3 Life-Changing Baking Tricks Anthony Learned In Lockdown

It may come as no surprise to those who know me that I spent a good chunk of my lockdown time baking. Make no mistake, I’m aware this puts me in the ‘very fortunate’ category. I didn’t have to go to work in a hospital, or a factory, or deliver packages to people’s homes.

All that was required of me was to stay at home with my wonderful wife and two delightful (most of the time) cats. Those little furballs even brought me things to bake with occasionally. Unfortunately neither Clare nor I are great fans of Mouse Flan. So here are some things I learned about baking over the last three months.

01 - Yoghurt Rules: It’s not that I haven’t made cakes with yoghurt in before, but now I tend to be suspicious of any sponge recipe that doesn’t have yoghurt in it. (Okay, I’ll be generous and widen this out to include soured cream and buttermilk.) Yoghurt just seems to bring such a lovely texture and moistness to a cake. You might think that it would also make things dense and heavy, but these muffins are the lightest - and best - I’ve ever made! (and yes, I know that this recipe calls for buttermilk rather than yoghurt, but try getting buttermilk during a global pandemic!)

02 - This Guy: Last winter our telly broke, so we got a new one. Turns out TVs have moved on a bit in the ten years since we last bought one. Our new one does fancy things like lets us watch YouTube on it! This has led to a number of discoveries during lockdown. There’s the girl who makes beautiful, amazingly authentic medieval clothes and then posts videos of herself walking through sun-dappled forests in them. There’s the guy who makes videos of himself painstakingly restoring old paintings with superhuman patience and dedication. And then, there’s Chef John. Chef John runs a YouTube channel called Foodwishes.com. People send him dishes they’d like to see made really well, and he does it. He’s an amiable host (although you never see him, just what he’s making) and is endlessly enthusiastic and curious about good food. He’s especially useful if you’ve ever read a recipe and thought “yes, but what do ‘soft peaks’ actually look like?” or “yes, but what does ‘lightly browned’ actually mean?” because he literally shows you. Also, his Apple Crumble Cake is one of the greatest things I’ve ever put in my mouth!

03 - I Ain’t Got Time To Bake: In misquoting one of Jesse Ventura’s finest lines from Predator, I am drawing attention to the misconception that baking is something you can only do when you’ve got loads of time because it’s labour intensive - especially if it’s going to be something really good - and it’s frivolous. I mean who actually needs cake? (Me, obviously). Well, say hello to the loveliest, quickest baking project ever: Soft Sicilian Almond Biscuits. Seriously, you can make these in the time it takes for the oven to heat up, and then eleven minutes later, they are ready.

Here goes: Heat your oven to 180c. Put 150g of ground almonds in a bowl along with 75g icing sugar and the zest of a lemon. Mix around with a whisk. Pour in one tablespoon of runny honey and a large egg white and mix together to form a slightly sticky dough. Roll into 12-15 balls and place on a lined baking sheet. Press an almond (or a couple of pistachios) into the top of each one, squashing them down a bit in the process. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let them cool for a few minutes and enjoy!