Baking with Fortitude

Rettali, owner of London’s Fortitude Bakehouse, debuts with a thoughtful collection of hearty loaf cake recipes that put a modern spin on traditional artisanal baking. “For me, baking is about crafting, where it’s as much about the process as the end result,” she writes. For bakers that prefer a deeper taste, that process requires patience (her fermented bakes take a week in total to make). While non-fermented loafs—such as her sage, buttermilk, and almond butter loaf cake, and thyme and lemon basbousa buns—can be “made and baked straightaway,” she often urges bakers to let the cake batter ferment for up to three days for a more intense flavor. Still, the recipes themselves are simple to execute, often only involving a handful of ingredients. Spices, nuts, and fruits are employed liberally, such as in a thyme and apricot butter loaf cake, and in a chilli-soaked date and oat loaf cake, which draws its inspiration from her mother’s fruit cakes. Her Moroccan honey and cinnamon sourdough loaf cake requires a buttermilk starter and time to ferment, while her batbout buns are constructed with a simple combination of self-raising flour, yogurt, and a pinch of salt that leaves out the fermentation process entirely. Those willing to wait will be greatly rewarded. Agent: Jonathan Hayden, Jonathan Hayden Literary. (Dec.)