Hot Cross Bun Bread

January is a great time for a clear out and my baking cupboard is no different. This came about as I found a nearly full bag of strong bread flour and a load of packets of dried fruit with a little bit left in each. I have a bad habit of forgetting about them, buying new ones and then the vicious cycle starts. I do the same with packets of lentils but there are less opportunities to bake with them.

                                             

Anyway bread is amazing to make because you can whack anything into it. Really – just give it a whirl. I’ve used up nuts, seeds, almost used up brown sugar by shoving them in dough and baking the result. Bread is hard to get wrong. Yes you need to knead it but it really doesn’t take that long and you experience the fabulous result (well not me as I’m off gluten but you go crazy).

Ingredients

20g dried active yeast

1 tsp sugar

850g strong bread flour

5g salt

2 tbsp caster sugar

Dried fruit – sultanas, raisins, candied peel (I think I probably had about 200g in the end but it can take more)

1 tbsp mixed spice

600ml warm water (200ml boiling water and 400ml cold water)

1 egg, beaten

1. Take 200ml of the water and put 1 tsp of sugar in. The sprinkle the yeast on top, mix and leave for about 10 minutes. A massive foamy top will develop which means the yeast is getting excited about making bread.
2. Put the flour, salt, caster sugar, dried fruit and spice in a bowl and mix well.
3. Add the yeast mixture and the rest of the water. Mix well to make your dough and use your favourite kneading method. One here uses dough hooks andthis one takes a while but requires very little labour from you.
4. Once you’re at the second proving stage (the second time you leave it to double in size) either leave the dough as one big loaf or you can make two loaves by proving in loaf tins.
5. Before baking, brush the top with beaten egg and then put in an oven heated to 180°C/GM 4. For one big one about 45 minutes should do, for the smaller loaves about 35 minutes.
6. Obviously, as with all bread, it’s best eaten warm from the oven but it seemed to work well toasted as well.

Gingerbread Biscuits

Before Christmas I went on an epic baking spree. My standard Porter Cake featured but I also made some gingerbread stars because a) gingerbread is super simple to make and b) I have some lovely star shaped cutters that my friend gave me. Stars are pretty much my favourite thing – second are fireworks and then balloons. However, enough about my love of fun things and on to the recipe.

Ingredients

250g butter

200g dark muscovado sugar (regular dark brown sugar can work)

4 tbsp golden syrup (buy the new squeeze bottle they do – it make it to easy)

4 tbsp maple syrup

600g plain flour

2tsp bicarb of soda

4 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp cinnamon

Zest and juice of 1 orange

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/GM6.
2. Put the butter, sugar, golden and maple syrup into a saucepan and melt together. You want it to boil and then turn off the heat.
3. In another bowl mix all the dry ingredients – flour, bicarb, spices and zest – and then stir in the butter mixture. If it’s too stiff then you can use some orange juice to bring it together.
4. Lightly flour a surface and roll out the dough to about 5mm. Then start cutting. I used stars but any shape will work. Gingerbread hold their shape really well so suit being cut into shapes.
5. Ideally put the shapes in the fridge for about 20 minutes before baking for 8-10 minutes. You want them to be going a little brown. They’ll harden outside of the oven as they cool.
6. You can decorate these if you like but I tend to just want to eat them.

Bacon and Chocolate Chip Cookies (Primal/Gluten Free/Dairy Free)

Primal – sounds fairly basic and maybe a little bit cool huh? It’s apparently a diet. Not a ‘less not eat anything until we need to pass out and then have a small piece of cheese’ diet but one that looks at what we evolved to eat. Or something like that. It’s probably like the Paleo diet and the Caveman diet and anything else that basically doesn’t let you eat anything fun or anything that was invented in France – French bread, pastries, macaroons, croissants (some of these things may not have been invented in France but I can’t be bothered to research in this for the sake of this). 

I’m slightly suspicious of these kinds of restrictions on what you eat, mainly because it stops me eating chocolate and bread. The Thew follows a Paleo-esque diet. He eats an incredibly healthy diet so he can drink lots of alcohol and maintain fitness. Currently he is spending most evenings upside down in a handstand position against one of our walls. Hey – whatever works for you! 

