A Good Day to Bake: sweet and savoury recipes from Benjamina Ebuehi
A cake for the kitchen counter, a tray of savoury turnovers, brownies with a little crunch: baking does not need a special occasion. Benjamina Ebuehi’s A Good Day to Bake: Simple Baking Recipes for Every Mood offers plenty of reasons to turn on the oven.
Published by Quadrille in March 2022, the book brings together 70 sweet and savoury recipes. Ebuehi, who appeared on The Great British Bake Off in 2016, builds her chapters around ingredients and flavours, from herbs and tea to vegetables, spices and chocolate. It is a backlist cookbook worth revisiting when you want something a little different from your usual bake.
The four recipes below show that range. Tahini and coconut join cherries in a small cake finished with pink glaze. A roasted vegetable Dutch baby comes with Scotch bonnet jam, while sweet potato, chorizo and spinach fill rough-puff turnovers. For dessert, sweet toast brownies add caramelized bread croutons to a chocolate base.
Recipes from A Good Day to Bake by Benjamina Ebuehi (Quadrille, 2022). Photography by Laura Edwards. Book details and Canadian retailer links.
Cherry & Coconut Tahini Cake
Serves 6–8
120g (4¼oz/½ cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
150g (5½oz/¾ cup) light brown sugar
40g (1½oz/3 Tbsp) tahini
2 eggs
130g (4½oz/1 cup) plain (all-purpose) flour
50g (1¾oz/⅔ cup) desiccated (grated unsweetened) coconut
1½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp ground cardamom
¼ tsp salt
90g (3¼oz) cherries, pitted and halved
1 tsp sesame seeds
For the glaze
40g (1½oz) cherries, pitted and halved
½ Tbsp lemon juice
100g (3½oz/scant ¾ cup) icing (confectioners’) sugar
Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan/350°F/gas mark 4). Grease and line a 15-cm (6-in) cake pan.
Using a stand mixer or electric whisk, cream the butter and sugar together for 4–5 minutes until pale and fluffy. Add the tahini and beat for another minute. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, coconut, baking powder, ground cardamom and salt. Pour the mixture into the butter mixture and mix on low speed until combined.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and add the cherries on top, along with the sesame seeds. Bake for 50–55 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Turn the cake out onto a wire rack and leave to cool.
To make the glaze, add the cherries and lemon juice to a small bowl and mash with a fork. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve (strainer), squeezing and pressing to get out as much juice as possible. Add the icing sugar to the juice and mix until you have a smooth, pourable consistency.
Once the cake has cooled, drizzle over the glaze.
Roasted Veg Dutch Baby with Scotch Bonnet Jam
Serves 3–4 (and makes a medium jar of jam)
1 red (bell) pepper, roughly chopped
1 courgette (zucchini), sliced into 1-cm (½-in) discs
½ red onion, quartered
150g (5½oz) mushrooms (I use mini portobello or chestnut/ cremini), thickly sliced
2 garlic cloves, unpeeled
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp flaky sea salt
1 tsp za’atar
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
For the batter
3 eggs
75g (2½oz/½ cup plus 1 Tbsp) plain (all-purpose) flour
1 Tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
½ tsp salt
180ml (6fl oz/¾ cup) milk
1½ Tbsp unsalted butter
40g (1½oz) Gruyère (or other hard) cheese, grated
For the Scotch bonnet jam
1 Tbsp olive oil
½ red onion, chopped into 1-cm (½-in) chunks
1 red (bell) pepper, chopped into 1-cm (½-in) chunks
2 garlic cloves, minced/grated
450g (1lb) tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 Scotch bonnet chilli, finely chopped
200g (7oz/1 cup) light brown sugar
65ml (2fl oz/¼ cup) red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp fine sea salt
To make the jam, heat the oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat. Fry the onion and pepper for 2–3 minutes until they start to soften. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute. Tip in the tomatoes, chilli, sugar, red wine vinegar, soy sauce and salt. Give it a good stir, then bring to the boil. Let the jam simmer over a medium heat for 15–25 minutes, stirring every so often. The jam is ready when it is thickened, shiny and reduced by nearly half.
You’ll need one large jar or two smaller ones to store the jam. To sterilize them, wash the jars and lids in hot soapy water. While still wet, place them upside down in a preheated oven at 180°C (160°C fan/350°F/gas mark 4) for 15–20 minutes until completely dry. Pour the hot jam into the sterilized jars, cover with the lids and leave to cool. The jam will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.
For the Dutch baby, preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan/ 400°F/gas mark 6). Add the red pepper, courgette, onion, mushrooms and garlic cloves to a large baking pan in an even layer. Toss with the olive oil, salt, za’atar and leaves picked from the thyme until everything is evenly coated. Roast for 30–35 minutes until the veg is cooked through and starting to char a little on the edges.
