Baking with Fortitude: Winner of the André Simon Food Award 2021
Ebook
Overview
WINNER OF THE ANDRE SIMON AWARD 2021
SHORTLISTED FOR THE FORTNUM & MASON FOOD AND DRINK AWARDS 2022
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’I love Dee Rettali’s baking – she is obsessed with flavour. A bold and beautiful book’ DIANA HENRY
The 90 recipes in this book are all about beautiful, natural flavours from quality ingredients like fruits and spices.
Dee Rettali is an artisan baker who, over a lifetime of baking, has honed her recipes to bring out intense flavour using forgotten craftsmanship. Dee’s cakes, created for her bakery – Fortitude Bakehouse in London – are a world away from generic cakes loaded with sugar or artificial flavours.
Many of her recipes are incredibly simple one-bowl mixes, brought together by hand and with no need for fancy kitchen equipment. The batter can be baked then or, to heighten the natural flavours and reduce sweetness further, left to slightly ferment in the fridge. This technique allows you to prep ahead and simply bake the cake when you want it. Some other recipes use a sourdough-like starter as a base to which any combination of seasonal flavours can be added.
Dee has roots in both Ireland and Morocco that have inspired the unique flavour combinations in her bakes, such as:
· White grape and rosemary cake
· Marrakeshi mint and orange peel sourdough loaf cake
· Blueberry and lime little buns
· Turmeric custard and roast pear brioche buns
· Chilli-soaked date and oat loaf cake
This is a cutting-edge way of baking and at the same time it has antecedents in Dee’s past. Growing up in rural Ireland, seasonal and no-waste baking was simply a way of life. This book brings this back to life in a thoroughly modern way.
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‘This isn’t just another book about baking; it’s a whole new way of approaching it’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
A craft-baking book that uses groundbreaking techniques to highlight natural flavours
Beginning with a base recipe, Baking with Fortitude builds on a simple recipe by adding other ingredients to create beautiful savoury and sweet bakes with just a few simple adjustments
Dee is at the forefront of craft baking in the UK, she has managed successful London eating spots for the past 20 years and teaches courses on everything from sourdough starters to alternative flours, guaranteeing that the recipes will be both packed full of flavour and accessible to all
The book is broken down into 7 chapters that focus on the types of ingredients, and with several simple base recipes this allows readers to adapt the recipes to the ingredients they have and experiment with their own flavour combinations. The chapters include: Herbs and Botanicals, Fruit and Berries, Dairy, Spices and Aromatics, Bread-ish, Sourdough and Fermented Cakes, and Storecupboard
Fortitude Bakehouse has featured in The Times, Telegraph, Evening Standard, Waitrose Food, Time Out and Eater as one of their go-to eateries in London and have a committed 8.7k followers across social media
Sourdough baking has taken off in a big way over the past few years, particularly during lockdown, and there is no sign of its rise stopping – #sourdoughstarter and #sourdough have a combined hit rate of 5m hits on Instagram. Sourdough cakes is the natural next step for those who enjoy invest time in baking
Comp titles include fellow London bakehouseThe Violet Bakery Cookbook (8k TCM), and sourdough-specific books like Tartine Bread (15k TCM), The Handmade Loaf (15k TCM), and Sourdough School (12k TCM)
I love Dee Rettali’s baking – she is obsessed with flavour. A bold and beautiful book
This isn’t just another book about baking; it’s a whole new way of approaching it
A world away from your average sugar-laden creations. Instead, [Rettali] harnesses flavour-building processes such as using sourdough starters, fermenting batters before baking, steeping fruit and making herb infusions. Among her many stand-out bakes are turmeric custard and roast pear brioche buns, Spanish fermented butter cake with fizzy apricots, and ras el hanout and black treacle cake, scattered with chilli flakes
Typical sweet bakes not your style? Dee Rettali of London’s Fortitude Bakehouse uses sourdough starters and fermented batters to create buns and cakes with intensified flavours. Emphasising the craft of baking, her recipes rely on herbs, spices, and fruit for character, and many can be made in straightforward fashion before you try the fermented version.
Over a lifetime of baking, Dee Rettali has honed her recipes to bring out intense flavour using forgotten craftsmanship. Here she shares the sourdough cakes and simple breads she creates for her bakery – Fortitude Bakehouse in London – full of deep flavour and generations of artisanal technique.
A whole new world of baking
A thoughtful collection of hearty loaf cake recipes that put a modern spin on traditional artisanal baking ... Those willing to wait will be greatly rewarded
- Title: Baking with Fortitude: Winner of the André Simon Food Award 2021
- Author: Dee Rettali
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
- Print Publication Date: 2021
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Pages: 192
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781526626950, 9781526626967, 1526626969, 1526626950
- Resource ID: LLS:9781526626950
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T11:53:49Z
Dee Rettali was at the forefront of the organic food movement, having founded Patisserie Organic in 1998, and her belief in preserving traditional crafts, using time-honoured techniques and sourcing simple, seasonal ingredients has informed the way she cooks and bakes ever since. She opened Fortitude Bakehouse in London in 2018 and has amassed a loyal following.