make the filling, put the bread in a food processor and whiz it up until you have breadcrumbs. Pour the golden syrup into a pan and add the butter. Heat them together until the syrup is a runny liquid and the butter has melted.
- Whisk the egg and cream together until well combined and pour in the syrup and butter mixture. Stir in the breadcrumbs, lemon zest and salt, mixing everything together well. The salt and lemon are there to balance the sweetness of the syrup, make sure to use a really good pinch of salt and plenty of zest.
- Pour the filling into your cooked pastry case sitting on the baking tray and put the whole thing in the oven.
- The tart will take about 45 minutes to cook through – at which point it should be a rich golden brown. Give it a few more minutes if it is very soft or under-coloured. Allow it to stand for 15 minutes before serving.
Treacle tart should be served warm or cold but never hot. Devon clotted cream is the Perfect partner.
First Published April 2011 By The Dart