Plates of pleasure
Advance cooking with great ingredients is a recipe for an easy and delicious lunch, says Jon Wood, owner and head baker at Bakery Andante
The past year has gone by in a flash – from the worry of what the first lockdown would mean for our Edinburgh-based artisan bakery, we quickly realised that there was a real appetite for what we offered, and our Morningside and Leith sites remained open throughout. Our home delivery service launched, keeping customers across the city supplied with their favourite breads and pastries, and we’ve just opened our third location on Broughton Street – this time including our first cafe.
While the schedule and planning has been fast-paced, at the heart of the business we’re all about slow food. Our authentic Covenanter sourdough loaves, focaccia, baguettes, croissants and more are all made using traditional techniques and without additives, enhancers or improvers. It takes 2-3 days to develop the flavour and texture, and everything is shaped and moulded by hand – this isn’t food that you can rush, and even our sourdough starter is now 21 years old and still going strong.
Better weather means a chance to relax with family and friends and enjoy some lazy lunches together. This means dishes where the work is done in advance – no last-minute rushing and no stress, with recipes
that are easy to assemble.
Panzanella
This is a great way to use up leftover sourdough – a robust, open-textured bread that will soak up all the wonderful juices and flavours to make this salad sing. Use the best tomatoes you can find for this recipe – I love Isle of Wight heirloom varieties which I can usually pick up from our Morningside neighbour, IJ Mellis. Serves four to six
5 large ripe tomatoes
400g sourdough bread 4tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 bunch (approx 30g) fresh basil 1 green pepper
1 red pepper
2 red onions
1 Roughly chop or tear the bread into cubes. Heat a little olive oil in a pan and toast the bread until it’s golden then set aside.
2 Cut tomatoes into large chunks. Half the peppers, remove stalks and seeds then chop roughly. Peel and halve onions then slice thinly.
3 Pick the leaves of basil off stems and add to a large bowl with bread, tomatoes, peppers and onions. Pour over the olive oil and red wine vinegar, and season well with sea salt and some freshly-ground black pepper.
4 Leave for at least two hours (even better overnight) for the flavours to develop before serving.
Goats cheese, tomato and pesto tarts
Making your own pesto is really straightforward and makes a huge difference – no excuse to reach for a jar again!
Serves six
1 pack all-butter puff pastry, readyrolled
90g fresh basil
40g pine nuts
2 cloves garlic
50ml olive oil
150g goats cheese, sliced
1 tomato, de-seeded and sliced 1egg salt to taste 1 Preheat the oven to 200C and line a large baking sheet.
2 Begin by making the pesto. Strip the basil leaves from the stalks and put in a food processor, with pine nuts, garlic and a pinch of salt. Process until a paste forms. Slowly add oil until you reach the required consistency. Check for seasoning. Let stand for at least an hour to let the flavour develop.
3 Cut pastry into squares around 15cm each side. Place on baking sheet. Mark a line 1cm around the edges. Cut along the line, leaving approx 1cm uncut at two opposing corners. Take one of your flaps (from a fully cut corner) and fold to the other side, then repeat with the other flap to make tart shell. Brush edges with beaten egg to glaze.
4 Put a dollop of pesto on the centre and smear to the edges. Add a few tomato slices then top with goats cheese. Chill tarts until ready to use, then bake for around 15 minutes until puffed up and golden brown. Eat hot or cold – great served with a rocket salad alongside.
Ruby chocolate and blueberry éclairs
Éclairs have become one of our bakery bestsellers – we don’t use any artificial colours or flavourings and we find they get snapped up very quickly! This recipe can be adapted to make profiteroles if you don’t fancy piping – they make a lovely afternoon treat or simple dessert.
Makes 10
125ml milk
1 Preheat oven to 210C and line a large baking sheet with greaseproof paper. Bring a small ovenproof pan half filled with water to the boil.
2 Place butter, milk, sugar and salt in a non-stick pan and bring to the boil, then tip in all of the flour in one go. Stir until completely incorporated and the dough clumps into a ball. Stir for a minute to gently cook out the flour. Set aside to cool slightly, until the steam has stopped.
3 Put the dough into a stand mixer and beat in the eggs individually until you have a smooth, glossy paste. Fit a piping bag with a 1cm star or round nozzle, fill with choux mixture then pipe 10 x 10cm lengths onto the lined tray before placing in oven to cook. Add the pan of boiling water to the oven to create steam, allowing the pastry to rise.
4 After 20 minutes remove the pan and bake for a further 15 minutes. Remove and cool on a wire rack. Poke 3 holes in each to allow steam to escape.
5 For the filling, whip the cream until it forms stiff peaks then fold in jam. Pipe inside the eclair then dip tops of pastry into melted ruby chocolate. Allow to dry then drizzle melted white chocolate to finish.