Good afternoon everybody,
In a slight change from the regular programme we will start with Harriet's highlights for the forthcoming week.
- Vanilla Sun Bun An antidote to grey October skies in bun form and an homage to vanilla. Whole vanilla pods are roasted in the bread oven for our classic vanilla bun dough, which is spiralled around a rich yellow custard made with Cacklebean egg yolks and whole Guernsey milk from Berkeley Farm Dairy, also infused with vanilla pods.
- This week's Financier is with roasted hazelnuts from Piemonte via Fruit and Forest and tayberries from Roy's allotment. Like it's cousin the loganberry, the tayberry is a cross between a raspberry and blackberry, the main difference being that the tay' is larger, sweeter and more aromatic.
- The Banbury Cake returns. And no, it's definitely not an Eccles cake, being, well, a different shape, for starters. Apparently, the Banbury Cake pre-dates the Eccles by more than two hundred years. it is thought that the recipe for Banbury cakes was first brought back from the crusades by knights weighed down with rich spices and dried fruits. Our Banbury cake is a traditional oval shape packed with currants and raisins, apple butter and a mixture of fragrant spices. We use our all butter puff to parcel everything up and then finish with a crunchy sugar top.
- Hazelnut & Ricotta Torta inspired by Auriol's adventures in Italy. Delicate hazelnut pastry surrounds an orange-zest-spiked ricotta custard with Pump Street 72% chocolate chunks and candied peel.
- In the cheese fridge we have a batch of little, herbed Perroche from the Neal’s Yard creamery. These fresh and fluffy goat’s cheeses are perfect on a slice of crusty country loaf or served with a drizzle of honey and some walnuts. We also have washed-rind Gubbeen from Country Cork, with savoury notes of cured meat.
Now some words on the new season Vacherin from our assistant manager, Justyna:
Last Monday morning, Harriet and I took a deep dive into the world of Vacherin Mont d’Or, via an online masterclass, courtesy of Mons Cheesemongers, our supplier of French and Swiss cheeses.
Vacherin is a soft cheese made with little to no pressing. A salt brine is used to wash the rind for around 17 to 25 days and each cheese wheel has a spruce band wrapped around it, which is hand picked by a Sanglier - quite possibly the most niche job in the world. The spruce bark lends Vacherin its signature mushroomy, smoky notes, rounding off its rich and earthy flavours. The band also makes it ideal for baking whole, perfect for a cheeseboard centrepiece. Vacherin production is strictly seasonal, running from 15 August to 15 March.
Vacherin is made in the Jura mountain range which lies on the French-Swiss border. During the Mons workshop we learnt how the Jura’s limestone-rich soils help produce the wonderful milk behind these Alpine cheeses; the summer milk is destined for Comté and Gruyère, while winter milk is reserved for the gooey Vacherin.
Winter milk? Vacherin is traditionally made in the colder months when the cows come down from Alpage (mountain pastures) and there is not enough milk to make the enormous wheels of Comté. The descent is celebrated every year by dressing up the cows in elaborate flower headdresses and giant bells, with enthusiastic crowds partaking in wine drinking throughout the day - something we at Hamblin would be very interested in joining in on next year! The cheese appears on shelves from September through to April, so if you have spotted it in our cheese fridge lately, now you know why: Vacherin season is officially upon us.
So, next time you tuck into a Mont d’Or, remember you are tasting more than just a wonderfully rich, earthy cheese. You are tasting the landscape, the seasons and the generations of craftsmanship that have made it what it is.
Following on from Justyna, I'm minded that it was an encounter with a perfectly ripe Vacherin, some years ago, that first prompted me to approach Mons about Hamblin becoming a wholesale customer. Kate and I had been invited to have dinner with some dear friends from the baking world. The first course, eaten standing up around the kitchen island as we sipped our aperitifs, was a perfectly ripe, unadorned Vacherin. We were issued with a teaspoon each, the ideal tool with which to convey mouthfuls of the virtually liquid cheese on to slices of crusty baguette. There may have been a bowl of Maison Marc Cornichons. As much as I do enjoy rich cheese at the end of the meal, this experience made a compelling case for inverting this tradition. The palette is unjaded, allowing the cheese to take a more central role. Highly recommended.
Finally, our favourite archeo-botanist and heritage grain guru John Letts, visited the bakery last week to drop off a generous gift of squash and pumpkins, currently adorning the shelf in the window of the bakery and headed for a slice of white pizza soon. The timing was good, as we are about to run out of John's heritage grain, so securing supplies from the 2026 harvest was top of the agenda.
That's all for this week, folks. Thank you so much for reading and we wish you the very best in blustery sunshine on this post-storm Sunday.
Hugo and Kate