Cookbook 201: Nadiya’s Everyday Baking

Nadiya’s Everyday Baking by Nadiya Hussain, winner of the sixth season of the Great British Bakeoff, is an ode to the oven and all the delicious foods that can be baked. It covers both savoury and sweet recipes from snacks through to main dishes. When I bought this I thought it would be just the usual things you get when a recipe book says “baking”, meaning cakes, biscuits, slices, and the like. The inclusion of many savoury dishes rounds out this book nicely, and with the lovely photographs, makes you want to try all the recipes throughout. Another very helpful feature is that the recipes are tagged vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, so it’s easy to find dishes to make for people with dietary requirements.

I choose two savoury, a main and a picnic snack, and one sweet, a cake, from this book. There are plenty more recipes to try out. Overall 4 out of 5 stars.

Whole onion roasted curry (serves 4)

Ingredients:

• 50g ghee
• 5 onions, halved
• 1 tsp salt

For the sauce

• 5 cloves of garlic
• 6 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 2 tbsp tamarind paste
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tsp chilli powder

To serve

• basmati rice
• fresh coriander
• double cream

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C (180C fan forced). Take a large flame-proof casserole dish (with a lid) that is big enough to comfortably lay down the onions.
2. Add the ghee to the casserole dish and melt on the stove. When it is smoking hot, add the onions, flat side down. They should sizzle. Sprinkle with salt. Leave the onions on the heat for 5 minutes. Once all the onions have sizzled, pop into the oven and roast for 20 minutes.
3. Make the quick curry base by add the garlic, peeled tomatoes, tomato puree, tamarind and salt into a food processor. Add the curry and chilli powders and blitz to a smooth paste.
4. Take the onions out of the oven and reduce the heat to 180C (160C fan forced). Flip the onions over onto their rounded sides.
5. Pour the curry mixture in and around the onions, put the lid on and place back in the oven to cook gently for 25 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, cook the rice and chop the coriander.
7. Take the dish out of the oven and remove the lid. Drizzle on the cream, sprinkle on some coriander and it’s ready to eat.

Notes on this recipe:

• Turns out that I don’t like onion that much and this dish was too much for me. So make this if you REALLY like onion, if you’re a bit “eh” through to “nope” about onion, avoid.
• The sauce was good, though onion heavy after all the onion roasting.
• If you don’t want to use double cream, you could easily substitute yoghurt or skip the diary all together.

Spiced Cinnamon Swirl Cake (serves 6 – 8)

Ingredients

For the dough

• 360g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 14g fast-action yeast (dried yeast will do)
• 100g caster sugar
• 75g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
• 160ml warm milk
• 1 medium egg

For the filling

• 75g unsalted butter
• 75g caster sugar
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 orange, zest only

For the glaze

• 150g unsalted butter
• 150g full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
• 300g icing sugar, sifted
• 2 tsp vanilla bean paste

Method:

1. Grease and line the base of a 23cm loose-bottomed round cake tin (spring form will be fine).
2. Make the dough by putting the flour in a bowl with the yeast, sugar and butter. Rub in the butter till completely incorporated. Make a well in the centre and pour in the milk and egg. Bring the dough together and knead until you have an elastic, smooth dough (5 – 10 minutes). Put into a greased bowl, cover and leave to double in size (at least 1 hour).
3. Make the filling by putting the soft butter, sugar, cinnamon and orange-zest into a bowl, and mixing it thoroughly.
4. Preheat the oven to 190C (170C fan forced).
5. Take the dough out of the bowl and roll out onto a floured surface to a rectangle of 60 x 20cm. Spread the filling mixture all over the dough and roll up from the longer edge. You now have a roll t hat is 60cm long. Coil the dough gently into the tin, starting from the centre and swirling it around itself. Make sure to leave some gaps in the swirl for the dough to grow.
6. Cover in greased clingfilm and leave in a warm place to prove. As soon as the swirl of dough no longer has any gaps (30 – 60 minutes), take the covering off and bake in the oven for 40 – 50 minutes. Take out and leave to cool in the tin completely.
7. Make the glaze by mixing the butter, cream cheese, sugar and vanilla together until you have a velvety smooth glaze. Spread all over the top of the cooled swirl. Take out of the tin, cut into wedges and serve.

Notes on this recipe

• If you don’t know how to make bread, then you don’t know the timings (which I have included) for kneading, proving, etc. This was a little unfair of Nadiya and I think an example of where she forgot who her audience was.
• The sweet bread/cake was really tasty and I do recommend making it if you want to have a cinnamon scroll for a special occasion.

Cheese and onion Welsh cakes (makes 24)

Ingredients:

• 225g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp onion granules
• 1 tsp onion seeds (nigella seeds will work as a substitute)
• 2 tsp dried chives
• 100g unsalted butter, diced, plus extra for greasing
• 50g cheese, finely grated, plus extra for the top
• 1 medium egg, beaten
• 2 tbsp cold whole milk

Method:

1. Put the flour in a bowl along with the baking powder, onion granules, seeds and dried chives and mix so everything is evenly dispersed. Add the butter and rub in using your fingertips until there are no large lumps and the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Mix in the cheese and then make a well in the centre. Add the egg and milk and mix it all in, bringing the dough together. Be careful to not knead the mixture or the Welsh cakes will become tough.
3. Preheat the oven to 190C (170C fan forced) and lightly grease a baking tray (or use baking paper).
4. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of about 0.5cm. Using a 4cm fluted cutter, cut out rounds and put them on the tray. Do this until you have used up all the dough.
5. Bake for 10 minutes, then take out, turn each cake, sprinkle each one with cheese and bake for another 5 minutes.
6. Leave to cool completely and then they are ready to eat or pack away as a picnic treat.

Notes on this recipe:

• I have never had regular Welsh cakes, so I didn’t have something to compare these with. These were delicious, a great little savoury snack for a picnic.
• They’re very easy to make, the hardest bit was deciding that I’d use nigella seeds instead of trying to find onion seeds for them.
• In the photos in the book, it looks like the Welsh cakes may have also been dusted with paprika.