Baked Cinnamon Doughnut Holes

I've never been a fan of doughnuts. To me, they're fat, greasy, dense balls of pure cholesterol. The reek of rancid doughnut fat was one of my least favourite things about walking along Brighton beach when I lived there during my undergraduate degree.

But then the deputy editor travelled into the depths of the land of loafers with no socks, the home of the hipsters (Shoreditch), and brought back a box of baked doughnuts. They were light and chewy and soft.

Instantly, I went on eBay and bought a doughnut pan.

The pan took ages to arrive. I'm talking weeks. I almost forgot about it and so when the office manager placed a parcel in front of me on my desk, I was a little confused. When I unwrapped it, the doughnut moulds were tiny. But I just thought "more doughnuts, great".

Unfortunately my doughnuts had other ideas. They mushroomed wildly and turned into misshapen lumps. 

So next time, I'll put less dough in each little mould, but a liberal dusting of sugar and cinnamon will cover a multitude of sins. And if you don't have a doughnut pan you can just roll the dough into balls and put it in a normal baking tray.

I think they still look good, don't you?

I wasn't sure whether to go with a cake doughnut or a yeast doughnut, so I went with a yeast doughnut made with an enriched dough, altering a yeast doughnut recipe. This recipe will make 24 doughnut holes, which are slightly bigger than a golf ball.

You will need:    

320g plain flour

95g caster sugar

125ml semi skimmed milk
50g butter plus extra to grease
1 egg, beaten
1½ tsp instant dried yeast
1½ tsp freshly ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
Small amount of cooking oil - I used rapeseed

1. Sift the flour, 35g of the sugar, yeast, baking powder and ½ tsp cinnamon into a mixing bowl. Put the rest of the cinnamon and sugar in a shallow bowl and set aside.

2. Put the milk and 15g of the butter in a pan and gently heat until butter is completed melted. Stir the dry ingredients until combined and make a well in the middle of the mixing bowl.

3. Pour in the milk, butter and beaten egg and mix with a spatula until it comes together into a loose, sticky ball. Lightly oil a clean surface and your hands and tip the tough onto the surface, then knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Put in a covered bowl and leave for 1 hour to rise until doubled in size.

4. When the dough has risen it will feel light and spongy. Punch it down and knead for 5 minutes. Grease a baking tray/your doughnut pan and either roll the dough into 24 balls or make doughnut shapes, either by rolling into a ball and poking a hole in the middle or rolling into sausages and pinching the ends together. Cover and leave for half an hour to prove, preheating the oven to 200C (180C if you have a fan oven) before they are ready to go in.

5. Bake the doughnuts for 8-10 minutes until golden brown. Melt the remaining butter and, one by one, brush each doughnut and roll in the sugar and cinnamon you set aside earlier. Eat as soon as possible, preferably with a strong coffee.

6. Say "Mmmmmmm".

Next I'm going to try making vanilla custard doughnuts.

Ta-ta for now,

Ellie
xxx

Bitcoin Birthday Cake

Finally I have managed to combine both of the things I blog and tweet about. No more shall my Twitter followers be divided into two camps who regard each other with suspicion.

That's right - I have reconciled banking and baking in this single recipe. No more shall those who follow me on the basis of my incisive comments on m-payments be bewildered by the difference between demerara and muscovado. No more shall my little bakelings puzzle over the meaning of #mPOS.

OK, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. But I've managed to create a cake that I think those in the banking and payments world appreciate.

As those of you who have an interest in electronic payments may know, a "Bitcoin" is a cryptocurrency - a digital token that is produced by means of mining software. I'm not going to try to explain how that happens because I don't think I fully understand it myself.

But basically, all you need to know is that Bitcoin is controversially used as a currency by some - it's harder to trace than many other forms of payment, meaning it's sometimes associated with the purchase of slightly illegal things. Like drugs. Look up "Silk Road" if you're interested.

Since its creation in 2009, Bitcoin's value has soared. It's currently valued at $700 on bitcoinity, but its value has passed $1000 a few times. It's also very volatile and has been known to lose or gain around a quarter of it value in a single day.

