Cheese Biscuits

The most amazing chocolate shop has opened near where I work. It used to be a Peyton and Byrne so I was devastated when it changed to a rather weak cafe. I could no longer just grab some fabulous cupcakes as gifts for people. However the rather weak cafe has closed and in its place, intoxicating the air with the aroma of a saucepan full of molten chocolate, is paul.a.young.  

The smell dragged me in and I looked in awe at brownies, slabs of chocolates, delicate confectionary and the owner making chocolate tarts right in front of me. I was slightly interrupted from my blissful musings by a rather loud American going on about how wondrous the chocolate was but forgave her when I realised she had suffered a lifetime of Hershey's. Luckily a perfect excuse to purchase brownies was presented to me by the need to provide cake for a meeting. I saw four different types of brownies so said I'd have one of each. I'd seen that one was salted caramel so that was enough for me. 

When I got to the meeting much excitement ensued and the brownies were cut up to be shared. Then, shock, horror and more excitement - one of the brownies was Marmite flavoured. I hate marmite but it went down well with others which I suppose is the point of Marmite. The leftover pieces were taken into another meeting as a form of Russian roulette so it gave much joy. Now Marmite brownies are a fairly normal thing to dislike. Dislike of bread with cheese in, from a person who likes cheese, is just weird in my eyes. The Thew met today's baking with passionate distaste. Apparently cheese goes on bread - pizza is included in this - but not incorporated as an ingredient into it. Therefore cheese biscuits are wrong according to The Thew. I like it so I baked these, plus I had cheese to use up. These make a great Christmas gift accompanied by cheese and can be made thinner and larger if needed (just cook for less time). I was making them to have on their own so make chunky ones. 

Ingredients

175g strong cheese (I had 100g of blue cheese in the fridge so added 75g of parmesan. Aggressive cheddar would work on its own or mixed with others)

100g unsalted butter, softened (cheese can be salty so you can use salted butter but it could make it too salty)

1 egg yolk

175g plain flour (I used 125g white and then 50g of rye as I like the colour it gives)
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 egg, beaten (optional) 

1.    Grate the cheese if you can or crumble up. Basically you want small pieces.

2.    Mix the butter, cheese and egg yolk together in a big mush.

3.    Add the flour and pepper and combine to create a dampish dough.  Make into a disk, wrap in cling film and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes.

4.    Preheat the oven to 200°C/GM6 and remove the dough from the fridge. If it’s been in for a while then just let it soften a bit as this will make it easier to roll.

5.    Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 5mm thick and cut out shapes. I used a round 5cm cutter but you can do shapes if you want. Keep re-rolling until all the dough is used up.

6.    Place on a baking tray (they don’t need to be left far apart as they go upwards not across so you can get quite a few on at a time) and glaze with the beaten egg. If you want them matt, not shiny, then leave it off.

7.    Bake for 12-15 minutes (I turn mine half way through to keep the colour even) and then take out and cool. 

Makes about 25-35 depending on cutter size.

Chicken and Chorizo Pie

I’m disheartened by my complete lack of skill with pastry and am not looking forward to the energy I need to expend to get good. Most baking things I can master and I’m happy to ignore icing as I’m bad at it. Pastry though is a basic that I should be able to do. I have no idea what the issue is but I clearly need to practise more.

I decided to make a pie this week. I don’t watch Bake Off (shock horror) but I know that they made a picnic pie in the final so thought I’d give it a go. I should have bought the pastry but attempted a lard/butter short crust thing that should have worked but didn’t. It cracked, I had to piece it together in the tin, there were a lot of holes I had to patch up – a nightmare. It didn’t help that I was making a massive pie in a 20” springform tin so the rolling and transporting was a pain.

Anyway, the filling does rock so I’m happy with that. It tastes great and I should probably try making mini pies in a muffin tin before attempting a huge pie. The pastry tastes great but just looks shocking. I’m giving guidelines below so sorry for the ramshackle recipe.

Ingredients

800g short crust pastry - Recipes were saying 500g but unless you can roll it out ultra-thin (and who wants that in a pie) and transport it to a tin in one piece then forget it. Also if you can do that you’re super human in my eyes and should be saving the world! I’m not giving a recipe for this as mine clearly didn’t work. Just buy some ready to roll.

