Hot Cross Scones

So I was looking at my blog and lamenting the fact that I hadn’t written up any recent baking exploits. I then realised I hadn’t really experimented that much and had been baking things I’ve baked before. This isn’t a bad thing – it’s very comforting to know the outcome and not stress about things. I saw the Hot Cross Bun bread and, with Easter coming up, thought it might be nice to make Hot Cross Buns. Then I remembered that they take a while, what with the rising of the dough etc etc. What to do? 

Hot Cross Scones of course! They don’t need rising, there is no yeast, and scones are super quick to make. I had some peel left over from Christmas so away I went. They have been a success which I can safely say after devouring the one I took a picture of. Well it was already spread with butter. I went with butter as the ‘serve’ but I guess jam and cream would work. Try it.  

I use a small cutter when making scones as I find a large scone off putting. These are very light so you can eat four and feel ok about it, in a way you couldn’t if you attempted to eat two large ones. Not sure how that works but it does.

Ingredients

100g cold butter, cubed

450g plain flour

2 tbsp baking powder

2 heaped tsp mixed spice

4 tbsp caster sugar

100g sultanas

50g mixed peel

2 large eggs, beaten

100ml whole milk

4tbsp plain flour

1. Preheat oven to 220°/GM7.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder and mixed spice and rub in the butter. Use tip of fingers – you know you’re doing it right if the palms of your hands stay clean. (I’m sure you could bung it in a food processor). You want it to go breakcrumby.
3. Add the sultanas, peel and sugar mixing in.
4. Make a well in the centre and add the eggs (keeping a little back to glaze the tops). Add about half the milk and then mix together. Start with a palette knife and then get your hands in. Add more milk if the dough needs it. You’ll probably not need it all.
5. When it’s all come together turn out on a floured surface and knead until smooth. This is an important part so make sure you do it for 2 or 3 minutes.
6. Roll the dough out until it’s about 2.5cm thick. Cut out with a 5cm cutter, rerolling when you run out of space (you can use a larger one). You should get 20-28 scones from it.
7. Place on a baking tray – non-stick is best – but if not grease the tray. Brush the tops with the remaining egg.
8. Take the 4 tbsp of flour and mix with about 5-6 tbsp of cold water to make a batter. I had mine fairly runny but it can be a bit thick. You need it to make the cross on top so put in a piping bag or something with a nozzle (I found some great squeezy bottles in Tiger) and pipe crosses on top. I did them all at once when they were on the tray – see below picture for the mess I made.
9. Cook for about 12-15 minutes (give it another couple if you think they need it). Make sure you eat one while hot just to live up to the name!

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.

Porter Cake (Fruit Cake with Guinness)

Family recipes are a gift and something to treasure. Mostly they are handed down with care and attention, including amendments or improvements so the next generation can continue to evolve and make the recipes their own. Not so with my mum. Ingredients such as ‘a lump of butter’ appear in her recipes and when questioned on what size a lump is all you get is, “Oh you know. A lump.” I spend my time trying to decipher them and keeping my fingers crossed that it will all turn out ok.

One recipe which is a Christmas staple is my family’s ‘Porter Cake’. Basically a boiled fruit cake with Guinness which tastes amazing. There is something about soaking the fruit in lots of butter and Guinness that not only creates a fantastic smell but also a wonderful liquor that the rest of the ingredients get mixed into. My husband thinks the sound it makes when stirred is great!

I was talking to my mum about it, as I was due to make it, and mentioned that the fruit drops in the cake most of the time on me. She then proceeded to ask me some questions about how I make it and I confirmed that I follow the recipe she gave me. Then the bombshell – the recipe was more a guideline than an actual representation of how she makes it! So I put too much Guinness in and not enough flour. WTF?! It’s already bad enough that the recipe calls for 4 or 5 eggs. She found this all rather amusing needless to say.

So I’ve experimented a little bit, not too much as following the original recipe made a pretty good cake, and below should mean you won’t fall foul of dropping fruit. I’ve left in the 4 or 5 eggs though as it wouldn’t be a family recipe for me without something a little vague, with the same going for the cake tins you need. I urge you to make this as it can all be done in one large saucepan and makes a welcome Christmas gift.

Ingredients

330ml Guinness (roughly)

350g raisins

350g sultanas

75g candied peel

75g glace cherries, chopped (I use the natural colour glace cherries as I don't like the lurid red of the other ones contrasting with the darker fruit in this cake but up to you)

200g brown sugar (I use whatever I have - light or dark or a mixture of the two)

250g butter

450g plain flour

2 tsp bicarb of soda

4 or 5 large eggs

1.   Get a large saucepan.

2.   Put the butter, sugar, raisins and candied peel in. Turn the heat on low and bring to a simmer.

3.   Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool. This allows the fruit to soak up the moisture and absorb the flavours. It needs to be left at least a couple of hours.

4.   Preheat the oven to 150°/GM1.

5.   Add the chopped cherries (I just cut them in with kitchen scissors) and then the eggs. Add the plain flour and bicarb. Mix well. Now this mixture might need a bit more flour, a bit less, depends on how much moisture the fruit has soaked up and if you used 4 eggs or 5.

6.   The difficulty with the recipe is that it was clearly put together for a random mammoth sized cake tin that is now lost in the midst of time. I sometimes make one round cake and one loaf cake, or 3 loaf cakes. Sorry – it’s another issue with this recipe – no set tin size. Just shove it in and I’m sure it will be ok. It always is for me.

7.   Cook for anything from 1 hour to 2 hours. If it's a loaf cake test after 45 minutes but if you have a mammoth cake tin you’ve put the whole mixture in then you’ll need about 2.