At work, my desk is decided roughly into two camps - the Bitliebers, and the non-Bitliebers (to steal a term from popular culture). The naysayers are led by our editor, Doug, and the believers are led by the deputy editor, Billy. I fall somewhere in the middle - I think I'm more skeptical than Billy but more open-minded than Doug and I don't feel I know enough about digital currencies to judge.

This Thursday was Billy's birthday. So, even though I had the flu, as the resident baker I dragged myself from my deathbed to throw together a chocolate cake for him. And as a Bitlieber, I thought there was no better motif for his cake than a Bitcoin.

Because they exist only in virtual form, Bitcoins have no physical appearance, but they tend to be depicted like this: 

So I rolled out some sugarpaste and cut out the shapes, sticking them to the cake with butter icing and each other with edible glue. If you don't want to use edible glue you could probably use a little water icing, which is just a mix of icing sugar and water.

You could make your own sugarpaste but...

Unfortunately, I only realised that the "B" is in a serif font after I'd cut it out and stuck it to the cake. But Billy was still very appreciative. The finished cake looked like this:

If you too feel the need to combine your love of cryptocurrency and cake, I have included a recipe below. 

You will need:

For the cake:

300g caster sugar

300g butter

250g plain flour

50g cocoa

2 tsp baking powder

2-3 tbsp milk

5 eggs

For the decoration and filling:

125g softened butter

400g icing sugar

3-4 tbsp milk

3tbsp cocoa

1 small pack yellow sugarpaste

1 small pack brown sugarpaste

edible glue 

a very clean fine paintbrush - preferably not one that has been used for painting!

gold edible glitter (optional)

an icing smoother will help if you have one

a couple 8 inch cake tin

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4 and grease and line a couple of 8 inch cake tin.

2. Beat together the butter and sugar for the cake mixture. 

  

3. Beat the eggs and beat into the mixture a little at a time. After you've added about half the eggs you will need to beat in a tbsp flour with each new eggy addition, to stop the mixture curdling. Fold in the remaining flour, cocoa and baking powder. If the mixture feels stiff add the milk to loosen it up.

4. Divide the mixture between the cake tins and bake for 25-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. In the meantime, make the butter icing by beating the butter and icing sugar together, followed by the milk and sifted cocoa. Set aside.

5. When the cakes have been removed from the oven, take them from their tins and cool on a rack. When completely cooled cut off the top of each sponge with a sharp knife so that they are both flat. Sandwich together with the butter icing and spread some on top, making sure you do not spread it all the way to the edges.

6. Dust a surface with icing sugar and roll out the brown sugarpaste, then cut out an 8 inch circle (you may want to use one of the cake tins). Lay it on the cake and smooth it with an icing smoother if you have one. 

7. Roll out a yellow circle of the same size and then cut out a smaller circle from inside it, creating a ring of sugarpaste about half an inch to an inch thick. Stick it on top of the brown icing, applying either edible glue or a little runny water icing to the underside - apply sparingly. 

8. Lastly cut out the B, making sure it's in a SERIF font, and stick it on. You may have a little icing sugar on the surface of the sugarpaste. If you do, dampen the paintbrush and just brush it away lightly. Liberally sprinkle gold glitter over the cake if using. 

A cake fit for a financial journalist!

Byeeee

xxx

Chocolate Chip Brioche Ring

So Christmas is over, the mince pies have been marked down in Sainsbury's and everyone is in the gym, trying to work off all the food, wearing running gear and self loathing.

But before you have to go back to work and resume your normal life, there is New Year's Eve, the last chance to get absolutely wrecked and eat more than you should.

You may remember that last year I made a chocolate and vanilla chess cake. This year, I flicked through my recipe books and decided to make the Great British Bake Off's Christmas Brioche Wreath.

