Earl Grey & Orange Hot Cross buns (Waitrose Kitchen recipe)

I've never made hot cross buns, so when I saw these Earl Grey and Orange ones on the cover of Waitrose magazine I really wanted to give them a try.

The ingredients list was extensive, but didn't contain anything I didn't have (except Apricot Jam which I got from my Mother-in-law's jam store https://www.facebook.com/pages/Highgate-Farm-Rosemarys-Preserves-Beef-Apple-Juice/129697147075023).

So I got all the ingredients together...

...and made a start. I made the tea in a teapot, and when I'd poured out the 160ml for the recipe I drank the rest, bonus! 

The tea, sugar, flour mix developed well (the baby woke earlier than anticipated from her nap), so it did stand a bit longer!

This recipe says "40 mins prep +proving time"; well I should've heeded that warning... You leave the liquor 15 mins, the dough one hour, and the finished rolls another half an hour. That's 1hr 45 proving with the 40 minutes prep interspersed. Basically you can't hurry this! Luckily I had a rainy afternoon at home with a baby to feed and entertain in the gaps! Including cooking I've been making these buns all afternoon (about 3hrs)! 

It was hard work but I'm pretty pleased with the end result, though I was hurrying my crosses (which is silly as that's the presentation bit) as I needed to start thinking about our dinner. 

They were looking good before going in the oven:

They looked even better when they came out and had been glazed....

They tasted really good! Yummmmmy probably not AS orangey as they could but then I used satsumas rather than full size oranges. 

Were they worth the effort? Yes, though I can't imagine having the time to spend 3hrs baking hot cross buns very often! Good to know I can do it though!

One hour bread rolls (UK measurements)

We were out of bread and it was going to be about an hour until my husband came in for breakfast (he's a farmer) so I googled "one hour bread recipe" and came across these dinner rolls from Jaclyn at "Cooking Classy" http://www.cookingclassy.com/2014/10/big-soft-fluffy-one-hour-dinner-rolls/. It's worth having a look at her blog, method and pictures but I have tried to replicate my version here to be stand alone too.

The recipe is in US cups, I have a full set but I thought I'd convert as I went (weighing out) so that if successful (it was!) I could blog the metric measurements. This is one of my excuses for it taking a little longer than 1hr to make these! I think if you had dry ingredients weighed out already and you didn't have to search the kitchen for the right baking dish then they'd be pretty much done in an hour!

Prep 20mins + 20 mins proving 

Cooking time 15 mins

Makes 16 rolls

Ingredients

• 450g plain flour + 50g or so more for adding to dough/flouring surface 
• 40g sugar
• 7g sachet (1tbsp) fast acting yeast
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 180ml cold water
• 160ml milk
• 40g butter, diced (plus more for tops)
• 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Method

• 1. Preheat oven to 75°C (not a typo this is proving temp).
• 2. In a large bowl mix together 450g flour, sugar, yeast and salt.
• 3. In a microwaveable bowl or jug put the water, milk and butter and heat in microwave on full power (800+W) for 1 min15. Stir to melt butter.
• 4. Add wet mixture into dry mixture and add lemon juice. Either do this in a mixer with dough hook if you have one (I don't) or mix with a spoon/fingers whatever it takes. 
• 5. Knead in the bowl for about 4min until smooth and elastic, you may need to add more flour (use the reserved 50g if necessary). The dough should be slightly wet/sticky but manageable.
• 6. Cover bowl and rest 5 minutes. 

• 7. Meanwhile butter a baking tray or dish. I used two 15x30cm (ish) cast iron Le Creusets. Jaclyn at Classy cook used a 13x 9inch baking dish.
• 8. Lightly flour work surface and shape dough into an evenly level square, about 9 by 9-inches. I had to use a rolling pin and tape measure! 
  

  
  
• 
  
  
• Cut into 16 equal portions (don't have to be exact). 
• 
  
  
• Shape dough into balls, and place shaped dough portions into prepared baking dish. 
• 9. Dampen hands with water and brush tops of dough with the water (just so they don't dry while rising in oven). Transfer to very low oven, shut door and turn oven off. Allow rolls to rise 20 minutes (don't open oven door). 

Before and after proving.