4 chicken breasts

1 x chorizo ring (about 225g)

1 x pack of pork sausages

1 heaped tsp of hot chili pepper

1 heaped tsp cayenne pepper

1 egg, beaten

 

1.    Preheat the oven the 180°c/GM4.

2.    Make the filling as I think it benefits from sitting together for a while before cooking. Chop the chicken breasts and chorizo into small pieces. Mix with the sausage meat that you take out of the cases. Then add the spice and mush together. Hands are best. I tend not to use salt and pepper as you’re using two meats that have already been prepared so there should be enough. If you’re not sure then just fry up a small amount and taste once cooked.

3.    Grease your tin with butter. Then roll out 2/3rds of the pastry to cover the bottom and sides of the tin. I’m not going to help with method but if it cracks or breaks use water to cement it back together. It will taste fine as its pastry.

4.    Put your filling in the pie and squish down (I didn’t blind bake the case as the filling isn’t cooked and I think you only do that if the pie is going in for about 30 mins or so – this does run the risk of a soggy bottom to the pie but once again its pastry – it will taste fine).

5.    Roll out the rest of rest of your pastry to make a lid. Use egg to wash the pastry in the tin that will come in contact with the lid. Then put the lid on. Cut off excess and squish the top and side pastry together. Wash the top with egg.

6.    Cover the top of the pie with foil and bake for 45 mins. After that time take the foil off and bake for another 45 mins. Cool and serve.

N.B. Cool in the tin and don’t attempt the remove the springform sides until it’s cool and you’ve run a knife around it. Otherwise you might find that half a side comes off leaving you attempting to stick it back on with egg wash, whacking the sides around it again, shoving it in the oven and begging for it to work (it does).

Luckily looks don't matter to those I work with. Serve with mustard and piccalili.

Vol-au-vents with Devilled Egg filling

Work has been busy. I shan't bore you with it but I'm very pleased my friend Lorna recommended a kick ass concealer for under the eyes as it's made me look alive for the past few weeks (Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer put on with an Ecotools Airbrush Effect brush for those interested). I also invested in a good serum for night time which is my new thing. Much better than moisturiser and you only need a little of it so a bottle goes a long way.  

Anyway, my brain hasn't really been processing anything outside of work so I required help with what I should make. As my work colleagues eat most of what I make I thought that I should ask them for ideas and boy did they have some. The one that caught my eye was the request for vol-au-vents as they are so out of fashion and I remember them as being THE party food. What happened to them?! Where did they go?! I mean puff pastry cases filled with amazing things that we all secretly love – prawn cocktail, egg mayo, chicken mix. 

So really the main decision when making vol-au-vents are what the hell to put in them. Mine were filled with devilled egg mixture for two reasons: 1. I had a lot of eggs in the house as The Thew had randomly bought about a million and 2. We'd had had them recently at our neighbours and they were delicious. Therefore they fit the ingredients I had at home and the necessity for something a bit out of fashion to go into those pastry cases. I’m going to be honest and say that the actual vol-au-vents were a pain, and you may as well buy the frozen ready to bake, but it was good fun filling them and they tasted great. 

Ingredients 

Vol-au-vents

1 x pack of ready to roll puff pastry (do not be tempted to by ready rolled, its not thick enough)

1 x egg, beaten 

1.    Preheat the oven to 200°C/GM 6.

2.    Roll the pastry out to about 5mm thick.

3.    Cut out circles – I did mine with a 5cm cutter. Then using a smaller circular cutter (this was a bugger to find and I ended up using the large end of a piping nozzle) cut in the middle of the circle to about half the depth of the pastry. You’re ensuring that you can easily scoop out the middle.

4.    Put on a baking tray and brush the tops (not the sides) with egg. Then bake for 10 minutes.

5.    Take out and allow to cool before taking out the middle. You’ll probably need to cut around the mark you’ve made with the smaller cutter before putting all the excess pastry out (this is a bit of a pain).

6.    Then pop back in the oven for another 5-6 minutes to firm up and dry out. Take out and cool until you want to fill.

 

Filling

5 x eggs

Mayonnaise

Cayenne pepper

Mustard powder

Balsamic vinegar

Smoked paprika

 

1.    Hard boil the eggs. It takes about 18 minutes from having cold water covering them.

2.    Cool and then peel. Cut in half and scoop out the yolks. Finely chop the egg whites and leave to one side.

3.    Mush the yolks up in a bowl. Now I haven’t out quantities as it’s more about personal taste, how big the yolks are etc etc. Add about 50ml of mayo, a sprinkling of cayenne pepper, 1 tsp of mustard powder and a scant tablespoon of vinegar (you can use white wine vinegar). Mix together and taste. Maybe a bit of salt, maybe more cayenne pepper – taste and see.