But this being me, I decided that I didn't like how Mary and Paul had done it because there wasn't any chocolate in it and I don't agree with fundamental aspects of their brioche recipe. So I altered it, and here is the result:

You will need:
an 8" spring form cake tin, greased and lined

2 ½ tsp dried yeast

2 tbsp water

375g strong white flour

2 tbsp granulated sugar

1 ½ tsp salt

5 eggs

15g unsalted butter

175g softened unsalted butter

200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

To decorate:

1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tbsp water

handful chopped pistachios

150g icing sugar

2 tbsp orange juice

1. Mix together the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a large bowl, adding the yeast and salt to different sides of the bowl. 

2. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and beat the 5 eggs, then add them, along with the 2 tbsp water. Mix together into a soft, moist dough.

 3. Turn out onto a well floured surface and knead with well floured hands until smooth and elastic. Like so:

4. Melt the 15g butter and use it to grease a clean bowl. Put the dough in and turn it a couple of times to ensure a good covering of butter.

  

5. Cover in cling film and leave to rise for 1-1½ hours or until doubled in size. Knock back then leave to rest for 10 minutes.
6. Use your hands to squeeze the softened butter into the dough before kneading it in, along with the chocolate, until fully incorporated.

7. Separate the dough into 10 equally sized balls - you may have to weigh them. Put them in the cake tin, with something in the middle to preserve the hole in the centre of the ring. Cover with cling film and leave for 1-2 hours until doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 220C towards the end of rising time.

8. Brush the risen dough with the egg yolk and water glaze, then bake for 10 minutes before lowering the heat to 200C and baking for another 20-30 minutes until a rich golden brown and cooked through. If the brioche browns too quickly in the oven, cover it with foil.
9. Once cooked, leave the brioche to cool in the tin, before mixing the icing sugar and orange juice and drizzling over the cooled ring and scattering with the pistachios.

I think this makes a great centrepiece for a party, or a hangover breakfast the morning after. The fact that it's made of lots of small bits of dough stuck together makes it easy to tear off a portion of the ring.

Bye for now bakelings,

Ellie
xxx

A Very Begrudging Christmas

Merry Christmas bakelings!

I love Christmas. Always have. Sure, there may have been a time in my teenage years when I pretended like I didn't. What you have to remember is that Christmas is supposed to be a joyous time, whereas teenagers are full of angst, so the two don't always mix. But inside I was still loving it.

The one thing about Christmas I'm not wild about is the desserts. To my mind, a really decadent pudding should be sinfully chocolately and dangerously alcoholic, not a kind of bowling ball made of dried fruit. In my house, we tend to set fire to the Christmas pudding, applaud dutifully, and then chuck it in the bin.

After all, isn't beating out the flames from an overly hastily discarded Christmas pudding all part of the fun?

I'm joking of course. We wait for it to go out first. But given my feelings about Christmas pudding, you can probably guess my reaction when my parents asked me to make a Dundee cake. After all, like a Christmas cake, the Dundee cake is heavy on what I dislike about a Christmas pudding - full of dried fruit, heavy, dense and heavily spiced.

This was, then, a bake I rather begrudged. So I sought out a recipe that claims to be lighter than a usual Dundee cake. And I also attempted to compensate for the dried fruit with a great deal of whisky. So much whisky in fact, that you can smell it without even getting close to the cake. That's the only kinda Dundee cake I'm going to contemplate eating.

You can bake this cake much later than a classic Christmas cake, but I would do it at least a week in advance so you can fit in a couple of feeds. Here is my finished cake:

And without further ado, here is Delia Smith's recipe for Dundee cake, plus the glaze I used:

You will need:

For the cake:
175g currants
175g sultanas
110g glacé cherries, well rinsed, patted dry and halved
75g mixed candied peel
a generous 3 tbsp scotch whisky, plus extra to feed
150g butter
150g soft brown sugar
3 medium eggs
225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
a little milk (only if necessary)
2 tbsp ground almonds
grated rind of 1 orange and 1 lemon
110g whole blanched almonds

an 8 inch cake tin, greased and lined

To glaze:
1 tbsp apricot jam
1 tbsp whisky

1. Soak the currants, sultanas, glacé cherries and peel in the 3 tbsp whisky overnight.

2. When you are ready to bake the cake, pre-heat the oven to gas mark 3/170C and cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl.

