Two Recipes: Robbie Coltrane's Chocolate Cake and Ciabatta Bread

Italian Ciabatta

This popular rustic Italian bread depends for its popularity on a floury, crisp, golden crust and a moist, billowy crumb. Unlike other sour-dough breads it has a sweet, yeasty, champagne-like flavour, and is the ideal bread for mopping up Italian sauce-based dishes.

Yield: 4 loaves

For the 'starter' (biga):

• 250ml (9 fl oz) warm water
• 1 teaspoon fast-action yeast
• 350g (12 oz) strong bread flour

For the dough:

• 1 teaspoon fast-action yeast
• 125ml (4 fl oz) warm milk
• 250ml (9 fl oz) warm water
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 500g (1 lb 2 oz) unbleached strong bread flour

Preheat the oven to 425ºF/220ºC/Gas 7. Grease baking trays. Electric mixer with dough hook or knead by hand.

Making the starter (biga): Put the water into a bowl and sprinkle over the yeast. Leave for about five minutes then start stirring in the flour, a handful at a time. Mixing with a wooden spoon to make a sticky dough. Cover with lightly greased clingfilm and leave to rise 15-24 hours at room temperature.

Kneading the Ciabatta dough: Put the milk into the mixer bowl and sprinkle over the yeast. Leave to stand for 10 minutes until creamy. Add the warm water, olive oil, salt and the starter. Mix on slow until blended or knead by hand. Then add the remaining flour. Knead with the dough hook until the dough becomes velvety, supple, very springy and moist. Add more warm water if necessary. Put into an oiled bowl and cover with lightly oiled clingfilm. Leave to rise for about an hour.

Shaping and baking: Press air out of the dough and knead again until smooth. Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces on a well-floured board. Roll up each piece into a cylinder shape and then stretch out into a rectangle about 23 x 8 cm (10 x 4 inch). Flour four pieces of baking silicone and place each loaf on top. Dimple the loaves with your fingers outstretched so that they look pockmarked. Cover with lightly oiled clingfilm. Leave to rise in a warm place until they are puffy but not doubled in size (they will rise more in the oven). Sprinkle baking silicone with cornmeal (polenta). Carefully invert each loaf onto cornmeal. For a crisp crust, spray the inside of the oven with an atomiser. Bake for 20-30 minutes.

Robbie Coltrane's Chocolate Cake

An indulgent, special occasion cake. Certainly not a cake for a weight-watcher's ball. It has a moist, springy sponge, but it's the American frosting, heavy with nuts and coconut, which makes it the real winner - and Coltrane's favourite. I made it for him at One Devonshire.

• 4 eggs
• 125g (4 1/2 oz) best quality plain chocolate
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 125g (4 1/2 oz) unsalted butter
• 200g (7 oz) caster sugar
• 225g (8 oz) plain fine cake flour, sifted with:
  • 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 250ml (9fl oz) buttermilk or fresh milk soured with the juice of a lemon

American frosting with coconut and pecan nuts:

• 400ml (14fl oz) can of evaporated milk
• 275g (10 oz) sugar
• 125g (4 1/2 oz) butter
• 4 egg yokes, beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 200g (7 oz) fine coconut
• 125g (4 1/2oz) chopped pecan nuts
• 4 tablespoons apricot jam

Preheat oven to 350ºF/180ºC/Gas 4. Line 3 round cake tins 23cm (9 inch).

Heating the eggs: put eggs, still in their shells, into a bowl of very hot, but not boiling water, leave for 2 minutes to heat the eggs without cooking

Melting the chocolate: Put into a bowl over a pan of hot water and stir till melted. Add vanilla.

Mixing and baking: Beat the sugar and butter till light and fluffy. Separate the eggs and beat in the yokes one at a time. Add the melted chocolate and vanilla. Beat the egg whites till stiff. Fold the flour and bicarbonate of soda into the cake mixture. Add the buttermilk and finally fold in the egg whites. Bake for 30 minutes till a skewer comes out clean.

Finishing: Put the evaporated milk, sugar, butter and egg yolks into a pan and simmer gently, stirring continuously, for about 12 minutes till golden brown and reduced a little. Add the vanilla extract. Add coconut (you can make it fine in a blender) and pecan nuts. Mix through. Spread two layers of the cake with jam and stack the three layers. Cover the top and sides of the cake with the frosting. Rough up with a fork, and leave to harden.

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