My good friend Claire shared this recipe with me and, while I’m not sure about trying to recreate recipes using paleo/primal ingredients in place of good old butter and sugar, it was intriguing enough for me to give them a try. The original method I read is a bit lacking on details and the one thing you need to do with these kind of recipes is a good methodology if you have any hope in hell of making something that looks like the ‘real’ thing. Many people at work liked these, and they are ok, but I’d just rather eat a chocolate chip cookie made with brown sugar and wheat flour. I’m not sure what the bacon adds, other than a bit of salty taste, but I guess it’s to add protein. Anyway, if this is your thing, go knock yourself out! 

Ingredients

5 rashers of streaky bacon (I used M&S)

60ml of maple syrup (plus 125ml – see below)

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

125ml coconut oil (make sure it’s fairly well melted so room temp or melt it first)

125ml maple syrup

1 tsp bicarb of soda

1 tsp salt

300g ground almonds

200g dark chocolate chips 

1.    Preheat the oven the 190°C/GM 5.

2.    Dip the bacon in the maple syrup and bake for about 25 minutes. It may need longer. Put them on foil to save mess. Turn half way through and ignore how burnt the foil gets from the run off maple syrup. Cool, ideally on fresh foil or greaseproof paper. They are very sticky! Chop into bits.

3.    Whisk the eggs, vanilla, coconut oil and 125ml maple syrup together in a bowl. You want to goof frothy mixture as the eggs will add air to the mixture and help keep them light.

4.    In a large bowl mix the bicarb, salt and almonds. Add the egg mixture and whisk together.

5.    Add the chocolate chips and bacon bits stirring to incorporate.

6.    The put heaped teaspoons of mixture on a baking tray, leaving space between them. Flatten them out with the back of a spoon or spatula so they resemble a cookie shape.

7.    Bake for 11-12 minutes – you want them turning golden brown. Cool completely before serving.

Makes about 30.

N.B. I made these afterwards without the bacon and they worked well. The bacon definitely gives a good savoury/salty edge but it's not necessary.

 

Olive Oil Bread

I’ve been a bit quiet recently on the blog. I have been baking but it all got a bit busy and emotional, so the writing got left behind. My Uncle died suddenly at the end of April and it’s been very difficult to drum up energy for anything outside of work and prior commitments.  

However the baking goes on and very excitingly I managed to arrange a ‘Sausage Roll Day’ at work where we had about eight people baking around 10 different types of sausage roll. It was epic! It’s exciting to see people get worked up about baking (or it is for me) and as someone who is seen to ‘know’ about baking I get lots of questions and enthusiasm from people when they see that it’s not actually that hard. 

My neighbour, knowing I bake, gave me some fresh yeast so I decided to make bread. I’ve never used fresh yeast before but I highly recommend it. Very easy to use and the bread was great. The method below looks a bit long winded, and it does have more steps, but you’ll spend less time fiddling with the dough. Rather than 2 x 5-7 minutes of kneading your total time is more like 2 minutes. I believe it’s the method Dan Lepard (?) uses, or my bastardised version, as I read it on a Guardian baking blog and thought it sounded interesting. It is and I recommend it whole heartedly. I hate kneading so this is bliss. 

Ingredients

500g strong white bread flour

15g fresh yeast (I have no idea where you get this unless you live near my neighbour who had some)

300ml warm water (100ml boiling to 200ml cold)

2 tbsp olive oil 

1.    Crumble the fresh yeast into the flour and use your finger tips to distribute it throughout the flour. Much like you would mix butter into the pastry.

2.    Add the oil to the water and pour into the centre of the flour mixture. Mix until it comes together as a dough.

3.    Then knead for 15 seconds vigorously in the bowl. Then cover with a tea towel and leave for 15 minutes. Then do another 15 seconds. Leave for 15 minutes and then a final 15 seconds of kneading before covering again and leaving for an hour or so somewhere warm.

4.    Once it’s puffed up and doubled in size turn it out onto a floured surface. Stretch the dough out into a big square (random I know but stick with me). It’s best if you start this from the middle underneath, stretching to the sides before pulling the sides out. It doesn’t need to be perfect as all you need to be able to do with it is this: fold the bottom third into the middle, then the top third over the bit you just folded. Then repeat long ways. Just watch the video below! (Sorry it's using a paper towel and not dough).