3. Beat the eggs in one at a time and then sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl and fold in gently. The mixture should be soft and drop from the spoon - if it seems stiff add a little milk.

4. Carefully fold in the ground almonds, rind and whisky-soaked fruit, then spoon gently into the tin and level with the back of a spoon.
5. Arrange the almonds in concentric circles, placing them gently on the cake rather than pressing them in.

6. Bake for 2-2 and a half hours until firm and springy to the touch. Let the cake cool in the tin for 30 minutes before cooling it on a wire rack.
7. When it is completely cool, wrap the cake twice in greaseproof paper and put back in the tin, then feed by piercing small holes in the cake with a cocktail stick and sprinkling it with whisky.

8. Leave the cake in an airtight tin until the night before needed, when you should feed it again.
9. Glaze the cake by straining the apricot jam through a sieve and then warming gently in a pan with the whisky over a low heat until melted. Then set aside til cool. When cooled, brush the whole cake with the glaze and if desired, wrap a ribbon around the cake.

This second recipe has more of my own input. I've made a cranberry streussel cake for the last few years, but this year I had a lot of mincemeat left over from my filo mince pies (that's a bake for another day, kids), so I thought 'Why not a mincemeat streussel?'

Why not indeed. You can buy mincemeat to make this, or make your own. I am afraid I am pretty slapdash with my mincemeat. I tend to fling in any ingredients I can find, with the only essentials being raisins or sultanas, booze and vegetable suet (I'm a veggie).

You will need:

For the mincemeat:
450g dried mixed fruit (raisins, sultanas etc)
a tart, firm cooking apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped
50g flaked or finely chopped blanched almonds
110g dark muscovado sugar
50g shredded vegetable suet
1 tsp each of freshly grated nutmeg and ground cinnamon
grated rind of 1 orange or lemon
100ml liqueur of some kind - I used whisky but brandy or sherry is more traditional

For the pastry:
350g butter
75g caster sugar
45ml olive oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 medium egg
500g plain flour
1 and a half tsp
pinch of salt
an 8 inch spring-form tin, greased and floured

1.  To make the mincemeat, stir all the ingredients together in a large bowl and leave, covered, for two days. If you are not going to use it immediately, store in clean (preferably sterilised) jars.
2. To make the dough, cream together the butter and sugar.

3. Beat in the olive oil, egg and vanilla.

4. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and mix together until the mixture forms a rough dough. Knead into a ball and wrap tightly in clingfilm, then put in the freezer for 2 hours.

5. Cut the ball in half (using a knife dipped in boiling water if it is very hard) and then grate one half into the tin and use fingers to distribute in an even layer.
6. Spoon the mincemeat into the tin (you may not have to use all of it) and spread into an even layer that does not quite touch the sides of the tin - it will ooze out if you spread it to the very edges.

7. Grate the rest of the dough on top evenly and press down very gently. Bake for about 1-1 and a half hours until firm but still quite pale.
8. Serve cut into wedges and with creme fraiche or cream to cut through the richness of the streussel.

I haven't tried the Dundee cake yet, but as it reeks of whisky, I'll give it a whirl. Surely nothing so booze-soaked can be bad, right?

Anyway, the streussel is good and a great alternative to making individual mince pies. You could also make it in a rectangular baking tin and make it as a traybake.

All that remains is for me to wish you a very Merry Christmas. Eat, drink and be merry, but it might be best to stop when it hurts. At least for ten minutes or so.

Yours,
The Begrudging Baker
xxx

Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Well I do, if it means I get to eat things like this. Millionaire's shortbread - a buttery, crumbly shortbread base layered with smooth sticky caramel and topped with a thick layer of dark chocolate and feathered white chocolate. Calorie counters, look away NOW.

This shortbread is a wonderful thing. I made a batch last weekend and took it into work. Everyone had a piece...and then the deputy editor ate another three when my back was turned. Let that stand testament to how good this recipe is; when it comes to baking, gluttony is the highest form of flattery.

