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Nourish

October 22, 2015

by Roger Saul

Afternoon tea is a peculiarly British custom, but one that has become popular and is now practiced all over the world. As a meal, it didn’t really appear until the mid 1800s, when the Duchess of Bedford created a fashion for it.

To accompany your afternoon tea try the delicious, delicate and crunchy Maple & Pecan Squares, perfect with a cup of strong tea or coffee.

Makes: 9 squares
Preparation time: 15 minutes, plus 2 hours chilling
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
150g/5½oz unsalted butter.
125g/4½oz/⅔ cup light muscovado sugar
115g/4oz/⅓ cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp sea salt
150g/5½oz/1½ cups pecans
150g/5½oz/1½ cups spelt porridge flakes

Method:

  • Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4 and line a 23cm/9in square cake tin with baking paper.
  • Put the butter, sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon and salt in a saucepan over a low heat and bring slowly to a simmer, allowing everything to melt and mix together. Add the pecans and the spelt porridge flakes and stir well.
  • Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin, smooth the top so that it is as even as possible, and bake for 30 minutes, or until the
    top looks golden brown and slightly crisp.
  • Leave to cool in the tin. Once cool, put the traybake, still in the tin, in the fridge for a few hours or overnight to set fully before slicing into squares. These will keep in an airtight tin at room temperature for about a week (if they last that long).

9781848991965-300x390Roger Saul
Spelt
£16.99, Available from Nourish Books

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