Keith Kendrick
House dads across the nation rejoice – The Great British Bake Off is back. And if that sounds like a rather un-macho thing to say, then tough!
As the last four series have proved, baking is no longer the domain of flour-dusted mums in pinnies: we blokes like to get our hands doughy too.
Look at Paul Hollywood, for example. Very much a man's man.
And in this series there's father-of-four Enwezor, a business consultant at the university in Portsmouth. He did the Great South Run BAREFOOT – how macho is THAT? While teaching himself to bake over the past three years, he decided to spent a night making over 900 loaves of bread with a professional baker, as you do.
Then there's super-bearded Iain, who's a construction engineer from Belfast.
And Norman, a retired former radio operator for the Merchant Navy, who travelled the world.
Then there's Richard, a builder and family man who loves to bake at home with his wife and their two young daughters. The 38-year-old is a builder by trade.
THAT'S A LOT OF BLOKES.
In fact, half of the 12 contestants for the GBBO finals are fellas. Whoever said baking was a woman's domain needs to get with the programme (which started on BBC One on Wednesday, incidentally!).
Anyway, I'll never be as good as those men and women on GBBO, but I am inspired to have a go and so have come up with this Tarte au Citron - that's a very lemony, very tangy, very sweet, very creamy, super lemony tart to me and you. And it was superb.
Serves 6
To make the pastry
200g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
3 tbsp ground almonds
100g butter, diced, plus extra for greasing
50g icing sugar, sifted, plus extra for dusting
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon
1 egg yolk, beaten
3 tbsp milk
For the filling
4 eggs
250g caster sugar
Juice and finely grated rind of 2 lemons
150ml double cream
Mascarpone cheese or creme fraiche and fresh raspberries, to serve
1. To make the pastry, sift the flour into a bowl. Stir in the ground almonds. Add the butter and cut into the flour, then rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Stir in the icing sugar and lemon rind. Stir in the egg yolk and milk and mix to a smooth dough. Shape into a ball and chill for 30 mins.
3. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Grease a 23cm flan tin with butter. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of 5mm and use to line the base and sides of the tin. Prick all over with a fork, line with baking paper and half-fill with baking beans. Bake for 15 mins in a pre-heated oven.
4. Remove the pastry case from the oven and take out the baking paper and beans. Reduce the oven temperature to 150C/Gas 2.
5. To make the filling crack the eggs into a bowl. Whisk in the sugar, then the lemon juice and rind and cream. Spoon into the pastry case and bake for 45 mins. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
6. Serve the tart topped with mascarpone or creme fraiche and fresh raspberries and dust with icing sugar.
• Tune in for the next episode of The Great British Bake Off, 8pm, Wednesday on BBC One.