5.    Once this is done pop into the bowl, cover and leave for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes do the same again, leave for 20 minutes in a covered bowl and then do it again. After this final third folding shape and place on a baking tray. Cover the dough and leave in a warm place for an hour or so to double in size. Oiled cling film is best I find.

6.    Preheat the oven to 190°C/GM5. Once the dough has risen, uncover, slash some cuts in the top if you like and pop in the oven for about 30 minutes. You might need another 5 and if a gas oven then turn half way through to get an even colour on top.

7.    Eat warm, ideally, with lashings of butter. Or bring into work and see it demolished. Or make two smaller loaves, rather than one big one and give one to the neighbour who gave you the yeast.

 

 

Alfajores

What is with all these celebrities writing open letters to each other? I get the idea behind them but it’s getting a bit boring. They have all this money and they resort to releasing the equivalent of a press release about someone else and their thoughts on them. It also seems to be the older celebrities that write them, I guess because younger celebrities just let rip at one another in 140 characters or less. 

However that is also disappointing. These people are meant to be creative and they’re just doing what everyone else does. Where is the sky writing above someone’s film premiere? Where is the interpretive dance on Oprah’s sofa to show how they feel about twerking while drinking SodaStream? Why don’t they write their thoughts across their naked body and commission a Vogue shoot? It could be so much more interesting and entertaining for all.  

Hey ho. I’ve been feeling slightly angry all week as the extent of my wheat allergy (which I’m in total denial about) starts to make itself known. I’ve done something gluten free this week and gone all out and made it dairy free as well. These do taste ok, and the texture of the biscuit does work, although if you’re ok with dairy then use better instead of the margarine. Sadly when cooking they don’t fill your home with the smell of fresh baking but more like slightly burnt rice. However the caramel filling smells great so that’s a bonus. The original recipe has Xanthan Gum in but as it's powdered mould I left it out. It doesn't lack for want of it.

Ingredients

 

Biscuits

200g dairy-free margarine (or butter)

100g icing sugar

200g ground almonds

200g brown rice flour

1tsp cinnamon

Pinch of salt 

Caramel

150g dairy-free margarine (or butter)

150g light brown soft sugar

A good dollop of golden syrup

OR A tin of Carnation Caramel

 

1.    Cream the margarine and sugar, then add the rest of the biscuit ingredients, mixing well.

2.    Make the dough into a disc, wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for 30 minutes or so.

3.    Preheat the oven, while you wait, to 180°C/GM4.

4.    Next make the caramel as it will need to cool before you use it. Put the sugar and golden syrup on a very low heat and melt together. You’ll need to mix it every now and again as you don’t want it to burn. It will create a paste, rather than liquid, so don’t panic.

5.    Add the margarine (it will spit a bit) and mix until the margarine is incorporated. Then leave on a slow simmer (it will look very bubbly) for 15 minutes. Do not stir. After that time drop some of it into a cup of cold water and check if it’s chewy. If it is it’s done. Leave to cool. Stir a bit as the fat will want to separate out but don’t panic about it.

6.    Once the dough has had its time in the fridge roll out on a surface floured with rice flour. You want it about 4mm thick. Then cut out discs of 4 – 6cm in diameter.

7.    Put on a baking tray, they don’t spread so you don’t have to worry about that, and bake for about 22 minutes (if you have a gas oven then turn half way through for an even colour).

8.    Cool and spread one biscuit with the caramel – there is enough to be generous – and sandwich with another. This makes about 20 in total if you use a 6cm cutter.

Demi Brioche Hamburger/Pulled Pork Buns

I love entertaining. Having a dining room is one of the most exciting things about my flat as not only do I think it’s important to eat around a table at home, but it means that when people come over they don’t have to eat off their lap! However this is sometimes necessary when larger groups of people come over, my table is only so big, and I have to get creative with my thinking. You see I do have a dining room but I also have a very small kitchen. Planning is a big part of any entertaining I do but as I like planning and pouring over recipes that isn’t a problem. The size of my kitchen doesn’t allow me to ‘plate up’ so I have to go for things people can serve themselves from the table. 

