This is a beautiful and versatile traybake that can be adapted as per whatever fruit you have available in current season.
The beauty of simple baking is like the prose penned down by Rupi Kaur , don't you think ?
“for you to see beauty here
does not mean
there is beauty in me
it means there is beauty rooted
so deep within you
you can't help but
see it everywhere”
― Milk and Honey
Ottolenghi's new book "Simple" has to be my new favourite not only for its simplistic bakes but also for it's approach to how recipes have been labelled as
S - short on time
I - 10 ingredients or less
M - make ahead
P - Pantry
L - lazy
E - easier than you think
And guess what this recipe falls under ? You guessed it right if you thought it is labelled as "E". There is absolutely no need to dust out that hand whisk or your Kitchen Aid and no elbow grease needed either. No fancy techniques involved at all. I am completely a big fan of this kind of baking because when you are so tired after a busy day and still craving cake then this is only thing I can manage to rustle up in 30 minutes flat including washing up. This is a versatile recipe and you can replace the fruits with just about anything you might have available depending on the season like grapes, apples, figs or Raspberry and Peach for a summer bake as per Ottolenghi's suggestion in the book. I reduced bit of sugar as I prefer slightly less sweet and I happily packed the leftover for breakfast next day too. The perfume coming from my slice of cake did disturb my colleagues's diet a little bit for the day and they were tempted to buy muffins from canteen to pacify their desire, but then such is the magic of an Ottolenghi flavour pairing. Bayleaf and stone fruit are a match made in heaven, Period.
Plums, blackberries and bay leaf traybake
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 mins
- Category: Cake
- Cuisine: French
Description
Light and moist traybake made with almonds and seasonal fruits.
Ingredients
- 200g blackberries
- 4 ripe plums (360g), stoned and cut into 1cm-wide wedges
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 60g caster sugar
- 3 fresh bay leaves
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 60g plain flour
- 150g icing sugar, sifted
- 120g ground almonds
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 160g egg whites (5 large eggs in my case)
- 180g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5.
- Put the sliced plums, whole blackberries in a bowl with the vanilla extract, caster sugar, bay leaves and ½ tsp of cinnamon, and set aside for 30 minutes. (Don’t be tempted to leave it sitting around for too much longer, otherwise the fruit will release too much juice.)
- Combine the flour, icing sugar, ground almonds, the remaining ½ tsp of cinnamon and salt in a second large bowl and set aside.
- Once the fruits have macerated for 30 mins, lightly whisk the egg whites for 30 seconds, so they just start to froth, then stir into the flour mix with the melted butter, until well combined.
- Tip the batter into a 20cm x 30cm baking dish and top with the macerated fruit and its juices.
- Bake for 45 minutes, or until the batter is golden brown and the fruit bubbling. I normally test by checking if I can see a gap between cake and walls of the pan, at this point its ready and if you plan to bake further do cover it with foil or else cake will start burning on the sides and its middle won't be cooked enough
- Leave to rest for 10 minutes before serving.
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