Paul Hollywood's Hot Cross Buns

So, it's Easter. Or at least it was, but I was in Norwich over the weekend and only made these yesterday. And then I was too busy to write this up yesterday. Anyway I'm almost sure you can buy these all year round, so now you can make them all year round too.

Look at that - soft, slightly spiced, packed with fruit and glazed with sticky apricot jam. This is a very special recipe from the George Clooney of baking, the lovely Paul Hollywood. However, I also find it quite a tricky recipe. I had a lot of problems with getting my hot cross bun dough to rise last year, and this year I had the same problem again.

I'm not entirely sure what caused this problem either time, but if it happens to you, the main thing is not to panic. More than once I've angrily thrown unrisen dough into the food bin of an evening, only to find it's risen beautifully in the morning (probably helped along its way by the heat generated by decomposing vegetable peelings).

If your dough doesn't rise, turn it over, you may find that gluten strands have started to develop at the bottom of the dough, which means that the rising process is starting but it's just happening a bit slowly. Give it a squeeze - if it feels spongy and some air squidges out then your dough isn't irrecoverable. Try kneading your dough again and leaving it to rise again - I did this and mine rose beautifully.

To try and avoid problems with your dough rising, I'd advise you to knead it in a standing mixer with the dough hook attachment on a medium speed. If you don't have such fancy gadgets then just knead it good and proper and make sure you leave it to rise in a warm place. I usually use the airing cupboard.

This recipe will make 15 buns. I halved it and made 8. If you have trouble with any of the steps in this recipe then Paul is here to help. Check out this video of him teaching Mary how to make hot cross buns.

You will need:

For the buns:

300ml milk
50g butter
500g strong bread flour
1 tsp salt
75g caster sugar
7g sachet fast-action or easy-bake yeast
1 beaten egg
75g sultanas (raisins will also do)
50g mixed peel
zest 1 orange
1 finely chopped apple
1 tsp ground cinnamon

For the cross:

75g plain flour , plus extra for dusting

one piping bag or icing syringe

For the glaze:

3 tbsp apricot jam

1. Bring the milk to the boil, then take it off the heat and add the butter. Set aside and leave until lukewarm. Meanwhile put the flour, sugar, cinnamon, yeast and salt in a mixing bowl, being careful to put the yeast and salt on opposite sides of the bowl.

2. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the milk and butter then add the egg. Stir with a wooden spoon until it starts to come together, then get your hands in there and bring it all together until you have a sticky dough.

3. Tip onto a floured surface and knead well for 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Pop in an oiled bowl and cover with oiled cling film (oiled on the underside OBVIOUSLY - or it'll be messy when you try to get it out) and leave to rise for 1 to 2 hours or until doubled in size.

4. When the dough has risen, knock it back and knead in the mixed peel, orange zest, apple and sultanas. Put back in the oiled bowl, re-cover and leave to rise again, this time for an hour.

5. When the dough has risen, split it into 15 equal pieces. Roll them into balls (Paul shows you how in the video) and place on the baking tray close enough so that they will touch when risen. This is what makes the lovely torn soft edges on the bun. Leave to rise for an hour, and while they are rising preheat the oven to 200C (Paul says 220C but I found that too hot). 

6. When the buns have risen, mix the flour for the crosses with 5 tbsp water, adding the water a tbsp at a time as you may not have to use all of it. You're looking for the mixture to just hold its shape but still be runny enough to pipe. When it does this, spoon it into your piping bag or syringe and slowly pipe a line across each row of buns, following the curve of each bun carefully. Then pipe lines perpendicular to the first ones, until each bun has a cross on top. 

7. Bake for 20 minutes on the middle shelf of the oven until golden brown. Meanwhile, heat the apricot jam on the hob until melted, then sieve to remove any lumps. When the buns come out of the oven, glaze them straight away, using a pastry brush.

 And there are your hot cross buns, done! Let them cool briefly and then slice them open and spread with butter. And devour.

If you don't want to glaze with apricot jam then honey, golden syrup or a sugar syrup could be used. The apple is Paul's addition so feel free to leave it out if you don't fancy it. And feel free to experiment with spices too - nutmeg might make a nice addition.

Enjoy,

Ellie

xxx

Mini Meringue Pies

Hello,

So, you know how to make a lemon meringue pie. And it's very tasty and everything, but something's missing. Think of recent trends in baking - cupcakes, macaroons, cake pops - is there anything they have in common?

SIZE guys, size. Small is beautiful, small is cute, small is appealing. And this bias towards small things has absolutely nothing to do with me being a travel sized human. Not at all.