My current love is for pork pibil. I’m finding that a lot of the pulled pork on offer is drenched in a very sweet BBQ sauce which just tastes of sugar. Going down the Mexican route gives delicious pulled pork which actually tastes of something. (Of course I could make my own BBQ sauce, and have done, but I’ve been swayed by the amount of burrito places near my work). My main concern for my next entertaining gig is how to get it on the menu. Burritos are a bit messy, as I’m going down a buffet route, so I thought about putting it in buns. They go well with pulled BBQ pork so why not pork pibil?! 

These aren’t traditional brioche buns but a more substantial take on it to maintain structural integrity when filled with stuff. The method does look long but trust me when I say that these are easy. nO Kneading is involved. I’m merely explaining how to not get covered in dough as it’s very sticky! If you want to make Pork Pibil to go inside these then the recipe is here. 

Ingredients

250ml warm water

3 tbsp milk

2 tsp dry active yeast

2 ½ tbsp sugar

450g strong white flour

50g plain flour

1 ½ tsp salt

60g butter

3 large eggs (one is used to glaze the final buns before cooking) 

1.    Put the warm water, milk, yeast and sugar in a jug. You don’t need to activate the yeast, as this is already done, but having it all together makes it easier later on.

2.    Put the flours, salt and butter in a food processor and whizz up until the butter is incorporated with the flour. Just use the usual blade. You can use a proper mixer with a paddle but I don’t have one so to hell with it.

3.    Add two of the eggs, turn the processor on and then pour the water and yeast mixture into the mixture. Let the food processor run until the mixture forms a dough. Probably a couple of minutes. Be warned the food processor will go a bit mental so you may need to steady it.

4.    Lightly grease a bowl with oil. The dough is majorly sticky so avoid touching it if at all possible. I just scrape the dough stuck on the blade into the bowl and follow with scraping in the rest. Done. Then cover with a piece of cling film that has been greased. You’ll thank me later as the dough sticks to everything.

5.    Leave in a warm place to rise to about double its size – 30 minutes to an hour.

6.    Once it’s risen take out of the warm place and scrape out on to a well-floured surface. Don’t worry about punching the air out as this will cover your hand in dough and the scraping will do it for you.

7.    Put some baking paper on a baking sheet (or two). Divide the dough into anything from 8 – 15 pieces depending on how big you want them. Shape into a ball (flour your hands) and put on the baking sheet. Ideally any joins in the dough go on the bottom giving you a smooth top. Make sure there is a gap between them but it doesn’t matter if they touch – you can pull them apart once cooked.

8.    Put them back in the warm place to rise again – probably nearer the 30 minute mark – and once risen lightly brush with the remaining beaten egg. While they are rising pre-heat the oven to 200°C/GM6.

9.    Bake for 15-20 minutes (if you have a gas move turn the baking sheet around half way through to get an even colour) and cool on a rack. Once cool fill with something good and devour. 

N.B. Bigger buns will work for burgers.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The fear of electrocution finally became too great. I decided to buy a new electric hand whisk as my current one requires me to jam a knife in the top to start it (do not tell The Thew that is what I have been doing). Not the greatest way to start a baking project. I hate shopping but took myself along to John Lewis where the cheapest, and lightest, hand whisk wasn't available (why is it on the shelf then?!) but one 2 ½ times more expensive and about eight times as heavy was. I left. I mean who (Kenwood) makes a really heavy hand whisk? Yes it was very pretty but I have to hold the thing and cream butter and sugar together. Luckily my local Tesco had a nice cheap and light hand whisk so I was saved from electrocution. 

I decided to celebrate by finding a recipe that required a lot if whisking. However while looking for this I found my chocolate chip cookie recipe I thought I had lost. It’s brilliant and simple, making a crunchy, yet chewy, cookie. You can freeze it and cook from frozen as well as make giant cookies if you have a pizza pan to bake it in. The recipe makes a lot of dough but that was fine by me as I had need of a lot of baked goods. I’m on film shoots (not as glamorous as it sounds) all this week and I like to bring baked goods with me. I’m bad with names and faces and on shoots I meet so many new people, forget all their names and rely on being the provider of tasty treats to smooth things over.

Apologies for not converting into grams. It’s based on a US recipe and there is something about using cups and basically shoving all the ingredients in together that is so wonderfully easy that I think the experience should be preserved. I also realised, while typing this up, that I used baking powder, not bicarb, which explains why they didn’t come out chewy. They still taste good so have added an option here to pretend that I meant to do it. 

Ingredients

1 ½ cups of butter at room temperature (important!)

