We Wrote A Book
SCÉAL #12 - It's publication week for our debut cook book Scéal. Plus a recipe for this weekend.
Scéal: Seasonal Recipes and Stories from a Modern Irish Bakery - Our Debut Cookbook is Here
Hi there!
We’re thrilled to share some exciting news—our debut cookbook, Scéal: Seasonal Recipes and Stories from a Modern Irish Bakery, is officially launched this week, published by the wonderful team at Quadrille. It’s surreal to finally be holding it in our hands. Below, Charlotte shares a little more about the journey behind the book, and we’ve included an exclusive recipe just for our Substack readers.
You can order your copy below. It’s also available on from Irish retailers: Easons and Hodges Figgis. Copies are available to purchase in person from the bakery.
It’s Been a While…
Well. It's been a while since we last gathered here. We took a pause from Substack in Autumn 2023 to pour our energy into our baby and our budding bakery — and, truthfully, because life was unfolding in deeply transformative ways. At the time, I could only hold space for one form of long-form writing, and that became Scéal the book.
Now that the book is out in the world, we're hoping to return to this space, to reconnect and share with you once again
We closed our long-standing market stall at the Fumbally Stables, moved out of our small production kitchen in Stoneybatter, and poured ourselves into the build and design of our first bricks-and-mortar bakery in Greystones. Simultaneously, we stepped into a brand new chapter of our personal lives It was also a huge transformative stage in our personal lives - becoming parents. Our daughter, Robin Mimi, was born in November 2023.
If you’ve been following our journey on Instagram, you’ll know that our Greystones bakery opened its doors in February 2024, and the local community welcomed us with such warmth and generosity. The past 20 months have been a whirlwind - team building, menu development, logistic headaches (and breakthroughs) - each worthy of their own Substack article on here.
A Baby, A Bakery & A Book
Somewhere in the middle of all this, I decided to write our debut cookbook. Yes, in the chaos of opening a baking and becoming a mother for the first time. A wild decision in hindsight - but one rooted in deep love and intuition.
Out of curiosity, I recently pulled up our original contract with our publisher. Signing the book deal feels like a blur now. It makes sense - Shane and I finalised the paperwork just a week before Robin was born. The same week the walk-in fridge was installed and the tilers layed the floor in the bakery.
I began writing the book when Robin was just 16 weeks old, and the bakery had been open a mere eight days. It was a beautiful kind of chaos — capturing a fleeting season of life as it unfolded. From our early market stall days to the opening of our first bakery, I wrote and recipe-tested during nap times and in the quiet hours after bedtime.
I taught myself to make a levain from scratch, baking sourdough at home with stretch-and-folds slotted between feeds and mealtimes. The freezer was always full — endless batches of cookies and biscuits in rotation. Most weeks, a test bake would be tucked snugly into the bottom of Robin’s buggy, destined for staff meal and all-important feedback.
What’s Inside Scéal
The book is structured around six chapters that follow the rhythm of the seasons, with recipes that have been developed, tested, and baked at Scéal over the years. Some of them are recipes we use every single day in the bakery, while others made brief but memorable appearances on our menus.
Our seasonal ethos threads through every page. You’ll find step-by-step guides for making croissants and sourdough at home—a three-day process from beginning to end—alongside more accessible bakes you can make in an afternoon or over a weekend.
Like Mimi’s Best Ever Bakewell Tart, which I’m sharing with you below.
The People Behind the Pages
A part of the book I’m especially proud of is our feature on three of our suppliers—Malone’s Fruit Farm in Co. Carlow, The Little Mill in Co. Kilkenny, and OpenHive in Co. Wicklow. These are people who form the backbone of what we do. Without them, Scéal wouldn’t exist in the way it does today. Their passion and dedication shine through in the ingredients we use and the bakes we serve.
We also got to work with a wonderful team of creative individuals to bring the book to life.
Our dear friend, Shantanu Starick, beautifully shot the book. We’ve worked together since the very beginning of Scéal - with Shantanu photographing our make shift kitchen at my parents house in 2016. His keen eye for detail has moulded the aesthetic of our bakery more than I can put into words.
Cissy Difford came to Scéal for a one-week stage—and stayed for four years. She played a key role in shaping Scéal into what it is today, with some of her recipes that she developed for the bakery even featured in the book. Cis tested countless recipes for us for these page, and never hesitated to set aside time—even flying back to Ireland just for our book shoot weeks.
Kitty Coles hyped about Scéal Bakery while on food styling gigs and photoshoots across London. Without Kitty chatting about Scéal around town the book project might not have materialised. It only made sense to have her as our food stylist when the book shoot came about.
Tegan Hendel, a Melbourne-based designer and artist, intuitively understood the vision and aesthetic of Scéal—despite us never meeting in person. She took my scattered emails and ideas and transformed them into a beautifully designed book that perfectly captures the essence of the project.
Mimi’s Best Ever Bakewell Tart
This is a recipe deeply rooted in my childhood. It was my most-requested sweet bake at home growing up - best enjoyed with a cold glass of milk after school. Mimi appears throughout the book. She was my cornerstone, my sounding board, my go-to for baking advice and life guidance.
I was lucky enough to be raised by three incredible parents - my mom, dad and Mimi. Mimi moved in with us when my brother Ben was just a week old, and stayed until he turned 19 when she met the love of her life. There isn’t a single word in the dictionary that fully captures who she was to us - a mother, aunt, sister, best friend. Our biggest cheerleader, always. I recently visited her sister Emma and nephews this summer while on a staycation in Wexford. We fondly describe ourselves as “cousins”, though not blood related, we are bonded in other, deeper ways.
