Christmas buns

 

Bursting with dried cranberries, apricots and cinnamon these buns are a perfect addition to Christmas. Because the dough uses yeast it needs special treatment and time to rise, so these are best for a lazy Saturday or Sunday - you can knead the dough in the morning, nip off for a bit of Christmas shopping or a nice walk (oh, snow would be perfect, but I realise that as London is completely unprepared for it, the whole city would be paralysed!) and come home to a perfectly risen, pillowy soft dough, ready to be rolled, sprinkled with sugar and baked.

 

To make about 10-12 buns you'll need:

(recipe adapted from here)

Dough

1 sachet of dry fast action yeast (7g)

1tsp caster sugar

300 ml milk

40g unsalted butter

1tsp salt

500g strong bread flour

Filling

100g dried cranberries

100g dried apricots

2 tbsp marmalade

50g light brown sugar

30g butter, melted

2 tsp cinnamon

Glaze

50g caster sugar

1-2 tbsp water

Frosting

170g icing sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

1-2 tbsp water

Start off by making a yeast starter. In a small bowl mix yeast with 1tsp sugar, add 2 tbsp warm milk (make sure the milk is not too hot as it will kill the yeast). Stir in a tbsp of flour and leave in a warm place for 10 minutes until the yeast froths up.

Gently heat the rest of the milk with butter in a small pot and set aside to cool. Mix flour and salt in a large mixing bowl, then add yeast starter, egg and milk + butter. 

 

Stir with a wooden spoon until all ingredients are combined, then turn onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until you've got a smooth and elastic dough. You can also knead the dough in a mixer with a dough hook (dear Santa, please bring me a Kitchen Aid at some stage. You might even get a bun!). The dough will be quite sticky, so feel free to add 1-2 tbsp of flour.

 

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave in a warm place for an hour or until it doubles in size.

 

Once the dough has doubled transfer it to a lightly floured surface, knock the air out and use a rolling pin to roll it into a large rectangle. 

Now chop the apricots and cranberries and melt butter in a pot. Gently heat the marmalade in a separate pot. Brush the dough with butter, then spread the marmalade over the top and sprinkle the apricots and cranberries. 

 

Roll the dough into a long sausage and cut 10-12 rolls. Transfer them into a baking tray lined with baking parchment, cover with a clean tea towel and let them rise for half an hour.

 

Bake for 20-25 minutes in 170 C fan/190 C or until golden.

While the buns are cooling you can make the glaze: simply heat caster sugar with a couple of tablespoons of water until the sugar dissolves, then brush on top of the buns.

To make the frosting mix icing sugar, lemon juice and water - the icing should be quite thick, but easy enough to drizzle over the buns. Ideally you'd wait for the icing to set before eating, but if you can't resist, tuck in (exactly what I did :D

Phew! Done! Enjoy :)

Raspberry ricotta scones

I'm back! After what seemed like weeks of moving, unpacking, cleaning, countless trips to Ikea (why is it that whenever we're moving we always need some more Ikea stuff?) I finally have everything sorted and the Internet connected. Yay!

I first tried these raspberry ricotta scones when I was visiting our friends in Boston. Hi Kaitlyn! We had them for breakfast one day and they were so delicious I knew I'd make them again. If you never made scones before fear not - extremely easy to make they can be whipped up in less than an hour and are a perfect breakfast snack.

I used a slightly adapted recipe from Smitten Kitchen: I changed the flour proportions and added single cream as I didn't have heavy cream in the house. 

To make 12 scones you'll need:

1/2 cup (about 60g) wholegrain or wholewheat flour (I used wholegrain)
1 1/2 cups (180 g) plain white flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 cup (50g) caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbsp (85g) unsalted butter, cubed
1 cup (about 150g) fresh raspberries
3/4 cup (190g) ricotta cheese
1/3 cup (80ml) single cream

Start by preheating the oven to 220 C/ 200 C fan.

Mix both flours, salt, baking powder and sugar in a large mixing bowl and add cubed butter.


Rub the butter into the flour mix with your fingers until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs (you can also use a pastry cutter for this; I would have but I'm banned from buying any more kitchen gadgets. Sigh.)
Add raspberries and mix everything together. At this point the mixture will be quite wet and sticky.

Add cream and ricotta and use a spatula to fold everything together.

Transfer the mix to a well floured kitchen counter and flatten into a rectangle.

Cut 12 squares with a knife and transfer the scones onto a baking tray lined with baking parchment.

Bake for 15 minutes until the scones are golden on the edges. Cool on a wire rack and eat with a bit of butter or honey. Truly scrummy.

Banana crumb muffins

This is what happened. I had some spare bananas, a serious craving for something sweet and I found this recipe. After making (and quickly devouring, with the help of husband) one batch I proceeded to make another one. These beauties are too delicious not to be shared. Honestly, they are the best muffins I've ever made and tasted - soft and moist with a sweet crunchy topping. 