1 ¼ cups of granulated sugar

1 ¼ cups of soft dark brown sugar, firmly packed (if you have light then fine but the dark given them a caramel edge)

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

4 cups of flour

2 tsp bicarb of soda (or 2 tsp baking powder if you want them crisper and more biscuit like)

1 tsp salt

300g chocolate chips (whatever you like best – I did a mix of dark and milk) 

1.    Preheat the oven to 180°C/GM 4.

2.    Put the butter, both sugars, vanilla and eggs in a big bowl. Whisk together. This is why room temperature butter is important as you need it soft otherwise dough will start flying.

3.    Stir the bicarb of soda and salt into the flour.

4.    Alternate adding the flour mixture and chocolate chips until it’s all used up (do about thirds).

5.    Take a rounded tsp of mixture and roll into a ball. Do this for all the mixture – yes it takes a while but watch something on TV.

6.    Cook what you want for 9-12 minutes on a cookie tray and freeze the rest in bags. They cook from frozen in about 18 minutes.  

Makes about 60-80!

Sourdough Starter Recipe

This whole thing started out as a whim and then became a mission. It's much the same as when I decide to try out a 'look' with makeup. I'm not very good at applying complex makeup so I sometimes think I'll amuse myself for a few minutes trying out an eye shadow, only to rediscover how crap I am and then become determined to master it. Generally it doesn't turn out well and I abandon all hope. 

However, this is baking and not makeup. When I discovered that sourdough bread (possibly my favourite type) contains no added yeast I was fascinated. I forgot about it for a while but saw a recipe for a starter on a packet of white bread powder. As there is no added yeast you need to create a flour and water batter that captures and cultivates natural yeast from the air. By doing this you create a starter that can be added to more flour and water to make bread. Almost like magic. It's the way bread was made for years before people had easy access to yeast as a culture in its own right. You can keep your starter going for years simply by feeding it. 

Now there seems to be a ton of ways to make a starter. I'm going to put down the method that worked for me as I tried about five different ways. I shan't bore you when them all but my first one failed and I think that was because I used white flour instead of a whole grain flour which contains more natural sugar for the yeast to feed on. 

Ingredients

Stoneground rye flour (this also then gives a great colour to the final bread)

Warm water 

Equipment

1 ltr Kilner jar

Paper towel

Rubber band 

1.    Put about 50g to 70g of rye flour into the jar and add enough warm water to make a thick batter. Probably about 30-40ml.

2.    Cover the top with a kitchen towel and secure with a rubber band. Put out of the way in a room that isn't the kitchen.  Leave until bubbles appear in the batter. This could take 3 or so days. It can take up to a week but I don't think it should. If you don't see movement after 5 days chuck and start again.

3.    Once you have bubbles add some more flour and warm water, stirring well (this is called feeding). Then discard the paper towel and secure the top of the jar. Basically you have successfully got yeast into the batter and its busy eating the sugars in the flour, creating the bubbles.

4.    Feed the batter again after another 3 days. By this stage I stopped weighing out and just chucked more flour in and a bit of water to get a thick consistency. Now it's ready for the fridge. To maintain the starter you need to slow it down and regulate it. Putting it in the fridge does this and you can learn how it behaves. Once the bubbles slow down feed again – maybe once a week. It’s as simple as that. You want to have a couple of fridge rounds of feeding before you use it as this builds up the strength of the yeast. If you have too much starter for the jar just throw some away or use it to make bread.

5.    When you want to use it take out of the fridge the night before and feed to perk it up (I took mine out in the morning and used it around lunch time so it doesn’t need long). 

Recipe for bread to follow.

Sundried Tomato Scones

So Monday’s baking was a disaster and in my post I wished that my mum could come to my rescue as she did when my baking went wrong at school. Well, ask and you will receive! 

I stayed at my parents last night and was greeted by a pile of scones my mum had made. She had too many and insisted that I bring them to work. Oh, ok then. Needless to say they were very well received; everyone thought that they rocked and that they were generally amazing. Someone broke out the saucisson and an impromptu picnic was underway. 

