Apricot, Pistachio & Rosewater Coronet

This extract from Special Guest by Annabel Crabb & Wendy Sharpe shows how to host friends and family without stressing out.

Instructions

1.	Tip the flour into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook.
2.	In a teacup or small bowl, whisk the yeast and honey into the warm milk and leave to stand for 5 minutes.
3.	When it is slightly foamy, add it to the flour and mix until combined, then add the egg.
4.	Mix for a minute, then add the butter.
5.	Mix on medium speed for about 5 minutes, or until you have a sticky, shiny, elastic dough.
6.	(You can refrigerate the dough overnight at this point and it will be fine – just allow it to return to room temperature before proceeding.)
7.	Cover the dough with plastic wrap (I just leave it in the mixer bowl, but you could transfer it to a clean oiled bowl, if you like) and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 11⁄2 hours.
8.	Meanwhile, to make the pistachio marzipan, blitz the pistachio kernels with the icing sugar and egg white in a small food processor or the bowl part of a stick blender.
9.	If you have neither, just use a big knife to chop the nuts to a coarse powder, then mix in the icing sugar and egg white, kneading at the end to bring it to a stiff paste.
10.	Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until you’re ready to use it.
11.	For the filling, dice the apricots and put them into a small bowl.
12.	Stir in the apricot nectar and rosewater and set aside to macerate for about an hour, or until the apricots have swelled nicely.
13.	(If you want to speed things up here, you could gently heat the apricot mix in a small pan for a couple of minutes – just let it return to room temperature before the next step.)
14.	Mash the butter, sugar and flour together, then add the apricots and nectar and squish everything together into a chunky paste.
15.	Okay. Once your dough is risen, punch it down and roll it out on a large sheet of baking paper (sprinkled with flour if the dough seems sticky) into a rectangle – around 35cm x 25cm.
16.	Spread the filling over the dough, right to the edges.
17.	Now roll out the marzipan into a thin, brilliant green sheet.
18.	Cut it to the same length as the rectangle of dough but about 3cm narrower.
19.	Lay it over the apricot filling, leaving a strip of exposed apricot down one of the long sides.
20.	Starting from this side, roll up the dough into a sausage, pressing the dough to seal.
21.	Slice the sausage in half lengthways, cutting it right through the middle.
22.	Put the two halves next to each other, lining them up so they’re parallel and touching.
23.	Dust the cut sides, and your hands, with flour.
24.	Now twist the two halves together, like a pair of pants you’re wringing the water out of.
25.	Form the twist into a circle, folding the end under to keep the circle a uniform thickness.
26.	Your coronet will look wonky, but don’t worry – another proving, and the baking, will mask a lot of the wonkiness.
27.	Slide the baking paper and coronet onto a baking tray and leave to prove for another hour or so, tented in oiled plastic wrap.
28.	Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan), slipping an empty roasting tin into the bottom to heat at the same time.
29.	When your coronet is risen and springy to the touch, it’s time to bake.
30.	Use a pastry brush to egg-wash all the visible bits of dough with the beaten egg yolk.
31.	Drop a handful of ice cubes into the roasting tin and put the coronet in to bake.
32.	After 5 minutes, turn the oven down to 180°C (160°C fan) and bake for a further 25 minutes.
33.	If the top is getting too brown, tent with foil.
34.	The coronet is done when it’s nicely browned on top, firm to the touch and the base is browned too.
35.	Remove from the oven, allow to stand for 10 minutes, then brush with the warm jam or honey glaze.
36.	You can either sprinkle the pistachio slivers and dried rose petals on now, or wait until the cake has cooled and make a basic runny lemon icing from the icing sugar and just enough of the lemon juice to give a pourable consistency.
37.	Drizzle the coronet with the icing, then do your sprinkling on top of the icing. Consume!
38.	EVEN EASIER
39.	Buy almond marzipan and use that instead.
40.	Use apricot jam in the filling, rather than soaked apricots.
41.	Omit all the post-baking icing and sprinkling palaver.