Hojicha PBJ

Hello from Crete!

After an incredibly manic and extremely busy few months, I have escaped to Crete for a short family holiday; which means I shall be drinking a steady stream of ‘cappuccino freddo’s’ whilst entertaining my two year old nephew and enjoying late dinners at the local taverna. I didn't want to leave you without any new recipes so, before I left, I banked a couple delicious things for you. So, here I am, dropping in with this weeks instalment.

Todays recipe has a birthday spin, as it was this years birthday cake for my fiancé. I always let him choose the flavour but more often than not he lets me have free rein, which I hope just means he trusts me to make him something delicious and not that he is bored with the constant supply of baked goods! This year, his one piece of input was to make something with peanut. This is far from surprising, considering I have made him some version of a snickers cake many times over the last decade. This year, I went a different direction and made something inspired by the American favourite, the PBJ. But, it’s not exactly a traditional interpretation.

For my take on the PBJ, I made a vanilla bean blackberry jam, a Swiss meringue buttercream flavoured with peanut butter and then, slightly unusually, made a cake flavoured with hojicha. For those of you who haven’t come across this before, Hojicha is a roasted green tea. As a powderform it is matcha’s roasty older brother, nutty with an almost savoury flavour. Whilst it is delicious as a tea, it also incredible to bake with. The flavour of the cake was incredibly nutty and complimented the PBJ vibe perfectly well. If you cant get your hands on the tea feel free to leave It out. Talking of peanuts, the universe was listening this week when, just in time for Mikes birthday, Bao, the London Taiwanese restaurant, released the recipe for their incredible peanut milk, one of Mikes favourite things. Obviously I had to make a batch and it was so good I needed to share that with you too. You can find the original post with the recipe here.

Bao’s Peanut Milk

125g blanched peanuts

100ml oat cream

270ml oat milk

25g light brown sugar

1/2 vanilla pod

120ml water

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC Fan). On a rimmed baking tray roast the peanuts for about 12-15 minutes or until they’re a deep golden brown. Remove and allow to cool. Using a food processor (or a knife and a lot of determination) process the nuts into a rough powder like consistency. Do not allow it to become peanut butter. Tip the peanuts into a large pan along with the remaining ingredients, scraping the seeds from the pod and adding both the seeds and the pod to the pan. At this stage I also added a generous pinch of sea salt. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil then reduce the heat slightly and cook, with a lid, for about 45-60 minutes, until the milk is a golden brown colour. Pour the mixture into a sieve lined with cheese cloth and allow to drain fully.

Serve chilled, over plenty of ice.

To makes this weeks bonus recipe (exclusive to paid subscribers), you’ll need some vanilla bean blackberry jam. Although you can obviously use shop bought, I thought I’d include my recipe as it is utterly delicious.

Vanilla Bean Blackberry Jam

485g blackberries

350g caster sugarJuice of 1 lemon

1 vanilla pod

Add the blackberries, sugar, and lemon juice to a large saucepan and stir to combine. Cut the

vanilla pod along its length and scrape out the seeds. Add both the spent pod and the seeds to

the saucepan and stir to combine. Cover and leave for a couple hours to macerate.

Place the pan on a high heat and cook at a rolling boil, stirring occasionally, until the jam mixture

reaches setting point, between 104-105ºC. Remove from the pan and allow to cool for just a

couple minutes before pouring into sterilised jars.

I get through this relatively small amount of jam pretty quick so once in sterilised jars and

refrigerated they’ll last a couple of months, if unopened, and a couple of weeks once opened.