Ingredients

350g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

75g olive oil spread (I’m guessing you could use butter)

6 whole sundried tomatoes roughly chopped

2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary (or chuck in 1 tsp of dried)

150g fat free yogurt (full fat probably would be fine)

6 tbsp milk

2 tsp grated parmesan 

1.      Preheat the oven to 220°C/GM 7.

2.      Put flour, baking powder and olive spread in a food processer. Whizz until completed blended, then add the tomatoes and rosemary and whizz again.

3.      Put the mixture in a bowl and add the yogurt and 4 tbsp of the milk. Use a palette knife to bring it together into a soft dough (a spoon will work but make sure you don’t over mix – it’s a bringing together of ingredients and not a stir).

4.      Turn out the dough on to a floured surface and squish it out to a thickness of about 2cm. You could roll it out but if it squishes why create more washing up? Then use a 6cm cutter to make around 10 scones (re-using trimmings).

5.      Put on a baking tray, either non-stick or with greaseproof paper on, wash the tops with the remaining milk and bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool before serving.

Rye Soda Bread or Why it’s clear I’m not a Kenny Rogers fan

 

So baking didn’t go well last night. I was meant to make Millionaire Shortbread, as I had found a can of condensed milk ion my cupboard, but then forgot to buy the extra ingredients I needed. This happened because I was so hungry after work that all I could think about was what to have for dinner. Therefore any thoughts involving baking just disappeared. First mistake. The second one was not just popping back out and buying the ingredients. No, I had to work out what I else I could make with no planning.

Now I’ve been trying to get a sourdough starter going (a whole other story) so I have quite a bit of organic rye flour in the house. The packet has a recipe on the back for making Rye Soda Bread that needs no yeast so I thought it was worth a shot. Quick, easy and the oven was already on. Happily I go about making it, adding a few fennel and caraway seeds to make it aromatic, and this is there the third mistake came in. I knew the dough was too dry. I’m there mixing and thinking it needs more milk but do I do anything about it? Of course not. I’m sure it will be fine and this is where instinct in baking needs to come in. 

Yes baking is chemistry and you can’t mess around as much as cooking but if you think something isn’t right, and needs a little something extra, it’s best to do it if you’re a semi-experienced baker. I remember bringing home some dough we had made at school for the harvest festival. We were due to get it to rise at home and then our parents would bake it so we could bring it in the next day. Now mine wasn’t rising for some reason. Looking back I think I unfairly blamed my mum (she can have this as an official apology) but she knew, as a baker, that it just wasn’t going to rise and something needed to be done. Instinct! So she stayed up late and made me a whole new mixture, waited for it to rise and baked it so I would have it for the next day. If only she were around last night as my bread came out a solid mass of hard dough. Oh well. I had to settle for my friends having fun at my expense so at least someone had fun.

Grown Up Cookies (including basic cookie recipe)

Sometimes inspiration strikes in the weirdest places. I found mine this week in a health food shop. I’d sauntered into Holland and Barrett looking for some quinoa flour as I’d seen it in a gluten free recipe. They didn’t have any but I saw some crystallised ginger. Now I’ve never eaten this but one of my friends loves it. In fact ginger is his favourite root. This little gem was gathered when we lived together at university, had clearly run out of conversation and had started on the ‘what’s your favourite …?' game. 

For some reason crystallised ginger has always struck me as a fairly grown up thing to like. Maybe because my friend looks fairly sensible and is now an Accountant. Maybe. Anyway, I picked the packet up and augmented it with a bag of broken brazil nuts (way cheaper than unbroken ones and as I’d probably be chopping them up it made sense). I knew I had chocolate at home but how to bring them all together?!  I was fairly busy at work so hadn’t given it much thought until I struck on one word – ‘COOKIES’! 

So what follows is a basic cookie recipe that you can either use immediately or store in the fridge and cut slices off as and when you need it. Then you just place your extra ingredients on top so that they squish into the cookies while they are in the oven. These cookies have a high butter content so are very crumbly and also tend to spread while baking so leave them space. I think that they are a more grown up type of baked good due to the more advanced flavours of ginger, dark chocolate and nuts. However Smarties, marshmallows and sprinkles would put an end to that.

Ingedients

250g butter (well worth softening it first but otherwise you could grate it to speed up the prep time)

150g granulated sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract (you could add spices for extra flavour)

1 large egg

225g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt (if not using salted butter)

Some chopped toppings – I used dark chocolate, brazil nuts and crystallised ginger 

1.    Cream the butter and sugar together until pale. This is very butter heavy I find it might take a bit longer than usual.

