This topic is an excerpt from my book which is published on June 27th, 2025
Saffron Dough Cake
There was a time when saffron was commonly available in the south of England and while saffron dough cake was common in Devon and Cornwall it can be associated with the West Country generally.
The presence of considerable amounts of fat and sugar caused this sort of confection to be called a ‘dough cake’ to distinguish it from a ‘bread’. There were many recipes for spiced dough cakes throughout the British Isles, occupying a place in baking before the arrival of baking powder changed habits and tastes, and cake itself became readily available to us all. There was a great tradition, or custom, of the baker simply enriching a piece of leftover dough to make the dough cake as a special product.
The saffron filaments should be warmed until they are entirely dry and crisp, then infused in hot water. Here we shall put them into hot milk rather than water, seeing as warm milk is part of the recipe. While the saffron infuses for a while, the over-heated milk can cool down to the temperature required to make the ferment, something a little over 30° C.
The recipe here is a professional baker’s method, favouring the ‘ferment’ which was very popular in the first half of the last century. The purpose of a ferment is to get the yeast working vigorously before it meets the rich ingredients which will bog it down and create a heavy barrier between it and its food, causing sluggish feeding.
- For the ferment: 1 pt milk (560ml)
- 10 oz flour (280 gm)
- 2 oz yeast (55 gm)
- 4 oz sugar (110 gm)
- small clump of saffron filaments – perhaps ½ teaspoon, ¼ gram
- Temperature of ferment should be 28 – 30° C.
Soon it will become an expanding frothy pile. When it is ripe, perhaps in three-quarters of an hour, it will have a pitted surface where its tiny gas bubbles are popping, and soon after it may drop.
During the maturing of the ferment, preparation for the doughmaking should have begun. The primary task is rubbing the butter into the flour. This makes it into a ‘cakey’ bread, described by old school bakers as ‘short’ – meaning that the flour coated with butter cannot take up the liquid efficiently, inhibiting the formation of gluten.
When the ferment drops, add it to the rest of the ingredients.
- For the dough: the ferment
- 1 lb 10 oz flour (730 gm)
- 7 oz butter (200 gm)
- 4 oz sugar (110 gm)
- ½ oz salt (14 gm)
- grated nutmeg
- zest of lemon & orange
- 1lb currants (450 gm)
- egg for glazing
Because gluten formation is restricted, kneading will be relatively easy and quick. Knead until a smooth and stretchy dough is formed, putting the currants in gently at the end of kneading.
Leave the dough to lie for about an hour and a half, maybe longer. It is ripe and ready when a downward poke with a finger leaves a cavity that does not close.
Weigh it for the size that suits your tins, covering them for final proof, which could take another hour. When the dough has expanded enough to be filling the inside of the tin, egg glaze them.
With so much sugar, bake it in a gently moderate oven, well below 200° C. The baker’s oven would be 190C, domestic 170C.
Being such a rich bread it is difficult to feel when they are ready. Tap a loaf to feel that it vibrates and shudders inside, and another useful test is to check that the soft side of the loaf springs back when it is gently depressed with the ball of the thumb.
