Pantry Staples for the Adventurous Home Baker

Hello and welcome to Newsletter No 2 here on Substack! Thank you for stopping by. Grab a seat if you are interested in recipes as well as tips and tricks to make the most of our increasingly eclectic pantries - and make sure you hit that subscribe button if you don’t want to miss any future posts!

Thanks to a long nursery closure I am currently on an extended holiday in Romania with my little family. Being away from my own kitchen little actual cooking or baking is happening for the time being. But my brain being what it is, I am already thinking ahead to all the things I want to make when we get back home to Brussels. And this is no doubt fuelled by my holiday reading: Niki Segnit’s second edition of the Flavour Thesaurus.

I have been reading devouring the book front to cover and as with her first edition it is an absolute joy to read about flavour pairings, both old and new(-to-me), and why they work, with the odd anecdote and recipe thrown in (the first edition is hands down my most gifted book). And of course this got me thinking about my own approach to flavour combinations, the ingredients and flavours I am drawn to the most and why. So for No 2 of my newsletter, I thought I would share a few ingredients that I, in an extremely subjective fashion, consider pantry (or kitchen) staples for the adventurous home baker.

If you enjoy cooking you probably already have some if not all of these ingredients at home. And even if not, these are ingredients worth seeking out if you are curious to flex your baking muscles and expand your repertoire beyond the flavours you grew up with.

Chinese Five Spice Powder

While most if not all spices benefit from being freshly ground (even better if previously toasted in a dry hot pan), preground spice mixes do make our lives a lot easier. Hence there are a number of spices mixed I consider staples in my own kitchen - from Persian Advieh, to Indian Garam Masala, Moroccan Ras El Hanout to Japanese Shishimi Togarashi, they all have their role to play.

Once you start comparing a number of spice mixes from across the globe like English mixed spice, German Lebkuchengewürz, Indian Garam Masala, US pumpkin spice mix, French Pain D’epices, Persian Advieh, Moroccan Ras El Hanout and Chinese Five Spice Powder you quickly notice that many of them share similar base flavour profiles thanks to the inclusion of warming spices like cinnamon, ginger or cloves (plus possibly allspice or star anise, fennel or anise, nutmeg or mace, cardamom etc.). So over the years I have started using these spice mixes almost interchangeably when I bake, appreciating the subtle flavour differences they bring to whatever I am creating. So for me, a pumpkin “spice” or carrot cake might get its warming flavour from some Ras El Hanout instead of pumpkin spice mix or cinnamon and Banana Fritters might be dredged in Garam Masala sugar for example.

One of my favourite spice mixes to use in baking even though we tend to associate it more with savoury cooking is Chinese Five Spice Powder (it’s part of what makes Chinese Crispy Duck so delicious). The inclusion of star anise, cloves and fennel seeds mean it pairs well with autumnal fruits like plums (for example in a Plum Tarte Tatin) or pears, dried fruit (it makes for outrageously delicious Hot Cross Buns like the ones pictured here from my blog) as well as anything made with dark chocolate. A delicious discovery last year is that Chinese Five Spice Powder also makes for a sensational twist on Sticky Toffee Pudding using prunes instead of dates (even better if drenched in copious amounts of Miso Butterscotch Sauce). I think Chinese Five Spice Powder would also be a terrific addition to a sticky gingerbread cake come Christmas time.

Hibiscus

Hibiscus, also known as flor de jamaica, is another one of those grossly underrated ingredients when it comes to baking and desserts. Many of us are familiar with Hibiscus from drinking it as an infusion (hot or poured over ice or as an agua fresca to wash down some Mexican food as shown here). And yet you can do so much more with Hibiscus than drink it!

Ground into a fine powder you can use it in much same way as Sumac to add acidity without adding moisture - e.g. sprinkled over a fruit salad. You can also use the fine powder to fold into meringue or to dust over desserts for a pop of colour. And you can use powdered Hibiscus to make shockingly pink glazes and frostings for cake (and you can of course also use it to turn your cakes into different shades of pink or purple depending on just how much hibiscus you are using). Tartine No 3 includes a recipe for some slice and bake cookies with Hibiscus which sounds intriguing. And I imagine a simple syrup made from a Hibiscus infusion would make a delicious topping for a Mexican inspired twist on the Middle Eastern rice flour pudding Muhallabia (maybe made with ground toasted rice, almonds and cinnamon - as a nod to Mexico’s national drink Horchata). For one of our Two Kitchen Brussels Supper clubs Kaja and I made a Kir Royal of sorts, using a deeply purple Hibiscus syrup and mixing that with sparkling wine - delicious. And, as I recently discovered, any leftover Hibiscus from making infusions can also be fried with onions and used as a filling for Mexican quesadillas con flor de jamaica.

Hojicha

If anything Matcha-flavoured is starting to feel a bit “been there, done that” to you then I suggest you start playing around with Matcha’s cousin Hojicha instead.

Where Matcha is grassy and vegetal in flavour, with maybe a hint of sweetness, Hojicha, thanks to being roasted over charcoal fires, has a very different flavour profile. Altogether more mellow in flavour it has notes of chocolate and malt with a light smokey aroma. While typically sold as a loose leaf tea, you can increasingly find Hojicha ground to a fine powder like Matcha and which you can swap one to one in recipes. Alternatively you can make your own Hojicha powder with a small spice grinder (just sift out any larger pieces).

