Crave: Brilliantly Indulgent Recipes

6 While the pastry is drying, make the lemon cream filling. Whip the cream in a large bowl until it forms soft peaks, then fold it through the lemon curd and lemon zest. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag, and set it to one side.

7 To make the meringue topping, put the sugar in a small saucepan with 75ml of water over a medium heat and stir until the grains of sugar have dissolved, then bring the mixture to the boil and put a sugar thermometer in the pan.

8 While the syrup is heating up, whisk the egg whites in a clean, grease-free bowl using an electric hand-held whisk or a stand mixer until they form soft peaks.

9 When the sugar syrup reaches 1180C, pour it gradually down the side of the bowl into the whites, whisking all the time. Try to avoid pouring the syrup on to the beaters, as this will create hard sugar crystals. Continue to whisk the meringue for 10 minutes until it is really thick and glossy. Spoon the meringue mixture into the third piping bag so it is ready to use.

10 Pierce a small hole in the bottom of each cooled profiterole, snip the end off the lemon-cream piping bag and fill the profiteroles with the lemon cream. Arrange about 10 profiteroles on a large serving plate as the bottom layer. Construct a pyramid, using a little meringue as glue.

11 Pipe the meringue mixture around the profiterole stack. Use a blowtorch to brown the meringue to get the full lemon-meringue effect! Drizzle lemon curd over the top of the stack as a finishing touch.

Preserved lemon and olive focaccia (#ulink_8b1fec22-769a-5321-94cc-ce6afa928c9c)

Preserved lemons originate from North Africa and have recently grown in popularity here in the UK. Soaking lemons in salt water doesn’t sound like a radical concept, but it utterly transforms the often harsh flavour of lemon into something much mellower. You can bite straight into a slice of preserved lemon without any of that jaw-clenching sharpness, which allows you to enjoy the aromas and textures of lemon in a new way. I also use lemon-infused oil, which you can buy from good supermarkets, as the main oil in this dough, which disperses a gentle lemon flavour throughout.

MAKES 1 LOAF

PREP TIME: 30 MINS PLUS PROVING TIME

COOKING TIME: 20 MINS

500g strong plain flour, plus extra for dusting

1 × 7g sachet fast-action dried yeast

2 tsp fine salt

30ml lemon-infused oil (or olive oil), plus extra olive oil for greasing

300ml lukewarm water

2–3 preserved lemons

100g pitted green and black olives

Sprig of fresh thyme, leaves stripped

Sea salt, for sprinkling

1 Place the flour in a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough-hook attachment and add the yeast to one side of the bowl and the salt to the other. If you put the salt directly on the yeast it may kill it, which will stop your dough from rising.

2 Add the oil and 225ml of the water to the flour and stir the ingredients together using your hands or the dough-hook attachment until a rough dough forms. Gradually add the remaining water. The dough will be very wet, but don’t worry – this is what creates the irregular holes in a focaccia.

3 Liberally grease your worktop with oil and turn the dough out on to it (or leave it in the stand mixer, if using). Knead for about 10 minutes, in the mixer or by hand, oiling your hands and the surfaces as necessary, until the dough is really smooth and stretchy. I find that using a dough scraper helps stop the dough sticking to the worktop. When you pull the dough apart, the strands should stretch, not break. Grease the bowl with oil and place the dough back into it (if you were kneading it on the worktop), cover with clingfilm and leave to rise at room temperature for 1–3 hours until doubled in size.

4 While the dough is rising, thinly slice the preserved lemons and set aside. Generously grease a baking tray with olive oil.

5 Carefully remove the dough from the bowl and turn it out on to a lightly floured worktop. You don’t want to handle the dough too much, so don’t knead it, just stretch it out to a large rectangle, then place it on the baking tray. Spread it right to the edges and use your fingers to make indentations over the surface of the dough.

6 Press the olives into some of the indentations and arrange the preserved lemon slices and thyme leaves on the top. Cover the dough loosely with oiled cling film and leave to rise for another 30 minutes. When the focaccia looks puffy, it’s ready to bake.

7 Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/gas 7. When the focaccia is risen, use your fingers to press a few more indentations into the dough, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown, then remove from the tray and allow to cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Lemon and lime Battenberg (#ulink_44516acd-a38f-557f-b62e-3a9947ca53b3)

Whatever flavour you use in a Battenberg has to complement the almond it is encased in, which both lemon and lime do strikingly well. This is a unique and slightly peculiar British cake; you’d be hard pressed to find another baked good with the same psychedelic squares and level of geometric satisfaction. The unusual green-and-yellow-coloured squares are a refreshing change from the soft pink and yellow, and I love that the flavours match the colours. It’s not as hard as it looks to get a perfectly formed chequerboard, but you will have to succumb to getting out the ruler and vigilantly measuring each section of cake. A great baker’s perk here is gobbling up the offcuts, so keep trimming the sponge until you are happy with the dimensions.

PREP TIME: 45 MINS PLUS COOLING

COOKING TIME: 20–25 MINS

SERVES 10

225g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

225g caster sugar

4 eggs

225g self-raising flour

50g ground almonds

Grated zest and juice of 1 unwaxed lemon

Yellow and green gel food colourings

Grated zest and juice of 1 lime

4 tbsp fine-cut lime marmalade

Icing sugar, to dust

500g block of marzipan

You will also need 20 × 20cm cake tin.

1 Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas 4, grease the cake tin and line it with baking parchment, allowing the parchment to overhang at the edges. Divide the tin cavity in half by pulling up the centre of the parchment and folding a tall pleat to separate the halves. Make sure the pleat is as close to the centre as possible.

2 Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl for 4–5 minutes, using a stand mixer or an electric hand-held whisk, until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding 1–2 tablespoons of the flour if the mixture curdles.

3 In a separate bowl, combine the flour and ground almonds. Gradually add the dry mixture to the wet mixture until a thick batter forms, then scoop half the mixture into a separate bowl.

4 Add the lemon juice, lemon zest and a little yellow food colouring to one half of the batter, and do the same to the other half with the lime juice, lime zest and green food colouring, mixing until fully combined.

5 Spread the lemon mixture into one half of the tin and the lime mixture into the other half, with the parchment dividing them, and bake for 20–25 minutes or until risen and golden. Allow the cakes to cool for 5 minutes in the tin, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

6 Use a serrated knife to trim the edges off the cooled sponges. Carefully cut the sides that have coloured in the oven, as they can look off-putting if used in the Battenberg. Measure the height of the baked sponge with a ruler and slice the cake into strips the same width as the height, forming a square cross section. Mine are usually 2 × 2cm. This will create perfect squares that stack properly on top of one another.