Ridiculously good buns...

A little something we sampled in Norway. Will be giving these a go next...

Happy Easter x

I should have known better than to stray from a recipe my mum recommended to me,

but last weekend, I felt the urge to explore different a different method.

A foolish maneuver to pull for such an important event...

The Bun Off

My boyfriend was wise enough to use his mothers recipe of 3 generations and came out trumps.

My attempt was swiftly tossed in the bin, never to be spoked of again.

The following day, with a clear head and mums tried and true recipe,

I had a somewhat 'magical' turnaround. 

We had already declared the Bun Off Champion though,

to the first time hot cross bun maker, Andrew.

Ingredients...

1 cup milk

1/2 cup hot water

2 tbsp dried yeast

2 tbsp sugar

2 cups flour

100g butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp cocoa

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup dried fruit (I used 1 cup sultanas plus a tbsp grated orange zest)

2 1/2 cups flour

Mix the milk, hot water and 2 tbsp of sugar in a metal bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over wet mix and leave to stand until bubbles appear on the surface. Add 2 cups flour to this at leave to stand again.

Cream butter, remaining sugar and egg as well as spices, salt and vanilla. 

Combine the two mixtures and add the dried fruit. The fold in the 2 1/2 cups flour.

Mix until a soft dough form then knead well (5 minutes) on a floured surface.

Dust a clean metal bowl with a little flour and leave to double in size in a draught free spot. 

(Our flat is super cold, so I pre-heat the oven to 50 C then turn it off just before leaving the dough in there).

Knead once more, then cut into roughly 20 pieces or so, roll into balls and place on lined baking trays.

Leave to rise again, until almost doubled in size.

Cut the crosses on top and bake in oven at 225 C for 12 - 15 minutes. 

Glaze with 2 tbsp of sugar mixed with 1 1/2  tsp hot water.

Serve with lashings of butter and enjoy.

Madelines...

These delightful petit fours secs are traditionally baked in shell shaped trays, not owning one of these, I heeded Rachel Khoo's advice and used a shallow muffin tray. I found the 'genoise' batter to be quite different  from anything I had ever baked and was a little baffled as to how that thick, stiff mix could come out a light and plump little cake. But, I held my faith in Julia Childs recipe, crossed my fingers and sat by the oven.... Voila! They had the trademark peaks all perky and proud and beautifully golden in colour. 


For Madelines Version 2.0 try piping a little lemon curd into their centres through the bottom when just out of the oven. A metal nozzle on the piping bag will pierce the madelines easily.  

Ingredients...


A Julia Child recipe
Makes 12 (in muffin tray)

(all at room temperature)

2 eggs (beaten)

2/3 cup cugar

1 cup flour (plus a tsp for dusting)

140g butter (plus extra for greasing)

pinch salt

1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Grated zest of half a lemon
3 drops of lemon juice
* I added a sneaky tsp of baking powder to the flour and sugar.


Lightly grease a shallow muffin tray with butter then dust with flour (refrigerate if kitchen is quite warm).
Combine flour and sugar and 3/4 of the beaten eggs. Beat vigorously with a wooden spoon to a heavy cream. If too stiff, add a drop or two of the egg mix. Set aside while you melt your butter in a saucepan until lightly browned. Now, beat remaining egg and cooled butter into the batter. Stir in salt, vanilla, zest and juice. Cover and leave in fridge for at least 1 hour.
Set your oven to 190 C. Spoon one heaped tbsp into each mould.
Bake for about 15 minutes.


Leave to cool in tray for 5 minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve with a cup of tea.




For a super quick and easy curd, whip this up while you've got the madeline batter in the fridge...


A Rachel Khoo recipe
Ingredients...


Zest and juice of one lemon
pinch salt
40g sugar
45g butter
2 egg yolks (whisked)


Put the zest, juice, salt, sugar and butter into a saucepan and heat gently until sugar and butter have melted. Remove from heat. Add the egg yolks, give it a good whisk. Put back on a low heat and continue whisking until curd turns thick, (don't let boil). Leave in the fridge for at least an hour, but preferably over night. Make sure to seal the curd with cling film touching the surface.




*Thanks to Rachel Khoo for the inspiration. Her BBC show, The Little Paris Kitchen, is worth a watch.

Lemon meringue pie...

I was always quite apprehensive to make this humble wee pie. Its main component, lemon curd.. always managed to turn good intentions into a baking fiasco... knocking my confidence with its ever so stubborn, runny consistency.
Last week, we had a few friends around for dinner, and  
eager to conquer this dessert classic, I settled on making a Lemon Meringue Pie.

I began with the sweet short pastry...

225g flour
125g butter (chilled and cubed)
Pinch salt
25g icing sugar (or castor)
1 egg yolk
Cold water to mix

Combine flour and sugar with a whisk. Work in the butter using your finger tips until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Add yolk and the cold water a tablespoon at a time, mixing to a stiff dough. You shouldn't need more than 3 tablespoons. Shape dough into a flat disc and leave in refrigerator for at least half an hour.

I set my oven to 200 C and with a great deal of optimism and clear instructions, I set to work on the filling...

2 tbsp cornflour
100g castor sugar
zest of 2 lemons
125ml lemon juice
200ml water
85g butter
3 yolks & 1 whole egg (beaten)

*Make sure to keep the whites for later!