4.    Once you’re happy with the yolk mix add the chopped up whites. Then fill the cases with the mixture.

5.    I finished mine with a sprinkling of smoked paprika as it adds a little something. I recommend it.

Black Pudding Sausage Rolls

I like the weird, quirky things about myself. They make me who I am. The sharing of my recollection of how excited I remember being when, due to attending high school, my library card permitted me to take out ten books instead of three made The Thew re-evaluate how square I actually am. However I feel that this coupled with my love of hard house, and my sobriety until 22, gives people something to think about when boxing me up. Not that means I don’t mind being square.  

My quirkiness does extend to food and this is where The Thew has most fun working out how my brain and taste buds work. My unrelenting hatred of whole tomatoes continues to boggle him, as does my reluctance to eat porridge until I have been up and about for an hour. He likes to quiz me on food items and my reasons for not liking them and/or the restrictions I have on time of day, dish and situations I’ll eat them in. 

For someone who can be fussy about things I love fish and shellfish, something that I have to put down to the Irish side of my family living by the sea and eating it all the time. I spent days out on the rocks hacking off barnacles and dropping them on the top of Momo’s range to cook in their shells. The Irish use of black pudding, and white, at breakfast has stayed with me and I happily eat it when my other random food issues would lead people to believe I’d avoid it. Therefore when thinking about another type of sausage roll to make I thought that I would use black pudding. I love scotch eggs that use it in the mixture so why not? They came out well, if you like black pudding, with the sausage giving it stability in the roll but not distracting from the flavour of the pudding. Very good hot and not at all bad cold if I do say so myself.

Ingredients

300g good quality black pudding (it's not expensive but get a good one as the spices will come out)

1 x pack of plain pork sausages (about 350g but a bit more or less won't really hurt)

1 x pack ready rolled puff pastry

1 egg, beaten 

1.    Preheat the oven to 190°C/GM 5.

2.    Crumble the black pudding into a bowl. Add the sausage and mix them together. Hands are best. I'd recommend adding less sausages to begin with and then fry off a very small patty in a pan to taste it. If you think it needs more sausage then add it but worth testing out the taste before committing to it (this also works when making stuffing).

3.    Roll out the pastry on a floured surface so it’s a little wider and longer. Cut in two along the middle so you have two thin rectangles of pastry.

4.    Place half the mixture in a sausage down each bit of pastry, wash one edge with egg and roll the pastry over the mixture to form the roll. Press down the edges and cut the rolls to your desired size.

5.    Place on a non-stick baking tray, or on greaseproof paper, wash with more egg on top and bake for about 20 minutes. If you are making smaller ones then 15 minutes should do it.

6.    Cool and serve. Easy!

Makes 16-24 depending on how small you cut them up.

Canelé

I go through phases of experimenting with food. A couple of weekends ago I ate two olives. Those who know me well will realise what a big deal that is as I'm randomly fussy about some food. Now I didn't enjoy the olives but I do now know that if I were forced to eat them again then I prefer fresh ones to those that have been in brine. So I’ve gained something there. Plus I might see if I could cope with them in some form of bread so a new recipe is in the making. 

This all sparks off a more expressive time in the kitchen. I tend to need to gear up to it and I’m now in full swing. I’ve got bored of making the same old things and am in the mood for something new. I've now made chicken liver parfait (of which I now have far too much) and have made a variety of quinoa dishes, aided by a most fabulous book I got for my birthday. I’ve also been messing around with a variety of kebabs after buying some ras el hanout – a delicious blend of spices from North Africa. It makes everything taste of holidays.  

Being in this experimenting mood I decided to bake something a bit different this week. It is something I’ve been gearing up to after someone at work requested them. So I give you Canelé. It was requested by someone at work and I thought why not? The nearest I can come to them is a French take on Portuguese Custard Tarts but without the pastry. You basically make a thin custard batter, leave for a day or so and then bake the crap out of them. Really easy. You need to ensure that the sides get sort of burnt to ensure you get structure to hold them upright. This also gives a wonderful chewy texture. You will need a special mould and I bought a silicon one that holds eight as the copper ones were expensive and you need to butter them well. No such work needed with silicon. I made a few batches so I think I’m almost there with perfecting them. I do have a few pale and squished ones but they taste fine so don’t be afraid if that happens! 

Ingredients

500ml of milk

30g butter

1 vanilla pod (you can use 1 tsp of extract but the seeds look fab in the batter)

100g plain flour

1 tsp salt

180g caster sugar

3 larger eggs

80ml of rum (good quality is best and I used white rum as I had it in the freezer from years ago) 

1.    Put the milk, butter and vanilla in a saucepan and simmer. Once simmering take off the heat and remove the vanilla pod. Cut the pod in half, scrap the seeds out of it and leave the seeds  and pod halves to one side.