• 10. Remove from oven and fast preheat oven to 190°C (fan). This took my oven 6 minutes. I just had rolls resting on the side while I waited.

• 11. Bake in preheated oven 14 - 16 minutes until nicely risen and tops are golden brown. 
• 
  Remove from oven and run a knob of butter on a knife over the tops of the rolls just to coat. Serve warm with butter.

• Recipe source: Cooking Classy
• Metric conversion: Clearly Food

Sweet potato and bacon muffins DAIRY FREE

These savoury muffins have a slight sweetness to them which sets off the bacon nicely. We had them for lunch but I reckon they'd be a good weekend breakfast or brunch... I may even be tempted to pour maple syrup on them! Great for baby led weaning my 9 month old loves them!

Ingredients

1. Pre-bake the sweet potatoes and grill the bacon. Preheat the oven to 180°C (165°C fan).

2. Mash the sweet potatoes in a large bowl.

3. Beat the 3 eggs together with oil, juice and seasoning.

4. Fold in flour and baking powder. 

5. Spoon into 12 muffin tin holes. 

6. Bake for 18-25 minutes* until risen, firm and nicely golden on top. 

7. Serve warm or cold with salad or o. Their own as a snack. 

*I used a Pampered Chef stoneware muffin tray for these so they took 25mins

Butternut squash muffins

Makes 12 muffins (I use 12 cup cake tray)

Preparation 15mins

Cooking 20 mins (Preheat oven to 175°C)

300g butternut squash peeled and grated

1 onion chopped finely

1/2 red pepper chopped finely

110g cheddar cheese grated

3 large eggs beaten

2 tbsp olive oil

120g SR. flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1. I use a food processor to grate the squash and cheese (and actually whack onion in as well). 

2. Mix together vegetables and cheese reserving about 20-30g cheese for topping muffins later. Add flour and baking powder and then stir the egg and oil mix in. Mix really well. 

3. Grease your tin (I use a well loved silicon cake tray which doesn't need greasing). The muffins are quite soft so need to be well greased so they don't fall apart when you're getting them out. You could use paper or silicon cases to help with this.

4. Spoon the mix equally between the 12 holes in the tin. Top with the reserved grated cheese.

5. Pop in the oven until risen and tops golden. 

6. Allow to cool in tin for a few minutes then move onto a cooling rack.

7. Enjoy as a snack or have a few with salad as a meal.  

Parsnip farls (experimental)

EXPERIMENT

I love love love potato farls! Any excuse to make them with leftover mashed potato whenever I can. 

I wondered if it was possible to make parsnip farls.. we have lots of home grown delicious parsnips this year...! 

I took 2 medium / large parsnips boiled and mashed with butter then added plain flour until the dough was stiff enough to roll out.. 

I perhaps misguidedly decided (since it was February when I did this) to use my heart shaped cutter but the dough was not strong so they all got a bit misshapen! 

I fried them both sides. The difference between parsnip and potato it seems is the sweetness. The parsnip caramelised slightly as it cooked, so "caught" but it was super tasty!! We all loved them for lunch and Baby B gobbled them up! 

REFLECTION 

I'll definitely do them again but I'll add more flour, probably use self raising flour (so that they rise slightly) and I won't use my heart shaped cutter! 

Peanut butter and choc chip cake

It was a lazy Saturday, a good friend was coming over for homemade soup and crumpets and cuddles with the baby. I realised I didn't have any "pudding", I'd thought about trifle but didn't have cream or time for that matter. So I thought I'd rustle up a quick sponge cake, and I had some chocolate chips, so I quickly consulted Nigella (DG) and Nigel Slater (Real Fast Puddings), but I didn't have enough time or ingredients. Then I thought "peanut butter goes well with chocolate chips"... 

Ingredients (makes two tier 8" cake) 

Serves 8-12 dependent on gluttony.

Cake mix 

6oz butter softened

6oz caster sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 heaped tbsp peanut butter (any)

6oz SR Flour

1heaped tsp baking powder

Milk approx 2-3 tbsps

3-4oz chocolate chips (dark)

Icing 

2 heaped tablespoons peanut butter

30g butter

Approx 250g icing sugar

Boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (Fan 165°C), grease and line two 8" cake tins*

2. Cream butter and sugar in a large mixing bowls with spoon or electric beaters. Add beaten eggs and vanilla essence and peanut butter. Mix well. 

