An Extra Slice

Cooking Babka, Chocolate, Apple in Rome with Nadia

Welcome to An Extra Slice, a little extra for all subscribers, free and paid, offering tasty bites from the world of citrus, food, culture and travel. From next week, however, the longer Tuesday edition of The Lemon Grove will be available to paid subscribers only.

Thank you for subscribing to The Lemon Grove! For $5/month or $50/year, you get extra issues, more recipes, travel ideas and tips, the ability to comment on posts, and become part of a growing community including meet-ups in real life and through interactive events. Your contribution helps pay for my time, (and in the future for contributing writers’ time and work), and ensures The Lemon Grove keeps squeezing the life out of our food, culture and citrus fruit.

Scenes from Latteria Studio, a newly opened cooking and teaching in Rome.

Do you love cooking lessons? I do, and I sign up whenever I can. Indeed, I wrote my Masters thesis at the University of Gastronomic Sciences on Cooking Schools – what are they for … what are they really for).

Recently I signed up for a baking masterclass with Rome, Italy-based chef Nadia Spilliotacopoulos in the newly opened Latteria Studio.

Nadia kindly allowed me to share a couple of the recipes with you and spent a few moments chatting about her life in food and some expert pastry chef tips on making lemon curd.

Listen to our chat on the link below. 

LINKS

Follow Nadia on Instagram @nadiaspilio for updates on future courses.

Latteria Studio is a beautiful space in Rome, full of light, great ceramics and inspiration. Learn more from their website, here.  

QB

If you see QB in an Italian recipe, it means 'qanto basta', which translates into 'just enough'. For example, adding a pinch of salt means just the right amount for the recipe and your taste. This is cooking as art, not science.

Australian-born Nadia Spilliotacopoulos in the newly opened Latteria Studio, Rome

RECIPES

Milk Bread Buns 

This recipe will make 12-14 buns, depending on size.

Tangzhong 

120 gm whole milk

30 gm plain flour

Main Dough

450 gm bread flour 23g sugar

9 gm salt

18 gm fresh yeast

135 gm whole milk

60 gm cream cheese

2 eggs (medium)

30 gm butter, unsalted

Sugar syrup

50 gm caster sugar

 50 gm raw sugar (or brown sugar for a deeper, more molasses-type flavour)

1 tbsp ground cinnamon (or spice blend of your choice) 

METHOD

First, make your Tangzhong – whisk milk and flour together to create a roux, cook to a stiff paste. Place in a bowl to cool. Cover with a tea towel.

Place all ingredients, except the yeast and butter (but including the Tangzhoug, the cooled roux), into the bowl of your stand mixer (if you have one).

Mix until the flour is incorporated.

Crumble in the fresh yeast and mix on medium speed for 10 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Add the softened butter and mix again on medium/high speed (but not the highest speed) for 12 minutes.

The dough should be elastic when done.

Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.

Leave out at room temperature to start proving for between 15-30 minutes (or as required if using the dough the same day), then place in the fridge and use as required.

Place in preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes.

Roll the dough to a 40 x 30cm rectangle, keeping the long edge closest to you on a lightly floured surface. 

Spread the cooled chocolate mixture or lemon curd (see recipes below) over the dough, leaving a 1cm border. 

Starting with the long edge closest to you, roll the dough into a tight spiral. Keep the seam underneath.

Tidy up by trimming 2cm from each end. Turn the roll through 90° clockwise so that a short end is closest to you. Using a large, sharp knife, slice lengthways down through the middle of the dough, cutting it into 2 long pieces.

With the cut-sides facing upwards, gently press the top end of each half together to seal, then lift the right half over the left half, followed by the left half over the right half. Repeat, twisting the dough to make a two-stranded plait, then gently press the bottom ends together to seal.

Move the loaf into the lined tin. Cover with a clean tea towel (alternatively, place in a proving bag). Leave at room temperature for about two hours (or in a proving drawer for one hour) until doubled in size.

Around 15 minutes before the end of the proving time, ready the oven to 190°C/170°C fan/375°F/Gas 5.

After the babka has proved, bake it for 15 minutes in a slightly cooler oven, at 170°C/150°C fan/325°F/Gas 3. Cook for n additional 25–30 minutes. It's ready when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Prepare the syrup while the babka is baking. Pour the sugar and 100ml water into a small pan. Take it to a boil over a medium heat. Stir the mix until the sugar dissolves, and then reduce the heat. Simmer, without stirring, for around 5 minutes, until syrupy. Leave to cool.

When the babka is ready, place it onto a wire rack, keeping it in the tin. Brush the cooled sugar syrup over the hot babka. Leave in the tin until cool enough to handle. 

Cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

LEMON CURD 

250 gm caster sugar

 250 gm butter (unsalted, cubed, softened)

155 gm egg yolk

 155 gm lemon juice (strained) 

Zest of 2 lemons 

Lemon curd is cooked over a bain-marie, so before you start, make sure the bowl you are using fits nicely over a small pot.

Place a small amount of water into a pan to boil. Ensure the water won't touch the bowl's bottom once it's placed on top.

Weigh yolks and sugar into your bowl, whisk by hand to cream slightly, and dissolve the sugar.

Add the lemon juice and zest and stir to loosen the mixture.

 Lastly, add butter.

Place over the pan of gently simmering water and stir continuously until the butter is melted.

Alternate between stirring with a spatula and a whisk to ensure you are scraping down the entire bowl so there is no chance of scrambling your eggs.

Once the butter is melted, you can leave it for a few minutes between stirring.

It's done when the mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of your spatula, and it holds when you draw a line with your finger.

Take the bowl off the heat and pour the liquid into another bowl or container to cool.

Cover the curd with plastic wrap to the touch - the plastic wrap makes contact with the curd. This will prevent skin from forming.

Once the curd is cold, place it in the fridge.

Kept in the fridge, the curd will keep for one week.

CHOCOLATE FILLING FOR BABKA 

This quantity will be enough for the smaller batch of dough, which will fit into a loaf tin or 20cm spring tin.  

80 gm dark chocolate (70% min)

70 gm butter 

 65 gm icing sugar

 18 gm cocoa Powder (amaro)

QB salt

Melt butter in a pot over low heat.

Break the chocolate into pieces and add to melted butter, stirring continuously.

 Once all the chocolate is melted, take the pan off the heat.

Sift the icing sugar and cocoa powder directly into the chocolate mix (it's always best to sift these two particular ingredients as they have a tendency to create lumps).

Mix with either a whisk or a spatula, whichever you prefer.

Use when the mix is cooled but still spreadable.

Bruce and The Lemon Grove's events diary

Hosting the Demonstration Stage at:

Tonbridge Farmers Market (every second Sunday of the month, 9.30 - 1.30)

Aylesford Farmers Market (every third Sunday of the month, 9.30 - 1.30)

I'll be sharing recipe ideas using food from the farmers market and interviewing many great local growers and producers making wine, bread, jams, marmalade, and much more. Follow Tonbridge Farmers Market for updates. 

Special Event: Celebrity chef Rosemary Shrager. 
Tonbridge Farmers Market
May 14, (9.30am - 1.30pm)

Special Event: Tunbridge Wells Literary Festival
May 22, Monday. 10am - 1pm
In conjunction with Kent Adult Education I’ll be teaching a Creative Writing, Short Stories course at The Amelia Scott Building as part of the town’s popular Literary Festival.
It would be great to see you there … sign up HERE.