2.    Beat the eggs without getting air into them. Use a fork and mix slowly. It will take a big longer but air is deadly to Canelé.

3.    In a large bowl mix the flour, salt and sugar. Pour in the eggs, follow with the milk mixture and stir until combined. Once again don’t beat air into it.

4.    Add the vanilla seeds, pod halves and rum and give it a gentle stir. Then put the batter in the fridge and forget about it for at least a day. You can leave it 3 days if you want. Basically it gives you taller Canelé at the end of it.

5.    When you are ready to bake them preheat the oven to 250°C/GM 8. Put your silicon mould on a baking tray (I’m not about the start talking about copper moulds as they sound a nightmare but butter then if you have them).

6.    Take the batter out of the fridge and mix gently. Then fill eat mould to about 1cm away from the top. I used a ladle but you could put the batter into a measuring jug to pour out.

7.    Bake for 20 minutes and then turn the oven down the 230°C/GM 6. Do not open the oven but set the timer for 20 minutes. Once the second 20 minutes is up open the oven and over the moulds with a sheet of baking paper. This will stop them burning too much. Then bake for another 20 minutes. So an hour in total. This might seem a lot but trust me they need it.

8.    Take out of the oven and let cool for a few minutes before turning out. Then you’re meant to let them cool completely before eating but I say eat at least one of them warm. Cooks rights and all that. 

This made 14 for me.

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.

Rhubarb and Custard Tart

I won the lottery! Four numbers between four of us. Not quite the big time but heading in the right direction. My good friend Rachel has been managing our little syndicate for years now and every now and again some money will enter my account when we have a bit of cash to pay out. I have to do nothing, as my direct debit for my lines goes over automatically, so it make the small amounts feel like a little treat. Normally I do nothing about it but this time I thought I should get something with the money as I fancied treating myself. But what to get? Most of the shops a short distance from my work sell electronics or home ware. Therefore home ware was going to be the theme.  

This happily coincided with my thinking about what to bake this week. I bought some rhubarb last week but wasn’t feeling the whole rhubarbness so made caramel cupcakes. However it’s still in my fridge and pretty much begging me to do something with it. I love rhubarb and there were always a few plants at the end of the garden while growing up so it was used liberally. I don’t think it’s used enough as its slight tartness is welcome, even if you have to slather it in sugar to make it palatable. Surely that’s a plus? So I thought ‘rhubarb’, then I thought ‘custard’, but I don’t want a crumble – what about a tart?!!! 

So below is the culmination of my thought process, matched with winning the lottery and deciding to treat myself to a loose bottomed flan tin. My case split, and half the custard drained out while baking, but it rocked. I used a 25cm tin but you could use one slightly smaller, although I had custart left. It’s a really simple recipe and I’d say that you could use the custard as a base for any fruit tart that you like. Soft fruit would work well and I wouldn’t bother with roasting first. 

Ingredients

400g rhubarb

100g caster sugar

A vanilla pod if you have it but I chucked in some extract

350g short crust pastry (I used the ready roll but it just broke apart. I think the readymade block would be better and just roll it out yourself or buy a readymade tart case!)

75g soft butter

150g caster sugar

300ml double cream

3 large eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract 

1.    Preheat the oven to GM5/190°C.

2.    Chop up the rhubarb into chunks. About 3 - 4cm long and if it’s chunky cut in half lengthways. Cover with the caster sugar, drizzle on the vanilla extract, cover with foil and put in the oven for 15 minutes until soft. (Mine went completely mushy but it worked). Then leave it covered until you need it.

3.    If baking your case then roll out the pastry and line a buttered flan tin with it. Ideally loose bottomed but if you don’t mind prising the first bit out in a messy way then any tart style tin will do. Blind bake (so a large piece of baking paper down, cover with a load of lentils chucked on top to stop the pastry rising. Some people have specialist baking beads but screw that – lentils do) for 15 minutes then lift the baking paper out, with the lentils, and bake for about 7 minutes until the case is hard and starting to colour.

4.    If not baking your case, and you’ve bought one, then skip step 3 and feel smug.

5.    Turn the oven down to GM3/160°C. Put the soft butter (make sure it’s really soft), sugar, cream, eggs and vanilla in a bowl and whisk together. Custard done! See so simple.

6.     Drain the rhubarb, keeping the liquid as you could serve with some of this and cream. Fill half the case with custard, dot the fruit around, then fill the case with the rest of the custard. If you feel like it save some fruit to lay on top to look impressive. I didn’t do this!