2.    Add the vanilla extract and egg, mixing until it’s combined.

3.    Add the flour and baking powder (along with salt if using) and mix until smooth.

4.    Now put the dough on a large piece of cling film and manipulate into a sausage of dough. I’m sure there is a great method for this but I just make sure I have a lot of cling film and a large, flat surface. It gets there somehow. Key is twisting the ends once it’s roughly 7cm in diameter as this helps get a good shape.

5.    Put the dough in the fridge for an hour or so, or pop in the freezer until you need it.

6.    When you are ready to bake them preheat the oven to 200°C/GM6.

7.    Cut 1cm slices from it and arrange them on a baking tray, allowing space for them to spread out.

8.    Sprinkle on your toppings at this stage. You could just have vanilla butter cookies but shoving extra things in is better! Any chocolate would work, also any chopped nuts. Just experiment with whatever you have hanging around.

9.    Bake for 8-10 minutes (I’d go 10 if the mixture was frozen). When done cool for a couple of minutes and transfer to a cooling rack. If you leave too long they’ll stick (although less of an issue if you’re using baking paper).

Leon's Cinnamon Scones

A holiday in the UK can be fraught with dangers. You run the very real risk of reenacting most of ‘Withnail and I’. The experience can find you pathetically complain that you have gone on holiday by mistake to anyone who will listen and then drinking so much of the local scrumpy that you insult the elderly population of wherever you are staying. Luckily my holiday in Wales wasn’t like that, and while we had one wash out afternoon, The Thew actually managed to gain the respect of the local population by drinking the local scrumpy three days in a row and not passing out. A strange bubble exists on holiday where 7.2% cider seems the norm. The only strange moment I had was when checking into one place I was greeted by a moving CCTV camera and disembodied voice in reception but after a while an actual person showed up so that was ok.  

Our last day of holiday was spent with our friends in Abergavenny where we were treated to glorious sunshine and amazing food. They have discovered a vineyard near them so Saturday was devoted to watching their three sons playing in a stream while we cooled our feet and drank local Welsh wine. I became quite adept at the ‘Rock Game’ which entailed me finding rocks in the stream and then passing them to their youngest son who proceeded to hurl them down a mini waterfall. I think that the aim to hit another rock without a big splash but to be honest I was just happy that I was seen to be performing my role well.  

Breakfast on Sunday consisted of cinnamon scones which were fabulous. Leon is something of a cook and he just knocked these up for us. Served hot smothered in butter is a great way to start a Sunday and a highly recommend it to one and all. In the tradition of all great recipes this one is written on a scrap of paper with the ink slightly blurred where water has dripped on it and no cooking instructions. Just that in itself should assure you of how great these are. 

Ingredients 

Scones

310g plain flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

Pinch salt

250ml milk

30g butter, melted 

Filling/Topping

60-70g melted butter

85g dark brown sugar (keep the packet handy)

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice 

1.    Preheat the oven to 190°C/GM5 and line a baking tray with baking paper (the butter and sugar go everywhere but we want to keep it as they make crunchy bits you can snack once all the scones are gone).

2.    Mix the flour, salt and baking powder together then add the butter and milk to make the dough. It will look very wet but start with a wooden spoon and then use your hands. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead to bring together. Add more flour as you knead if the dough is too wet but the kneading should make it less so.

3.    Roll the dough out into a rectangle. I had it about 1cm thick in the end but is doesn’t matter if it’s uneven. Go for a size just larger than A4 as a guide.

4.    Brush all over generously with the melted butter. Mix the sugar and spices together and scatter most of it over the dough. (I used all of it and forgot to leave some for the topping so just used more brown sugar, hence keeping the packet handy in case you do this too).

5.    Roll the dough up bringing the long side towards you and then slice into pieces. I got 15 out of mine but make sure they are about 3-4cm wide. Place upright, so the swirly middle bit isn’t top and bottom, brush with more butter and top with sugar/spice mix or just sugar.

6.     Bake for 20 minutes (although I think 15 minutes could do it as my sugar started to melt which Leon's didn't) cool very slightly then serve the Leon way.

 

N.B. These are best served hot but if you save some then heat for 15 seconds on high in a microwave.