Growing up, everything at home was made from scratch. I learnt to bake and cook sitting on the draining board, my own mixing bowl between my legs, watching Mimi expertly rubbing butter into flour for scones, or peeling apples in one clean, long swoosh for a pot of jelly. When my Leaving Cert results didn’t go as plan - like so many students, I had placed unrealistic expectations on myself and what I could achieve - Mimi gently brought it back to the basics. What do you enjoy doing? Through some research and nudging from her, I found the Culinary Arts Degree in DIT (now TU Dublin) and with her persistent encouragement, I reapplied to the CAO.
We lost Mimi suddenly at the beginning of 2020, leaving me utterly heartbroken and grief stricken, made even harder by the isolation of pandemic lockdowns that quickly followed. But baking - then and now - has the power to deeply connect me back to Mimi. Whether it’s recreating one of her recipes for her endless repertoire or using one of the cherished mixing bowls and spatula I have from her kitchen stash in my own kitchen with my daughter Robin Mimi, I feel her presence.
This Bakewell Tart has made many appearances at the bakery over the years - mini, individual portions at our market stall, or as dessert for our sourdough workshop guests. It’s endlessly adaptable. The raspberry jam can be swapped out for whatever seasonal jam you have in your larder. You can even play around with the ground nuts in the frangipane - toasted hazelnuts are particularly delicious with blackberry jam - an apparent choice for the transition in the seasons we’re experiencing at the moment. But for me, nothing beats the classic.
Autumn raspberries are still available now - whether from local growers, the supermarket or your own garden, if you’re lucky.
The frangipane and shortcrust pastry can be made in advance. If you are getting ahead, the frangipane can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week. Take it out of the refrigerator to come to room temperature when you are ready to bake.
Raspberry Jam
Makes 5–6 x 220 g (7.8 oz) jars
Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Ingredients:
1 kg 750 g 50 g (2 lb 4 oz) fresh or frozen raspberries
(1 lb 10 oz) caster (superfine) sugar
(1.8 oz) lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
Method:
Put the raspberries, sugar and lemon juice into a preserving pan or large, heavy-based saucepan. If possible, leave to sit for 1 hour to macerate, as this will help the sugar dissolve.
Bring the raspberries and sugar to a gentle simmer over a low heat. Using a wooden spoon, make sure to stir and dissolve all the sugar. Do not increase the heat until the sugar has dissolved completely.
Increase the heat and bring to a rapid boil. Raspberry jam can reach its setting point very quickly, so keep an eye on it while it boils. Stir continuously, as the seeds can catch on the bottom of the pan.
Cook to 104–105°C (219–221°F), using a digital thermometer to check the temperature.
Pour the jam into warm, sterilised jars and seal immediately with tight-fitting lids.
Store in a cool, dark place. The raspberry jam will keep for 6 months. Once opened, store in the refrigerator.
Bakewell Tart
Makes 1 x 20–22 cm (8–81/2 in) tart
Time 2 days
You’ll need:
150 g 25 g (5.3 oz) Raspberry Jam or shop-bought raspberry jam
Flaked Almond for garnishing
For the Shortcrust Pastry:
240 g (8.5 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour, plus extra for dusting
5 g 120 g (1 teaspoon) fine sea salt
(4.2 oz) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
2 large (extra-large) egg yolks
30 g (1 oz) full-fat yoghurt
For the Frangipane:
85 g (3 oz) unsalted butter (at room temperature)
85 g (3 oz) caster (superfine) sugar
2 large eggs (at room temperature)
60 g (2 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
115 g (4.1 oz) ground almonds (almond meal)
2 g (½ teaspoon) fine sea salt
Day one
To make the shortcrust pastry, combine the flour, salt and butter in a large mixing bowl. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. You want the fat to coat the flour particles evenly and for large pieces of butter to be rubbed in.
Add the egg yolks and yoghurt and use your hands to mix them into the flour mixture in a circular motion. Bring everything together into a ball, ensuring the sides of the bowl are clean.
Flatten the dough into a disc and cover tightly with cling film (plastic wrap) or a beeswax wrap. Squeeze out any air bubbles, as they will make the pastry oxidise. Chill in the refrigerator for 12–24 hours.
To make the frangipane, cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl until pale and light in colour. Beat in one of the eggs, scraping down the sides of the bowl and beating until smooth. Add the second egg. The mixture will appear to curdle, but don’t worry. You are combining two different fats at two different temperatures and the mix can split. Fold in the flour, ground almonds and salt.
Place the frangipane in an airtight container in the refrigerator until you are ready to bake the tart. Allow to come up to room temperature when you are ready to bake.
Day two
Preheat the oven to 170°C (375°F). Remove the shortcrust pastry from the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature for 5–10 minutes. This will make it easier to roll out and be kinder on your wrists.
Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured work surface until it is about 4 mm (1/4 in) thick. Lay the pastry over a 20–22 cm (8–81/2 in) tart tin (pan) and gently ease it into the corners. If the pastry rips, patch it with a small piece of raw dough. Press the pastry into the bottom and sides of the tin. Using a small, sharp knife, run it along the edge of the tin to trim off the excess dough.
Spread an even layer of raspberry jam over the base of the pastry. Using a piping (pastry) bag or an offset spatula, carefully spread the frangipane over the raspberry jam. Smooth the top and sprinkle the flaked almonds around the perimeter of the tart.
Place the tart in the centre of the preheated oven and bake for 40 minutes. You may need to rotate the tart halfway through if one side is browning faster than the other. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before serving with softly whipped cream.
Looks amazing, can’t wait to see the book!