By Leigh O’Connor.
The food we eat has enormous significance on our quality of life, as individuals and in our community.
A bake in the kitchen isn’t just a combination of ingredients melded by heat, but something that reaches into other people’s lives, across space and time and is in turn, carried forward to reach even further.
Celebrated baker Michael James and wife Pippa return to our kitchens with ‘Sweet Seasons’, a deeply personal cookbook in which they share stories of their Cornish childhood and ingredients plucked from fruit trees in a Canberra garden, a great-aunt’s treasure recipe and cakes remembered from a family café in times long gone.
Featuring more than 80 delectable recipes from retro hits to modern marvels, the book offers a reference for sweet baking throughout the year with each dish emulating the rhythms of seasons of our lives, from annual gluts to family celebrations and festive gatherings.
Michael and Pippa reflect on the role food has played in their lives at different times, sometimes nourishing the soul with a little comfort, at other times offering quick sustenance or something fun to bake with their daughter.
Discover how to embrace the sustainable side of sweets by using seasonal fruit, alternative sugars, wholegrains and other flours. Try fail-safe recipes for making traditional favourites such as hot cross buns, mince pies and other festive fare and nail the baking classics such as custard tarts, sponge cakes and chocolate chip cookies.
With sections devoted to nostalgic treats, celebratory delicacies, bakes to linger over and those to attempt when time is of the essence, every season and occasion is covered with a breathtaking range of colour, taste and texture.
Here are three recipes for you to recreate at home:
Feijoas have an intensely floral perfume, a tangy sweetness and a slightly gritty texture. They are great eaten fresh, the inside scooped out and eaten with a spoon and they also make a nice chutney. Growing up, Pippa’s family had a prolific feijoa tree in the garden. Pippa’s Dad would make feijoa mousse every Autumn in an attempt to use the glut. Stumbling upon a bag of feijoas at the farmers’ market, we decided to explore that memory and created this updated version. The white chocolate rounds out the flavour of the feijoa and acts as a setting agent.
A bit like avocados, a feijoa’s moment of optimum eating is short-lived. Cut into a not-quite-ripe feijoa and it’s astringent and sandy; leave it too long in the bowl and it’s unpleasantly pungent.
Any fruit that will purée could be used here – think mango, kiwi, even stewed rhubarb. Toasted macadamias provide textural contrast and are rich enough to hold the slight astringency of the feijoas. Almonds or hazelnuts would be good alternatives.
This custard tart is so simple. It relies on the very best ingredients and an eagle eye on the wobble at the end of the bake. There’s really nowhere to hide with this bake, so fresh and flavourful dairy and eggs are essential. It takes care to get it right, but when you do it’s absolutely sublime. The flavours are so classically English.
Transferring a tart-full of unbaked custard into the oven can result in a mess. If you have an oven with a shelf that slides out, place the tart shell on the shelf, pour the custard in and then carefully slide the shelf back in before closing the door. If not, remove the top shelf of the oven and position the lower one with enough space above it to pour the custard into the tart shell inside the oven. Your kitchen floor will thank you.
If you happen upon some duck eggs, by all means use those. Intensely rich, silky and flavoursome, they produce a next-level custard tart.
Like many traditional British puddings, trifle has been ruined for many by memories of school dinners: gluggy custard, cloyingly sweet tinned fruit, fluorescent jelly and soggy sponge. A fine version is no trifling thing. It’s a celebration of seasonal fruit at its best, ably supported by flavoursome sponge, delicate jelly and lashings of luscious cream. Sherry makes it Christmas, Pedro Ximénex being a bit of a twist.
There are quite a few elements to combine here, but preparing it ahead of time allows all the flavours to marry, so do the work over a few days to minimise the overwhelm and then enjoy the fun of putting it all together the day before you serve it.
If you have a round trifle bowl, around 20 cm diameter, you can use the round sponge as the base and layer the fruit, custard and cream on top. If not, just cut the sponge to fit the base of your bowl. Don’t worry - your cake will be well hidden by jelly, fruit and custard.
Combining many elements gives you lots of creative freedom. Use berries or cherries instead of quince, or gently poached rhubarb and pistachio.
Featuring stunning food photography by Rochelle Eagle, and inspiring and inventive recipes, ‘Sweet Seasons’ is a must-have whether you’re an accomplished baker or a beginner. It’s the only sweet book you’ll need to celebrate all of life’s season.
