Has Summer Arrived Early?
Mango and Passion Fruit Pie, Wild Garlic Biscuits and Two Bakeries in York
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After a month away from home, working at my parents house whilst the builders sort out multiple problems at the house, I am back home in London. And, as if to welcome me back with open arms, London is currently glorious; perfectly sunny and summery. It is like we skipped spring and jumped right into a beautiful summer. It is London at its finest. To celebrate the change in seasons and the warmer weather, I wanted to make something that was pure sunshine. To that end, this week's recipe for paid subscribers is a mango and passion fruit pie with a coconut and macadamia crust. The recipe is easy but impressive and utterly delicious. For free subscribers I have brought out an old recipe from the archives, another seasonal treat, wild garlic buttermilk biscuits.
Before we get to this week's recipes, answer me this. How long would you drive in search of baked goods? I’m not sure the limit exists for me, but this past weekend I put that to the test and drove an hour for a bagel. After working away from home for a month, I set off on the drive across the country to head home, but I was in need of sustenance. Earlier in the week I had spotted that Goldeee’s Bagels, in York, were making wild garlic bagels, and after seeing their post, I was craving nothing else. I convinced myself that an hour's detour to get some breakfast was a sensible decision. Plus, it would also give me a chance to check out another bakery which I’d wanted to visit for the longest time, Flori, also in York.
I managed to get into the city well before it had properly come alive; only the most jetlagged of tourists had ventured out, and I was able to check out both places before they were too busy. Goldee’s is a mobile bagel operation, using a vintage VW van as their shop which is stationed in the heart of the city, in the Shambles Market. They make the classic selection of bagel flavours and a variety of sandwich fillings, including some delicious breakfast options. For my morning pick-me-up I settled on a classic bacon, egg and cheese on an everything bagel, my go-to choice when trying a new bagel place. Their bagels are made the traditional way and are an excellent example of a really good bagel. The breakfast sandwich was also everything I could have wanted at that early Sunday hour, absolutely delicious! I also grabbed a couple of the wild garlic bagels to take away. I ended up freezing those but have since tried them; they were as delicious as you’d expect.
After my savoury breakfast, I was obviously in need of something sweet, so I ventured a little out of the centre of town to absolutely fantastic Flori, a bakery the people of York are very lucky to have. A total dream of a bakery. The operation is tiny, the bakery housed in what was surely someone's living room in a prior life. It is sparsely but quaintly decorated, and the baking is absolutely first-rate. Being in Yorkshire, I obviously went for a rhubarb pastry, filled with a big cube of cake, cream and rhubarb compote. It was well worth the early morning start. As a second item, I also got my boyfriend their chocolate chip cookie, which was also stellar. This surely jumps right up into the hierarchy of favourite bakeries in the UK, even if that list is admittedly quite long.
After getting back to the city, I popped along to meet Nicolas Rouzaud at his new bakery, housed in the Connaught Hotel. If you know the London bakery scene, this might be confusing, as his bakery has been at the hotel for years. Well, this week the bakery rebranded under his own name as part of a bigger global rollout of his eponymous brand.
So far the bakery has locations in the UK and in Doha but over the coming months and years, he will be expanding to lots of exciting locations. Nicolas talked me through the refresh and the new lineup of pastries. All were excellent, but the pecan and vanilla mousse was incredibly special! Worth noting that in his new lineup, the chef is making a concerted effort towards reducing the use of sugar, and this was very noticeable. All the fruit-flavoured dishes were particularly fresh, and the level of sugar felt unusually low. If you want a special treat, this is definitely a spot worth noting.
Wild Garlic Buttermilk Biscuits
Makes 6 small biscuits
This take on a buttermilk biscuit was inspired by a previous trip to NYC, by a biscuit we had at Librae bakery made with spring onions, dill and cream cheese. It was probably the least flashy thing on offer at the bakery, but it was incredibly tasty, and I’ve wanted to make a version at home ever since. My version varies a little from the original, in that it is made with wild garlic instead of dill, but I think I actually prefer it. The flavours are punchy and the textures amazing.
For the Brits reading this, no, these are not biscuits as you know them. These are a spin on American buttermilk biscuits, kind of like a savoury scone. For this particular version, they're made with both butter and cream cheese, the cheese helping to make these incredibly tender.
250g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
75g cream cheese, chilled
50g butter, diced and chilled
50g wild garlic, finely chopped
3 spring onions, finely chopped
100g cheddar cheese, grated
150ml buttermilk
In a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Add the cream cheese and use a butter knife to cut it into the flour. Once the cream cheese is as broken up as you can manage using the knife, use your hands to rub it in further until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Add the butter and toss through the flour mixture. Using your fingertips, press the butter into big flat flakes, rubbing it into the butter just a little to break it up. The finished mixture should be flour mixed with flakes of butter. Place the bowl into the freezer for 15 minutes to chill the butter.
Remove the bowl from the freezer and toss through the wild garlic, spring onions and cheese.
Drizzle the buttermilk, a little at a time, into the chilled flour mixture. Stir together with a dull butter knife, stirring the buttermilk into the flour. Repeat until all of the buttermilk has been added. Tip the mixture out onto the work surface and use your hands to bring it together into a rough rectangle. Using a dough scraper, cut the dough into two, stacking the two halves atop each other. Use your hand to press the mixture flat before repeating this process once or twice more, until the dough feels smooth and uniform. Lift the dough onto a parchment-lined tray and pop it in the freezer for 15 minutes to chill the butter.
Remove the dough from the freezer and place it onto a well-floured work surface. Flour the top of the biscuits and then roll into a rectangle that is about an inch thick. Cut the dough in half and stack atop each other, as you did earlier. Repeat this process twice more. After your final lamination, roll the dough into a rectangle about an inch thick. Place back onto the baking tray and freeze for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 210ºC (190ºC Fan).
Remove the biscuits from the freezer and transfer them to the work surface. Using a sharp knife, trim a small amount of dough from each edge of the rectangle and then cut into six equally sized square biscuits. Trimming the edges reveals the layers of the biscuit dough and ensures the biscuits puff up to their full potential.
Place the biscuits onto the baking tray, set relatively close together, just a couple cm’s apart. Brush the tops of the biscuits with a little extra buttermilk. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until the tops of the biscuits are nicely browned. Remove the biscuits from the oven and immediately brush with a little melted butter and sprinkle with some flaked sea salt.
These wild garlic biscuits are best on the day made but will still be good one or two days after baking; they’ll just be a little denser. You can refresh them with a few minutes in a moderately hot oven.
Mango and Passion Fruit Pie with Macadamia and Coconut Crust
Serves 8
This beautiful pie is pure sunshine; the combination of mango and passion fruit is not just a personal favourite but also a perfect summer dessert. If the sudden arrival of warmer weather is making you organise a BBQ this weekend, this would be the perfect dessert.
To make the crust, I use a mixture of crunchy oat biscuits, toasted coconut and macadamias. You can switch out the Hobnobs for Digestives or Graham Crackers, should you wish. Similarly, if you're not a fan of coconut, you can replace this with additional macadamias.
When it comes to the mango, you have a couple of choices. If ease is the most important factor, then you can use canned mango puree, which is sold in many larger supermarkets. If you happen to have some really good mangoes on hand, you can also puree the fruit in a food processor or blender to make a homemade puree. This is best done when you have fruit that tastes especially good; don't bother if they're average. Otherwise, the canned option will give you a better flavour.
For the topping I like to use a little bit of Swiss meringue, but if you want to reduce the overall sweetness, you can also use whipped cream instead.
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