A comforting seasonal bake that combines sweet apples with the nutty flavour of spelt sourdough, creating a beautifully moist and satisfying cake. Served with rich hogweed-spiced butter, this recipe brings together familiar ingredients and wild flavours, making it a wonderful way to celebrate the abundance of the hedgerow in spring and early summer. 🍎🌿✨

MAKES 2 BAKES (2 X 20CM ROUND TINS)

Ingredients – 

390g water at 24°C

100g bubbly, lively second-build starter

500g organic stoneground wholegrain spelt flour

10g fine sea salt

butter, ghee or coconut oil, for greasing 

olive oil for brush / spray

4 large red apples

2 heaped tablespoons soft brown sugar (I used coconut sugar)

1 teaspoon toasted ground hogweed seeds

30g salted butter (can use Naturli for dairy free) , cut into 1cm dice

Method –

Mix

• In a large bowl, whisk together 360g of the water and the sourdough starter. Add the flour and salt, and use a strong spatula to vigorously mix your dough for about 2 minutes. It will form a stiff ball of dough with no dry flour left. Leave to rest for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, refresh the remaining starter in your jar and set aside.
• Mix in the remaining 30g water using the bassinage technique described on page 28. The liquid needs to be fully incorporated into the dough. Cover and leave the dough to rest for another 30 minutes.

Prove

• Grease 2 x 20cm, 4cm deep cake tins and line with baking parchment. Divide the dough between the tins.
• Spray/ brush a little olive oil over the surface of each loaf.
• Cover and leave to prove on the kitchen table overnight.

Bake

• The next morning, the dough will have risen to almost the top of the tins. Preheat your oven to 220°C/ gas mark 7 for 30 minutes.
• Slice the apples in half and remove the cores, then cut each half into 4 or 5 slices. Gently arrange these slices over the top of the dough in each tin, forming concentric circles. Don’t push the slices into the dough because it is delicate at this stage and you want to keep all the air in it. Sprinkle the sugar and hogweed spice over the apple slices and scatter the cubes of butter evenly across the top. Spray the loaves lightly with olive oil – just enough to protect the apple slices from burning.
• Reduce the oven temperature to 200°C/gas mark 6 and bake for 30-35 minutes. Every oven is slightly different, so check your loaves towards the end of the baking time and take them out of the oven as soon as they are baked. Leave to cool in the tins for 5 minutes before removing from the tins and transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Your starter should now be ready to put in the fridge until you next want to prepare it for baking
• Once cool, store in a tin, wrapped in greaseproof paper. These are best eaten on the day they’re made, but if not, enjoy within 2 days.

*Adapted from a recipe by Vanessa Kimball*

**This recipe can easily be adapted to use other fruit and spices**