The Field’s guide to lockdown baking

The Field

Keep spirits high and appetites satiated by spending this time at home in the kitchen. Follow The Field's guide to lockdown baking for simple sweet treats that can be made with what you have to hand

There are many pleasurable ways to occupy this time in lockdown but baking will make you very popular. Whether to keep spirits high at home, leave on a friend’s doorstop or enjoy straight from the oven yourself, follow The Field’s guide to lockdown baking. These recipes will work with whatever you have to hand – or can find just outside the back door. From tarts and cakes for hungry households to bite-sized fancies best kept to onself, here is how to improve teatime in lockdown.

Are you one to wield a wooden spoon or more of a garden potterer? Few things are more rewarding than baking with ingredients you grew yourself. Follow The Field’s top tips in our Gardens section, from encouraging more visitors with nestboxes and feeders to starting a veg patch – or rescuing an old one.

THE FIELD’S GUIDE TO LOCKDOWN BAKING

Whether it’s an extra-large cake to feed nearby friends and neighbours in need or bite-sized fancies just for yourself (enjoyed straight from the oven), follow The Field’s guide to lockdown baking. These recipes range from simple to more time-consuming and use ingredients you are likely to already have in the larder.

Chocolate and rhubarb brownies

Chocolate and rhubarb brownies

Proper, fudgy brownies are guaranteed crowd pleasers – and they are even better with rhubarb. Philippa Davis’ chocolate and rhubarb…

Use up your stocks of freezer fruit with this incredibly easy fruit and almond tart recipe.

Fruit and almond tart

Philippa Davis’ fruit and almond tart is a failsafe recipe. This method works as a template, so use whatever fruit…

Chocolate is always a good place to start. Our chocolate and rhubarb brownies are a long-standing favourite with good reason. Irresistibly fudgy, there’s no better way to use the pink stems. Or our pear brownies with hazelnuts are similarly easy to share around. Parcel up and leave on a friend’s doorstep.

Or you can’t go wrong with chocolate cake. Combine the teatime essentials with our chocolate and orange fruit tea cake. It’s simple to make for even the most kitchen allergic. And for some proper comfort food, our apple, honey and carrot cake is satisfyingly rich and perfectly sweet.

Cakes are for sharing but sometimes you need something just for yourself. Our gooseberry, lime and elderflower travel cakes are irresistibly moreish. Or for something a little more fiddly but well worth the effort, try our strawberry and mascarpone profiteroles with salted caramel sauce.

If you are without strawberries but have other odds and ends lurking in the fruit bowl, our fruit and almond tart will work with whatever you have to hand. Serve after Sunday lunch with a generous dollop of cream. Or if custard tart is more to your taste, try our raspberry, cardamom and custard tart. If you find yourself in lockdown without raspberries – blackberries and currants work equally well.