This recipe is really easy, if you can get the hang of making caramel and it can be made to look really pretty too. I apologise for the photos - flash always makes food look slightly lacklustre, but I made this in the evening, so leaving flash off wasn't really an option.

You will need:

For the shortbread:

250g plain flour

175g unsalted butter

75g caster sugar

pinch of salt

For the caramel topping:

300g granulated sugar

60ml water

120ml single cream

For the chocolate:

300g dark chocolate

50g white chocolate

a piping bag

a cocktail stick

1. Grease and line a large, reasonably deep baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.

2. Put all the dry shortbread ingredients into a large bowl. Cube the butter and rub into the flour and sugar with your fingertips to form a crumbly mixture. Press the crumbs into the baking sheet.

3.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until light golden in colour.

4. While the shortbread base is baking, put the granulated sugar and water for caramel in a small pan over a high heat. You may stir before the sugar has dissolved, but not afterwards, or the mixture will crystallise. Heat the sugar syrup until it turns golden brown in colour - it will also smell AMAZING.

5. Once the caramel is golden brown, take it off the heat and pour in the cream whilst stirring vigorously. Careful - it will spit. 

6. Once the shortbread base is out of the oven, pour the caramel over the top and leave to set. Shake the baking tin from side to side to ensure the caramel is even. Set aside.

7. Break up the dark chocolate and set it in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water to melt, stirring occasionally to ensure it does not stick or burn. The water should not touch the bottom of the bowl. 

8. Let the caramel set a little then pour the chocolate over the caramel, as evenly as possible. You can use a knife or spatula to spread, but careful not to penetrate the caramel layer. Shake the baking tin from side to side to ensure the chocolate is even.

9. Quickly, before the dark chocolate starts to set, break the white chocolate up and put it in a non-metallic bowl. Give it a few 30 second blasts in the microwave, stirring after each time until it is fully melted. Spoon into the piping bag.

10. Pipe parallel lines one way across the dark chocolate. Use a cocktail stick to feather the white chocolate, first one way, then the other. Leave to set before cutting into small squares - I find a pizza cutter dipped in hot water works well. 

  

Devour!

I'm dribbling just looking at it.

Until next time bakelings,

Ellie

xxx

Kooky Spooky Skeleton Cookies

Who loves Halloween? But of course you do! What other occasion offers you the chance to eat sweets til you're sick, drink alcohol, dress up like a prat, demand sweets from strangers, play practical jokes on unsuspecting members of the public and make a godawful mess carving pumpkins?

Sadly, I'm too old to dress up and demand sweets from strangers without them calling the police, so I did not go trick and treating. But you're never too old for gingerbread men, so I decided to make these delicious biscuits with a bit of a twist.

After all, why go out and bully your neighbours for sweets when you could have endless fun making and icing 40 gingerbread men? And believe me, it feels endless after the first couple of hours. The recipe I based mine on was supposed to make 20, but it made 40, because I like my gingerbread men thin and crisp. So if you're going to roll your dough thin as well, then use half quantities for 20 biscuits.

You will need:

For the dough:
350g plain flour
2 tsp ground ginger
125g butter
175g light brown soft sugar
1 egg
3 pieces of stem ginger, finely chopped
3 tbsp of syrup from the stem ginger jar
a gingerbread man biscuit cutter

For the decoration:
125g icing sugar
3 tsp of lemon juice
a piping bag

1. Mix the flour and ginger together in a large bowl.

2. Add the butter in cubes and rub in with your fingertips to make crumbs.

3. Add the egg, syrup, sugar and chopped stem ginger and stir with a wooden spoon until it comes together into a dough.
4. With floured hands and on a floured work surface, roll out the dough (with a floured rolling pin) to desired thickness (I think this is a matter of personal preference).
5. Cut out the gingerbread men, kneading any offcuts back together and rolling out again. Bake on a lined baking sheet for 7.5-15 minutes at 180C, depending on thickness until an even brown colour.
6. While the biscuits cool, beat together the icing sugar and lemon into a smooth consistency. Spoon into a piping bag and cut a tiny bit off the end - enough so the icing comes out smoothly but you can still do some pretty delicate piping.
7. When the biscuits have cooled, pipe little skeletons onto the biscuits, as pictured below:

8. Voila, spooky skeleton gingerbread men!

The great thing about these is that even if Halloween is too spooky for you, you'll love these, because being able to bite off their heads and eat them really takes the fear out of ghouls and ghosties. And they do taste pretty amazing.