Once ovens at 200 C, roll out and blind bake pastry for 10 - 12 minutes, remove blind baking material and put back in for a further 5 - 7 minutes.

Combine flour, sugar and zest in saucepan with a whisk. Add the water and juice to pan and simmer on medium heat. Once thick and smooth, add your butter and beaten eggs. Stir vigorously until thick, smooth, glossy and so on!

Keep curd in saucepan until your meringue is good to go. Set oven to 180 C...

4 egg whites (room temperature)
100g castor sugar
2 tbsp cornflour
dash of vinegar or lemon juice

Beat whites until stiff peaks form when beaters are lifted out of bowl.
Add half the sugar, a tablespoon at a time. Beat just enough to dissolve the sugar.
Add the cornflour, rest of the sugar and vinegar or lemon juice. Once glossy and thick enough to hold shape, stop beating or your meringue could go beyond the point of repair!

Put your curd back on the heat, give it a quick whisk and pour into the pastry case. Now you can pipe or simply plop your meringue atop and finish with some fancy looking flicks and swirls.

In the oven at 180 C for 18-20 minutes... take out when the meringue looks like the impressive pictures we've all seen before... back when we thought "why does mine never look like that".

I conquered the lemon meringue pie. But as it was served up and eaten in its entirety in one evening, there were no photos taken. All I have to show for it is this very realistic drawing...

Ginger kisses...

Soft, sweet, pillowy cakes of joy.
A true New Zealand pantry classic.

Here's how to make it happen...


125g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
115g butter
85g caster sugar
1 egg
2 tsp golden syrup
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp hot water

For the filling...

30g butter
120g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
A dash of boiling water

Heat oven to 180 C.
Sift together the dry ingredients. Cream the butter and sugar then beat in the egg, followed by the golden syrup (helps to warm the syrup up a little).
Fold in the dry ingredients and the baking soda dissolved in the boiling water. Put small balls of  mixture on the trays. Do this by either rolling the mixture between two (hot) teaspoons or using a piping bag. They should be no bigger than 4cm and be sure to give them lots of space to puff up in the oven.
Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, let sit for a few minutes then transfer to cooling rack.

  
* My first attempt was somewhat unsuccessful. I had put them a little too close together on the trays and my oven wasn't quite hot enough, so they had no choice but to spread into one gigantic monster cookie. Second attempt, I bumped the oven up a few degrees, gave them a little more space and baked them one tray at a time. Much better.


To make the filling, simply beat the (softened) butter, icing sugar and vanilla together with an electric beater, then adding the boiling water as needed. Continue beating until the mixture is very light and creamy..  pipe a good sized dollop onto the middle of one biscuit and squish it out to the edges with another. Finish with a sprinkling of icing sugar.

Helms Bakery Brownies..

I know you should never have to justify your reasons for baking a brownie, but we stumbled across this bakeries website a while ago and with Helms being my boyfriends surname, I took it as a sign that it was brownie time. I've always used the same recipe from Nigella Lawson's book, Domestic Goddess, but thought I'd give this Helms Bakery one a go.




1 1/2 Sticks butter (170g)
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate (85g - I used 74% cocoa rich chocolate)
1 1/3 cups sugar (I used half white and half brown sugar)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup chopped nuts (or berries will do!)


Set oven to 180 C. Prepare baking pan with a little butter and grease proof paper.
Now it's all very straight forward, simply melt butter and chocolate together over a medium heat, stirring constantly.
Cream sugar eggs, sugar and vanilla essence. Sieve in flour, add nuts and (slightly cooled) chocolate mix. Beat to combine and pour into prepared pan.
Bake for 25 - 30 minutes. But with brownies, you want to take it out before its completely cooked.  When the top is a little cracked and shiny... take it out and leave to cool. Put in the fridge to make them all gooey and chewy.


Enjoy!




...Okay, so just sampled the goods and it's rather sweet.  If I were you, I'd stick to the Nigella Lawson recipe. I swear by it.  I only ever do 3/4 of the recipe... it's the perfect dose of gooey goodness.


280g butter
280g dark chocolate
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
375g castor sugar
170g flour
1/2 tsp salt
200g berries


Method is same as above.

Lemon poppy seed pound cake...

Andrew & I have just returned from our Christmas holiday... and after 10 days of gorging ourselves on fried Dutch delights and Belgian waffles and chocolates, I thought this light and lemony pound cake would be the perfect detox!






































Here's how it went...

4 tbsp milk
3 large eggs
2 tbsp vanilla essence
Freshly squeezed juice from 1 lemon
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp grated lemon zest
3/4 cup sugar
160g butter
2 tbsp poppy seeds


Set your oven to 180 C, grease and line your tin (I used a standard loaf tin but wish I had a bundt cake mould...)
In a jug, whisk together the milk, eggs, lemon juice and vanilla essence. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a larger bowl, combine the sugar and zest, then add the butter. Mix until light and fluffy. Okay, now add the flour mix and egg mix alternately in thirds. Lastly, fold in the poppy seeds and turn into the prepared tin.
Bake for 40-50 minutes. If the top begins to brown before it's ready, lightly cover it with some tin foil.
Voila.