Grilled Doughnut Bread, Whipped Ricotta, Rhubarb & Blood Orange Marmalade

First make the doughnut bread. (If you are one of the poor individuals that do not have a kitchen aid at your disposal, then this is significantly harder but not impossible to make. It’s a clean bench and a good 45min of elbow grease to bring everything together by hand, kneading until a smooth, shiny, elastic dough has formed. It will be hard. You’ve been warned.)

In a kitchen aid fitted with a dough hook attachment, mix together all the doughnut bread ingredients except the butter until a dough has formed. Slowly add the butter in chunks whilst continuing to mix. Continue mixing on low speed for 30 mins until the dough is smooth and glossy.

Place dough in lightly greased container covered with a cloth and allow to double in size (approx. 1 hour). Punch back and place in the fridge overnight.

The next morning place the dough into a greased & lined loaf tin, cover and sit somewhere warm to prove until it has doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan/gas mark 5 and bake the loaf for 16 minutes or until golden brown and hollow sounding when tapped. Turn out to cool completely on a wire rack.

Once the bread is cool, slice cartoonishly thick slices and butter each side of the slices with too much butter. 

At this stage you can choose to fry the bread in a pan on medium heat until golden and crispy then top with anything within arms reach or you can reach for the stars and embark on the following steps before succumbing to the call of crispy, pillowy soft fried brioche. 

For the ricotta whipped with bergamot, you’ll need to make a bergamot pastry cream and then whip it together to season the ricotta. Start by bringing the milk to a boil. In a stainless mixing bowl, whisk together the salt, vanilla, eggs and cornflour. Temper the egg mixture with half of the hot milk and once completely incorporated return the mixture to heat and bring to the boil, whisking constantly.

Once the mixture has thickened, remove from from the heat and whisk in the bergamot zest. Pour into a plastic container, cover with clingfilm and cool in the fridge. Once cold, whisk the ricotta and creme pat together in kitchen aid until light and fluffy.

Next up, the rhubarb. Chop the rhubarb into 5cm batons and arrange in a single layer on a greaseproof lined baking tray. Dust with the sugar, zest and splash with the water. Cover tightly with aluminium foil and bake in a preheated oven at 180°C/160°C fan/gas mark 4 for 15-20 minutes, or until soft and giving but not totally falling apart.

To assemble the dish fry the buttered bread in a pan until golden brown and crispy. Spread a few healthy tablespoons of the whipped ricotta on the crispy bread making a little well in the middle to house some of the poached rhubarb. Finally dot with some very good quality marmalade (preferably of the blood orange & pepperberry variety bought from Juliet’s…).

If you’ve made it this far I’m guessing you’re the kind of person that might (like us) go out and forage some wild wood sorrel to scatter over the top. Devour that single slice of toast after your two day enterprise.