I changed a few bits and bobs in the recipe and added flax seed and chopped almonds to the streusel - you can never have too much crunch, can you?

To make a batch of 12 muffins you'll need:

220 g plain white flour(1 1/2 cup)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 bananas, mashed

30 g brown sugar (1/4 cup)

90 g white sugar (1/2 cup)

1 egg, beaten

100 g butter, melted (1/3 cup)

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

Topping

50 g (1/3 cup) brown sugar

2 tbsp flour

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flax seed

1 tbsp chopped almonds

Pre-heat the oven to 190 C.

Prepare the topping: rub sugar, flour and butter with your fingers until the mix resembles breadcrumbs, stir in the rest of the ingredients. Chill the topping in the fridge until your muffin batter is ready.

In a mixing bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt.

Mash bananas in another bowl and add sugar, vanilla, egg and melted butter. Stir to combine.

Add the flour mix to the wet banana mix and combine with a spatula (try not to overmix).

Spoon the mix into muffin cases, sprinkle the topping and bake for 18-20 minutes.

Yum!

Chocolate brownie cake

Lazy Sundays are the best: you can catch up on sleep, do a bit of reading and be a bit naughty and treat yourself (brie cheese and avocado for me, yum!). If you're craving something indulgent and very chocolatey this chocolate brownie cake is absolute perfection. You only need a few ingredients and you won't have to slave away in the kitchen.
Again, I used a recipe from my beloved bbcgoodfood - it seems they used a really small tin, because my cake turned out quite flat - still pretty delicious!

You'll need:

225 g dark chocolate, broken into smallish pieces
3 eggs
65 g plain flour
200 g caster sugar
175 g unsalted butter
50 g pecans, chopped


Grease and line a loose based round cake tin and preheat the oven to 180 C/160 C fan.
Place 175 g chocolate, butter and sugar in a pan and melt on a slow heat, stirring gently. Leave aside to cool.

Once the chocolate mix is cooled, separate the eggs. Add yolks and flour to the chocolate mix and stir gently. Add chopped pecans and the leftover chocolate (chopped into small bits).

Whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks and  gently fold into the chocolate mixture.

Pour the mix into the tin, place in the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes.

Dust with icing sugar and serve with creme fraiche or ice cream.

Enjoy!

Best ever carrot cake

I love carrot cake. I can kid myself it's semi-healthy (300 grams of carrot surely counts as 1 of your 5 a day, right? RIGHT?), it always works and is sure to impress. It's perfect if you never baked a cake before, absolutely foolproof. Oh, and did I mention it's delicious? Not too sweet, moist, covered with a delicate and soft cream cheese frosting. Ah. So if you want to: impress your other half / get oohs and aaahs from people in your office / surprise someone for their birthday / feel like a smug little baker (tick appropriate option) make this cake. Ok. Thanks.

 

The recipe comes from my trusted source. I use a standard spring form tin with removable bottom and use 1.5 quantities of ingredients for a cake that can be cut in half and sandwiched with frosting. I double the frosting ingredients because, well, you can never have too much of cream cheese goodness. The cake itself can be made the day before, cooled and stored in the fridge. It also keeps amazingly well for a couple of days and doesn't dry out. It's a cake that keeps on giving. Ok, I'll shut up now, you get it, it's an awesome cake.

You'll need:

For the cake:
450 g plain flour
3 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
300 g soft brown sugar
6 eggs
375 ml oil (I use vegetable oil)
2 oranges
1 lemon
300 g carrots, finely grated

For the frosting:

250 g butter at room temperature
100 g icing sugar, sifted
500 g cream cheese (I always use full fat Philadelphia)

a few pecans for decoration

Preheat your oven to 150 C/ 130 C fan and line the bottom of the springform tin with baking parchment.

Sift flour, baking powder, bicarb, sugar and cinnamon into a big mixing bowl and stir to mix everything together.

Whisk eggs with oil, then add zest of lemon and two oranges.

Add grated carrots to the oil and egg mix and stir.
Add the wet mix to flour, sugar and cinnamon then fold through with a spoon or spatula until all the flour is incorporated.

Pour batter into the tin and bake for 1 hr 20 minutes or until the skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Leave the cake to cool and make the frosting. Combine sugar and butter in a mixing bowl, beat with electric mixer until all the sugar is incorporated, then add cream cheese and whisk for a few more minutes until the frosting is smooth and well mixed.

Once the cake is cooled, cut it in half and sandwich with half the frosting. Spread the rest of the frosting on top, smooth with a knife and decorate with pecans.

Devour your slice and don't share :)


Apologies for the atrocious quality of the last picture - the cake was a leaving do present for my friend from work and the pics were taken with a phone.