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BreakingNews.ie
a day ago
- Entertainment
- BreakingNews.ie
Paul Hollywood's coconut and passion fruit traybake recipe
'Traybakes remind me of village fetes and bake sales as a kid,' says The Great British Bake Off judge Paul Hollywood. 'I remember making them when I was a cub scout. They're a great way to get into baking, and you can play around with different flavours and toppings. 'One thing to remember is to leave them to cool before you slice up – don't rush it.' Advertisement Coconut and Passion Fruit Traybake Ingredients (12 squares) 200g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra to grease 200g caster sugar Finely grated zest of 2 limes 3 large eggs, at room temperature, beaten 200g self-raising flour 1tsp vanilla extract 100g desiccated coconut 3tbsp milk For the topping: 250g mascarpone 1tbsp icing sugar Finely grated zest and juice of 2 limes 3 passion fruit 25g toasted coconut flakes (Haarala Hamilton/PA) Method 1. Heat your oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/Gas 4. Grease a 30 x 23cm baking tin, 5cm deep, and line with baking paper. 2. In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar and lime zest together, using a hand-held electric whisk, until light and fluffy. Gradually add the beaten eggs, beating well after each addition and adding a spoonful of flour halfway through. Add the vanilla extract and stir in. Advertisement 3. Using a spatula or large metal spoon, carefully fold in the rest of the flour and the desiccated coconut. Finally, incorporate the milk until smoothly combined. 4. Transfer the mixture to the prepared tin and gently smooth the surface to level. Bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes until risen and springy to the touch. 5. Leave the sponge to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then carefully turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely. 6. For the topping, in a bowl, mix the mascarpone with the icing sugar and lime juice. Cut each passion fruit in half and scoop out the seeds and juice into a small bowl. Add half of the passion fruit pulp to the mascarpone and stir to mix; save the rest for decoration. Advertisement 7. Spread the mascarpone over the top of the cooled sponge, using a palette knife. Trickle over the remaining passion fruit pulp and sprinkle with the toasted coconut flakes and grated lime zest to finish. Cut into squares to serve. (Bloomsbury Publishing/PA) Celebrate by Paul Hollywood is published in hardback by Bloomsbury Publishing. Photography by Haarala Hamilton. Available now
Scotsman
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Paul Hollywood on his Scottish links and being a secret savoury fan
Haarala Hamilton The baker has a new book out Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Paul Hollywood used to be a bit scary. He was usually the bad cop on The Great British Bake Off, with Mary Berry or Prue Leith as the goodie. These days, he's softened, like butter at room temperature. To match the bonhomie that we've seen on that ever popular Channel 4 programme, which was recently recommissioned for a sixteenth series, he's also released an equally cheery new read. Celebrate: Joyful Baking All Year Round is his fifteenth book. It features colourful, seasonal, fun and indulgent baking, and, in the introduction, describes this art as a 'hug'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The book's recipes include sprinkletti cake, pear bakewell tart and a lush chocolate fudge cake. The cover features Hollywood, 59, wearing a pink shirt, with a big grin on his face as he sprinkles a final magic ingredient onto a two storey and very showstopping 'drip cake' that's groaning with a cornucopia of fruit. 'I think keeping it bright and light, entertaining, and happy, that's what the book's all about,' he says. 'When you're baking at home anyway, it's a special thing for you to do, and then for the other people to receive it as well and enjoy it'. He's definitely entering his positive era. Perhaps that's because he's hitting 60 next year. It's a number that definitely doesn't bother him. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I don't really care about my age. I've been going gray since I was 16. I'm now more salt than I am pepper,' says. Hollywood, who is often described as a 'silver fox'. It is strange to think he's been on The Great British Bake Off for such a large chunk of his life. When they started filming, he was in his mid-fourties. However, all these years later, he still loves it, despite the very long working days. 'It's not like work, because it's such a lovely atmosphere. The crew goes back 16 years, so we're very much a tight unit, and there's such a great atmosphere in there,' he says. 'You've got the bubbly, effervescent Alison Hammond, and then you've got Noel, who's like a brother to me, and I love Prue. So there's this lovely blend of people. And of course, the bakers change every year, and they're just fascinating. I love getting to know them over the period of time we're together'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad I've also noticed that, these days, he seems to dole out more of his signature approving handshakes than he used to, while he's judging. However, he insists that that's down to the contestants. He hasn't become easier to please. 'That's probably because of the quality. It's got better because if you look at the baking last year, and then the baking from series one, it's a totally different game,' says Hollywood. 'That's why more handshakes are happening because they are better bakers. They just create things that are much more professional'. Hollywood's own baking, and the recipes in the book, are very much influenced by his travels. When he's away from home, he loves 'sticking his nose' into a good bakery and having a look around. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I've traveled a lot in my career and I've been to cities around the world, from St Petersburg to Miami to San Francisco down to Cape Town and everywhere in between,' he says. 'And that's where a lot of the ideas come from, for the Bake Off challenges as well, but also for the book and how to develop flavours'. The book mentions international bakes including the Japanese milk bread, shokupan. 'I was there for about three or four weeks, actually,' Hollywood says. 'I use the yudane method, which is all about infusing the flour with the boiling water, and it creates a very soft, light bread. And for toast, it's just delicious'. Although Hollywood loves to travel abroad, he also feels a deep connection to home, and especially Scotland. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad He found out more about his Celtic background after appearing on an episode of BBC genealogy programme Who Do You Think You Are? back in 2015. They covered the fact that his great-great-grandfather was in the City of Glasgow police force in the late Nineteenth century, and they unearthed other links to that MacKenzie side of his family. 'Before we started filming the program, they said to me, where do you feel more at home? And I said, remote mountain streams, and feeling small in amazing scenery, and I ended up being taken to Gairloch and Poolewe, where my family were from, where we had the croft,' he says. 'I was sitting on this little rock, looking out and they said, do you remember what you said and played it back. And I went, oh my God, this is it? This is the place. You end up going back to a place where your ancestors are from where you feel more comfortable. And I was shocked, absolutely shocked'. Apparently, the Edinburgh-based fashion designer, Siobhan Mackenzie, saw him on the programme, and gifted him a kilt in his family tartan. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Hollywood also likes a Scottish bake or two, though there aren't any in the new book. 'I do like Dundee cake and it's something I've added to books in the past. Anything with cranachan I've used as well. We've used that in Eton messes, with whisky, which works beautifully,' says Hollywood. 'There is also a meat pie in my new book, which is related to football matches. Now that is quite a Scottish thing'. He loves pie. That, and quiche, pizza or sausage rolls. He's actually more of a savoury fan, than a sweet one. 'Weirdly, because of my job,' he says. Still, baking isn't about scoffing it all yourself. As the new book says, it's about 'making something for someone else to show them you care'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad So, is Hollywood happy to bake on demand, if a pal should ask? 'I've been dropped in it a couple of times, with a couple of hours to go,' he says. 'If I can't make a cake, I end up doing something like a meringue, with fruits, then spinning white chocolate over it. And I think, that'll do'. We'd happily take that, as Paul Hollywood's edible version of a hug.