Naturally low in caffeine Hojicha makes for a tasty iced drink (in fact I first discovered Hojicha on a trip in Asia in the form of an Iced Hojicha Latte - at an airport Starbucks of all places!). Beyond that Hojicha tastes great in all manner of desserts - be it to flavour a simple pound cake or cookies or baked doughnuts like the ones shown here, panna cotta, ice cream, pastry cream or say the custard in a custard pie etc. And while a tiny bit fiddly to prepare maybe, I would happily eat a slice of “camouflage” Marble cake with flecks of green from Matcha, dark brown from Hojicha plus maybe grey from black sesame seeds and beige from Kinako powder. And why not try preparing an Hojicha Tiramisu or an Affogeto made with a shot of Hojicha instead of espresso for something different? In terms of pairings, a good starting point is that most things that work well with chocolate will also work with Hojicha (e.g. pears, oranges or kumquats and other citrus fruits, banana, caramel etc).

Mahleb

Readers of my defunct blog will not be surprised by the inclusion of Mahleb in this list, as the dried kernels of a particular type of cherry grown across the Mediterranean is one of my favourite spices to bake and prepare desserts with.

Mahleb isn’t unlike bitter almond in flavour (similar to other stonefruit kernels I suppose) but what makes it so intriguing is that it brings so much more the table - it’s also a bit fruity and floral and any bitterness it has is much less pronounced. While traditionally used to flavour enriched breads like Greek Tsoureki it works well in many applications - be it other types of enriched breads like Stollen, simple desserts like custard or panna cotta or the Muhallabiah shown here as well as things like tart bases or cookies and fruit compotes. Bonus: it also means you can stop buying almond extract, most of which is probably made from artificial ingredients.

Miso

I am such a Miso fiend I once published a Miso Love Letter on my blog. These days, the inclusion of Miso on a Restaurant dessert menu no longer raises an eyebrow for most people. Yet I suspect many of us haven’t experimented much with Miso in sweet applications ourselves. Well, here is your encouragement to do so.

The easiest thing I can recommend is making a big batch of Bon Appetit’s Miso sugar and use that to dust all manner of fried and or buttery goodness (doughnuts, churros but also morning buns, pancakes, French Toast etc) for some sweet-yet-salty funkiness. Also, next time you make some caramel or Butterscotch sauce, reach for your jar of Miso rather than salt. And for your next apple pie, consider caramelising your apples (the tarter the better to offset the richness) in a pan first in a little sugar, butter and Miso. Also, Bon Appetit’s Dried Apricot and Miso Jam is much faster to prepare than regular jam and a total flavour bomb for something made largely from dried fruit. I can also highly recommend making a Banana Miso Custard Pie or making some Pain Suisse and filling it with a Banana Miso Custard like the ones shown here. And next time you make Banana Bread why not toast a slice and top with some Miso-Butter?

Preserved Lemons

Preserved lemons are a North African condiment made from lemons preserved in salt and their own juices. There are a couple of lemon varieties native to Morocco, typically called citron beldi (i.e. traditional lemon) which are commonly used to prepare them. They are incredibly fragrant with a perfume not unlike that of bergamot lemons (the flavour we all recognise from Earl Grey Tea). Their most famous use is probably in many of Morocco’s delicious Tagines.

Despite their inherent saltiness, Preserved Lemons lend themselves well to a large array of desserts and baked goods. The addition of Preserved Lemon makes for a phenomenal and almost sherbetty Lemon Drizzle Cake such as the one shown here. You can also use them (boiled for 10-20 minutes not only to soften but also to remove any excess salt and bitterness) to make a beautifully fragrant and lemony version of Claudia Rhoden’s Whole Citrus Cake. I bet they would also promise an incredible upgrade to a classic lemon meringue pie or to flavour the filling for a lemony Swiss Roll Cake. And Alison Roman included a recipe for an intriguing preserved lemon shortbread in her latest cookbook which I cannot wait to try.

Sake

To my mind, sake is one of the most underrated ingredients when it comes to preparing desserts. A wine made from water and rice fermented with koji, its colour, final alcohol content and flavour profile can vary depending on, amongst other things, the ratio of rice to koji. And while I am no expert whatsoever when it comes to sake, what I like about the different bottles of sake I have tried over the years is their often subtle and dry sweetness, with a delicate fruitiness that reminds me a little bit of Italian grappa (but with none of grappa’s high alcohol content) and less acidity than say white wine.

I adore poaching fruits like pears, apples or even rhubarb in sake instead of white wine (even better when paired with a zabaglione made with sake) and sake also makes a brilliant ingredient for soaking babas. Sake would also be brilliant for a glaze to finiah fruit tarte or to give pastries a shiny finish (e.g. for sake-poached pear turnovers).

Tonka Bean

Tonka Bean is often described as vanilla-like but to my mind, there is nothing vanilla about tonka beans. Most of us probably think of vanilla as fairly mellow and something which rounds out other flavours - Tonka Bean could not be more different. While Tonka Beans have a similar bitter almond flavour as Mahleb (since both contain a chemical compound called coumarin), Tonka Beans are also floral and woody and somehow really clean and bright in flavour. Tonka Bean seems to work best with fruits that are naturally acidic, like gooseberries, prune plums, raspberries or rhubarb as pictured here for example. And it works equally well to grate some Tonka Bean directly into your fruits (e.g. for a pie filling or a compote) or infuse some grated Tonka Bean into whatever you are serving alongside your fruits (e.g. a Tonka Bean ice cream, Tonka Bean custard etc). No doubt Tonka Bean is also worth trying in things like Gateau Basque with cherries or Bakewell Tart.

What are your go-to ingredients for creating sweets that are as unusual as delicious in flavour?