3. Sift flour and baking powder together into mixing bowl of wet ingredients folding with a metal spoon, add milk if you feel the mixture is too stiff, it should be a slightly dropping (rather than pouring) consistency, stir choc chips through mix reserving some for decoration. 

4. Spoon mix into ready prepared tins and bake for 20-25 mins until top is firm but springy and a knife or skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool. 

5. When cake is cold make icing by mixing butter and peanut butter with icing sugar and gradually adding the boiling water to the icing until it's a spreadable consistency. 

6. I'm sure you could spend ages decorating this cake, but I quickly sandwiched them together with it and slapped the icing on the cake whilst my husband, baby and friend were eating crumpets in the other room... there's something attractive about a "just thrown together" freshly baked sponge! 

Enjoy!!

This was served before the chocolate chips had cooled!

Sausage risotto

For us this is a very flexible recipe dependent on what we have vegetable wise. I love adding grated apple to risotto - it pretty much disintegrates but adds a sweet and slightly caramelised flavour. This is what I did today:

Ingredients (serves 4-5)

6 sausages (I used 3 pork & apple, 3 chorizo)

2 small onions (sliced) 

3 small leeks (chopped roughly)

Olive oil (1-2tbsp)

250g risotto rice 

2 carrots (grated)

2 eating apples (grated)

1 kallo low salt stock cube (chicken) made up with about 1 litre of water 

I part-cooked the sausages in the oven then chopped them into rounds. Then heated up a large skillet pan, added olive oil, sausage rounds, leek and onion and fried gently until onion had softened and sausage browned attractively. I added the rice and stirred for a few minutes.

Then I added about half the stock and let it simmer until the liquid was absorbed. Then added the grated carrot & apple into the pan. Stirred well then kept adding liquid until the rice was cooked through and apples starting to caramelise. 

This took about 25 mins. I served it straight away but we will have half of it microwaved tomorrow. 

My crumpet recipe!

In the last 10 days I've made 5 batches of crumpets! I'm not sure I'm 100% there but I've worked my way through the process. I blogged about my first and second attempts already http://clearlyfood.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/homemade-crumpets.html?m=1 but now I feel I have found a recipe I'm really happy with! If you're new to crumpets it is worth reading the comprehensive critique of a lot of recipes in the guardian as it helps you understand the process. This recipe is based in quantities on Mary Berry's but with the proving process altered and some bicarb chucked in for good measure!

Ingredients

225g strong bread flour

150g plain flour

1tsp fast acting yeast (half a 7g sachet), I use Allinson's tinned. 

1tsp sugar

NO SALT (but you can add 1tsp if you prefer)

250ml milk

300ml warm water

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method

1. Add dry ingredients together (flours, yeast, sugar).

2. Mix warm water with milk in jug to form tepid liquid. Pour this into the dry ingredients, beat with electric mixer until smooth batter is formed.

3. Leave covered in a warm place for at least 1hr but today I left them 3hrs.

4. I then added 1tsp bicarb stirred into 20ml water and beat with electric mixer for two 2mins.

5. Pour batter into a jug (or two).

6. Leave to rest again for 10 mins

7. Grease the crumpet rings. Heat griddle (or heavy based pan) on high hob, add butter. 

As soon as griddle is hot add rings, turn down to medium heat and start to carefully pour in batter into the rings. 15mm (1/2 inch) deep. 

8. Let cook slowly. I have actually found it better if I don't place a ring in the middle of the griddle as it gets too hot and that crumpet will cook to quickly.

9. Bubbles should rise and as the dough thickens and dries out. It's rather captivating to watch! You can gently burst bubbles as they appear (Paul Hollywood says so), this helps to get them to the surface, but I've learned they are definitely there anyway!!

10. Wait patiently until the whole top of the crumpet has dried out (this might take up to 10mins!) then remove the ring and flip over. Cook the top side for 1-2 minutes until golden then move onto a wire rack. Hopefully the bottoms won't burn - this is the first time I've managed not to burn the bottoms! I think the difference was turning it down to medium heat before I added the batter!

11. Serve immediately (with butter and marmite/jam) or leave to cool and reheat in toaster. I think they should freeze ok too.