Meanwhile, prepare the batter. Add the eggs, flour, cornflour and salt to a large jug (pitcher) or bowl. Whisk together until smooth with no lumps. Pour in the milk, a little at a time, whisking well. Once all the milk has been added, cover the batter and set aside until the veg is cooked.
Remove the tray of veg from the oven. Squeeze the garlic out of their skins and stir the roasted garlic through the veg.
Heat a 23–25-cm (9–10-in) ovenproof frying pan or skillet on the hob. Add the butter, swirling it around the pan until it foams. Remove from the heat, pour in the batter and sprinkle half of the cheese on top. Add the veg to the batter, keeping it mostly in the middle. Top with the remaining cheese and bake in the oven for 25–28 minutes, or until well puffed up and browned.
The Dutch baby will deflate a little once it’s out of the oven, so serve immediately, with the jam on the side.
Sweet Potato, Chorizo & Spinach Turnovers
Makes 6
For the rough puff pastry
325g (11½oz/scant 2½ cups) plain (all-purpose) flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp paprika
250g (9oz/1 cup plus 2 Tbsp) cold unsalted butter, roughly chopped
1½ tsp salt
9–10 Tbsp ice-cold water
For the filling
550g (1lb 4oz) sweet potato, peeled and chopped into 1-cm (½-in) chunks
2 Tbsp olive oil
pinch of salt
150g (5½oz) chorizo, chopped into small chunks
1 red onion, finely chopped
1½ tsp fennel seeds, plus extra for sprinkling
¼ tsp chilli powder (optional)
100g (3½oz) baby spinach, washed
1 egg, beaten
To make the pastry, add the flour, paprika, butter and salt to a large bowl. Rub the butter into the flour, keeping the butter pieces about the size of a walnut. Add the ice-cold water, a tablespoon at a time, and stir with a table knife to bring the dough together in clumps – you may not need to use all of the water. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll it into a large rectangle, about 3–4mm (⅛in) thick. Fold the top third of the dough down to the middle and then fold the bottom third on top of that (like folding a letter). Give the dough a quarter turn, roll it out to a large rectangle again and repeat the folding. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill until you’re ready to assemble.
Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan/400°F/gas mark 6).
Spread the sweet potato chunks in an even layer on a baking sheet, and drizzle with the olive oil and a little salt. Roast for 20–25 minutes or until cooked through. Set aside for now.
Fry the chorizo chunks in a frying pan over a medium-high heat until they start to release their own oil. Add the red onion, fennel seeds and chilli powder, if using. Fry for a few minutes until softened. Add the cooked sweet potato, followed by the spinach, and cook until the spinach wilts. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool completely.
Roll the chilled pastry out to a large rectangle, about 3–4mm (⅛in) thick. Trim all four edges to neaten them up before cutting it into six squares. Spoon a heaped tablespoon of the cooled filling in the middle of each square. Brush two adjacent edges with beaten egg and fold over to form a triangle, pressing down the edges to seal. Use a fork to go around the sealed edges, pressing it into the pastry. Place the turnovers on a large baking sheet, brush with egg wash and sprinkle some fennel seeds on top.
Bake for 25–30 minutes until the turnovers are well browned and the base is crisp. Let them cool completely before serving.
Sweet Toast Brownies
Serves 12
For the sweet croutons
60g (2½oz/¼ cup) unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
60g (2½oz) thick white bread
1 Tbsp olive oil
30g (1oz/2½ Tbsp) caster (granulated) sugar
20g (¾oz/¼ cup) milk powder
For the brownies
225g (8oz) dark chocolate
175g (6oz/¾ cup) unsalted butter
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
150g (5½oz/¾ cup) caster (granulated) sugar
150g (5½oz/¾ cup) light brown sugar
3 eggs
115g (4oz/¾ cup plus 2 Tbsp) plain (all-purpose) flour
½ tsp fine sea salt
100g (3½oz) milk chocolate, roughly chopped
flaky sea salt, for sprinkling
Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan/350°F/gas mark 4). Grease and line a 20-cm (8-in) square cake pan.
First, make the croutons. Cut the bread into small cubes and place them on a baking sheet. Drizzle them with the olive oil and toss to combine. Bake for 8–10 minutes or until firm.
Add the toasted bread to a bowl and mix in the caster sugar and milk powder. Pour in the melted butter and mix to evenly coat. Add the bread mix to a wide sauté pan set over a medium heat and stir frequently until the sugar melts and starts to caramelize with the milk powder. Remove from the heat and set aside.
To make the brownies, melt the chocolate, butter and cocoa powder in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Once melted, remove from the heat and set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugars and eggs until smooth. Pour in the chocolate mixture and stir to combine. Mix in the flour and salt before adding the chopped chocolate and half of the croutons. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and top with the remaining croutons and a little sprinkle of flaky sea salt.
Bake for 40–45 minutes, or until the brownies are just set. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.
To get a super-clean cut, chill the brownies in the refrigerator for a couple of hours before slicing with a sharp knife.