I would like to pretend that all the biscuits were as beautifully iced as those above, but after the first 20 I got bored, so by the last 5 or so they were just series of blobs.

Enjoy, my little creatures of the night.

Ellie
xxx

Cinnamon Buns

I love cinnamon. I put it in biscuits, banana bread, porridge and, less conventionally, chillis and tagines. But one of the best places you can find cinnamon is at the heart of a tightly coiled, buttery bun. A bun packed with sultanas and with the soft torn sides that come from baking a batch that expand and stick together.

 Wipe that dribble off your chin, it's baking time.

This recipe is a bit of a mish-mash. I based it on Paul Hollywood's Chelsea bun recipe from my GBBO book, but used bits of this recipe too.

One of the great things about bread and buns is that because a whole lot of the process happens before it goes anywhere near the oven, you can often freeze it and then just leave it in the fridge for 20 minutes or so before baking - voila, fresh buns in half an hour. I've got a batch of 8 in my freezer right now. I'm going to get them out the freezer Thursday and bake them fresh for Friday.

I used a cinnamon stick this time because Sainsbury's was inexplicably out of ground cinnamon. It worked really well, but I found I had to use 4 tsp to make the filling taste of cinnamon. So maybe you should add the cinnamon to taste.

You will need:

For the dough:

500g strong white bread flour

50g light brown soft sugar

1 tsp salt

1 x 7g packet of fast action yeast

300ml milk

40g softened butter

1 egg

vegetable oil

For the filling:

75g butter

75g soft brown sugar (I used light this time, but I think another time I'd use dark)

4tsp freshly ground cinnamon stick or 2 tsp ground cinnamon

200g sultanas 

zest of 1 orange

To finish:

juice of 1 orange

50g caster sugar

a little runny water icing (2 tsp water to 5 tsp icing sugar) to drizzle across the buns - this is optional

1. Soak the sultanas for the filling in the orange juice for the finishing glaze. Mix the flour, salt and sugar for the dough in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle and add the yeast.

 2. Put the milk and butter in a pan over a low heat until the butter melts. Add to the dry ingredients with the egg and stir until it comes together as a soft, sticky dough.

3. Tip the mixture out onto a well floured work surface and knead for about 5 minutes until elastic and no longer sticky. Wash the mixing bowl and brush with the vegetable oil. Put the dough in and turn it over a few times to make sure it is well-oiled. Cover tightly with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for an hour and a half to rise.

6. Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down to its original size and knead it a little (gently!) to squeeze some of the air bubbles out.

7. Roll out the dough to a rectangle about 40cm long and half a cm thick. Take the sultanas out of the orange juice and set both aside. Beat together all the other ingredients for the filling and spread evenly across the dough. Sprinkle the sultanas across the dough and press down into the dough.

8. Stick one of the long sides of the dough to the work surface by pressing it down hard with your thumb. Take the other half and pull it towards you, then roll it up, pulling a little each time to ensure a tight roll. Once the dough is all rolled up, cut across into about 10 pieces each 4cm wide. Place cut side down on a buttered baking tray, spaced evenly apart and cover with a tea towel and set aside in a warm place for 30 minutes.

9. While the buns are proving, preheat the oven to 190C/gas 5. Bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and golden brown.

10. Heat the orange juice and caster sugar in a pan until sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 2 minutes and remove from heat. Glaze the buns with the orange syrup and then drizzle with the water icing.

I want to tell you to eat these warm, but if you burn your tongue and sue me, I will be sad. But just look at them, so soft, so cinnamony, so fruity, so sweet. You know you want to...

Ta-ta bakelings,

Ellie

xxx