Baking with Heart
Helen Goh’s solo debut cookbook is about so much more than dessert
If you’ve ever swooned over one of famed British restaurateur and food writer Yotam Ottolenghi’s iconic desserts, there’s a good chance Helen Goh had a hand in it. As his longtime collaborator and co-author of the bestselling cookbooks Sweet and Comfort, Goh has spent more than decade developing recipes that delight the senses and celebrate bold, layered flavors.
Now, in her first solo cookbook, Baking and the Meaning of Life: How to Find Joy in 100 Recipes, Goh steps into the spotlight with stories and recipes (beautifully illustrated by photographer Laura Edwards) that reflect her rich, multicultural background and love of baking as a way to connect and share joy.
We’ve picked out a few recipes from the book that highlight the cozy, warm flavors of the season and give us all a great excuse to turn on the oven and fill the kitchen with the aromas of deliciousness during the chilly winter months.
Traveling “Speckled Bread”
Serves 6 to 8
“My parents-in-law, Mark and Roma, who live in Melbourne, come to visit us in England every summer, and at some point we usually decamp to a European city together for a few days. Mark and I share a habit of having a cup of tea and cake in the evenings, and he absolutely loves fruitcake. I make this bara brith, or “speckled bread,” a traditional enriched Welsh bread (although it is really more like cake), to take on our travels. It’s sturdy and improves over time. The name comes from the Welsh words “bara,” meaning bread, and “brith,” meaning speckled or mottled. This characteristic speckled appearance is due to the inclusion of raisins, currants and other dried fruits. As the fruits need overnight soaking, you’ll need to start this recipe the day before you wish to bake the bread.
The addition of ras el hanout, a complex and aromatic Moroccan spice blend, gives great warmth and depth of flavor to this simple cake. The blend typically includes cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cumin, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom and peppercorn. Use pumpkin pie spice if you don’t have ras el hanout on hand, although I urge you to try it, as it makes this cake uncommonly good.”
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups water, boiling hot
- 4 tea bags (I like Assam or Irish breakfast, but any strong black tea will be fine)
- ½ cup golden raisins
- ½ cup raisins
- ½ cup currants or dried cranberries
- Scant ⅔ cup prunes, chopped into roughly ½-inch pieces
- ½ cup dried apricots, chopped into roughly ½-inch pieces
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ras el hanout or pumpkin pie spice
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 cup packed light or dark muscovado sugar
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1 tablespoon honey
- Salted butter, softened, to serve
Instructions
- Combine the hot water and tea bags in a liquid measuring cup and set aside to steep. After 10 minutes, remove the tea bags, squeeze firmly, then discard the bags.
- Combine the fruits in a medium bowl and pour the hot tea over them. Cover and leave in a cool place overnight to allow the fruits to plump up and absorb the tea.
- Preheat the oven to 325 ̊F and line the bottom and sides of a standard loaf pan (approximately 8½ by 4½ inches) with parchment paper. Allow a generous overhang on all sides to help lift the cake out once baked.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, spice and salt together in a large bowl, then stir in the sugar. Add the dried fruit (including the tea), the egg and honey and stir together until all the ingredients are combined.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 80 to 90 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 20 minutes, then lift the cake out of the pan and place on the wire rack to cool completely.
- The cake may be eaten on the same day, but if you have the willpower, wrap it in a layer of parchment paper followed by foil and set aside for 24 hours — it will improve in texture and flavor.
- To serve, cut into thick slices and spread thickly with salted butter.
- The cake will keep well for up to five days, after which the slices may be toasted.
Preparation & Serving Tip
- You will need to let the fruits soak overnight to plump up, so begin the cake at least a day ahead, but otherwise, this is a low-effort, mix-in-a-bowl type of recipe.
- You can wrap the cake tightly once it has cooled and set it aside for 24 hours for the flavors to develop and the texture to settle into a uniform, moist crumb. Like many fruitcakes, it improves with age if wrapped properly.