7.    Bake for 35 minutes with a baking tray on the bottom of the oven to catch any stray custard.

8.    Fully cool before serving. 

N.B. You will have some pastry and possibly some custard left. So cut out rounds of the pastry, line a cup cake tin with them, adding the custard. Bake for 15 minutes and cool.

Hot Cross Buns

Sometimes making an effort is worth it. Sometimes it’s not. A specific example would be taking time over making your fringe look nice just before going outside into gale force winds. Not worth it. Training in the gym for weeks so you can keep some dignity during a brutal 10km course (that actually was 11.2km) is. Well kind of. It’s all a matter of balance and what is important to you.

 

Baking falls into this. It’s one of those things where the end product takes longer to make than to be consumed. I’m basically a feeder (I blame my Irish heritage and the compulsion this gives me to force food on people) so I don’t mind that everything disappears. In fact I’d panic if it didn’t! An interesting take on this time to make vs. time to consume was in ‘Rant’ by Chuck Palahnuik (well worth a read but prepared to have to read it about three times and then go on forums to work out what the hell just happened). The main characters mother is annoyed by how quickly her food is demolished without full appreciation of the taste, so she starts putting thumb taks, balls of tin foil and cherry pips in her food. People learn to chew carefully, take their time and ultimate appreciate the taste more. Now it’s not something I’m going to start doing but it makes you think about how all the traditions around those cakes that have a ‘prize’ baked in for the ‘lucky’ person who finds it in their piece got started.

 

Baking is full of tradition and the ones surrounding hot cross buns are huge. Take one on a ship to stop a shipwreck and hang one in your kitchen to stop fires. There are lots more but you can go on Wikipedia for that, let’s get on to the recipe. These are great and so light compared to the ones in the supermarket. I’m going to be honest though. They can feel like a lot of effort because of the crosses. Don’t ask me why but that extra step feels like forever to me. I think it’s because I don’t like piping bags so I use short crust pastry instead. However over the years I have found it to be less stressful and messy and the end result is pretty much the same – a cross on top of a bun! So these are more effort than picking them up on your weekly shop but the lightly spiced soft buns make up for it as far as I’m concerned.

Ingredients

Buns

250ml milk

75g butter

100g caster sugar

2 x 7g sachets fast acting yeast

2 large eggs

450g strong white flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

2 tsp mixed spice

Pinch of salt

150g mixed dried fruit

1 egg, beaten (in addition to the ones above)

Short crust

200g plain flour

100g butter

Pinch salt

1 egg

1.    Put the butter and milk in a saucepan and gently heat. You just want it warm so don't boil. I haven't put these down as ingredients but you can chuck a couple if cardamom pods and a clove in to infuse in the milk mix. I'm not certain it makes a difference but you feel fairly smug. Try some orange peel as well.

2.    Take out anything you added to the milk mixture and measure out 60ml. Add a 1 tbsp of caster sugar and the yeast to it, then just to one side.

3.    Add the flour, rest of the sugar, spices and salt to a bowl and mix well. Make a well in the middle.

4.    Beat the 2 large eggs into the left over milk mixture then mix in the yeast mixture. Add most of it into the flour mix. Now this is where you get your dough hooks out. (You can knead by hand but I really can’t ever be bothered). Mix for about a minute. It is a damp-ish dough but don't over add on the liquid.

5.    Add the dried fruit and knead with your dough hooks for about 5 minutes. You want the dough shiny and pulling away from the side of the bowl.

6.    Cover with cling film double size in a warm place (I can’t tell you the joy I had when I saw our flat for the first time and saw it had an airing cupboard).

7.    Then make the short crust or look up a recipe for the flour paste version. Flour, salt and butter in a food processor until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add most of the egg, pulse, add more egg if it needs it but you want it to just come together. Put in the fridge for about 15 minutes and then roll out thin and cut out strips. Done! (You’ll only need about a 1/3 of this so save the rest for making jam tarts or just freeze until you need).

8.    Take your doubled in size dough and knead for 2 minutes. Then divide into buns about 45g in weight (I do weigh them but I’m weird). Put them on an oiled baking tray leaving space between them and wash with beaten egg, placing a short crust pastry cross on top.

9.    Leave to rise somewhere warm for about an hour and pre-heat the oven to 190°C/GM5.

10.  Once they’ve risen again put in the oven. After 5 minutes turn the heat to 180°C/GM4 for another 10. I find that these like to burn quickly so just watch them. Then let them cool and eat with butter.