So I set myself the unenviable task of making tiny lemon meringue pies. And although it took ages, and was messy and stressful, they turned out beautifully:

But you already know how to make lemon meringue pie, so I'm going to give you a recipe for 24 tiny raspberry meringue pies instead. If you want to make the lemon meringue pies, just halve all the pastry and filling ingredients for the big one, but leave the meringue ingredients the same.

You will need:

For the pastry:
87g flour
44g butter or margarine meant for use in pastry (I used Stork)
1-3 tbsp water
a baking tray with 24 small holes for fairy cakes or similar

For the filling:
125g fresh raspberries
2 large egg yolks
25g cornflour

50g butter
25g caster sugar
125ml water

½ tbsp lemon juice

For the meringue:

1 tbsp cocoa
2 large egg whites
75g caster sugar
80ml water
a sugar thermometer

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Add the water, a little at a time until the mixture comes together in a dough. Roll it into a ball and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Roll the pastry out on a floured surface really really thin, as thin as you can get it without it breaking every time you touch it.

4. Cut out 24 circles of pastry with something that with produce circles small enough to line the holes in your baking tray. I used the mouth of a glass jar. Don't worry about making the little pie cases too deep - I actually found that the shallower ones worked better. Use a little piece of excess pastry to push the dough circles into the holes - you're far less likely to break the pastry that way than if you use your fingers.

5. Blind bake for 5-7 minutes, depending on your oven. You could cover all the pie cases in foil and weigh it down with rice or baking beans, but that would take ages, so I just pricked them all over to stop them from rising.

5. While the pie cases are baking, put the water and cornflour in a saucepan over a low heat. Whisk to remove any lumps and then add the butter and stir until melted. Increase the heat until nearly boiling then remove from heat.

6. Add the lemon juice, sugar and juice the raspberries into the pan by forcing them through a sieve. Make sure you scrape all the juice off the bottom of the sieve. Stir until the sugar dissolves. You should be left with a thick, gloopy, pink mixture. Beat the egg yolks in.

7. Take the pie cases out of the 24 hole baking tray and put them on a normal flat one. Put a teaspoonful of the raspberry filling in each pie case.

8. To make the meringue, heat the caster sugar and 80ml water until it reaches 110C on the sugar thermometer. Continue heating and meanwhile, whip the egg whites into stiff peaks. When the sugar syrup reaches 115C, pour it slowly into the egg whites, whipping all the time but being careful not to get any of the sugar syrup on the whisk.

9. When the meringue cools (up to 15 minutes later) sieve the cocoa into it and fold in with only 2 or 3 streaks so that the mixture is streaky. I tried to do this but it didn't really work so I just dusted the raw meringue with cocoa. Either spoon onto the filled pie cases or pipe using an icing bag without a nozzle on it. Try to make sure the filling is all covered and the meringue is as peaky as possible.

10. Bake for up to 10 minutes, then leave to cool before serving. 

These are divine hot, but I don't want to get sued if you burn yourself with hot raspberrieness so COOL THEM PEOPLE, COOL THEM. I would definitely do these again, they're great fun and so cute. For those waistline watchers, one or two of these is a lot less calorific than a slice of the big meringue pie, even though they're heavy on the topping. They don't travel well though, as I found out when I took them into uni, so treat them gently and they'll love you back. 

Ciao!

Ellie

xxx 

Red Nose Day Cupcakes

Guys, sad news.

Recently, my waistline seems to have doing something resembling the hokey cokey. You know - in, out, in, out. Shake it all about. The reasons for this are as follows:

1. I get tired and eat chocolate to wake myself up
2. I have no time to go to the gym
3. When I bake, I lick the spoon (only after I've finished mixing obviously, I'm not a beast)

So at the beginning of these week, after a weekend in Barcelona that revolved almost entirely around food, I made three decisions: I will take healthy snacks into uni instead of buying chocolate and cake, I will walk from my car to uni and back (thus adding an hour's walk to my daily exercise), I will bake only once a week and when I do I will not lick ANYTHING.

So the sad news is that I am cutting back on the baking a bit. I will still try to have one blog a week for you, and excitingly I will soon be writing a piece about the baking sector business-wise, which I will stick up here.

Anyway, I have baked this week, because my mum asked me to bake some Red Nose Day cupcakes or brownies for her cake sale at work. I decided that it would be easier to make cupcakes Red Nose themed than brownies. Here they are:

They're a bit messy but I needed to revise for a shorthand exam.

You will need:

225g sponge flour
225g butter or margarine suitable for baking (I use Stork)
225g caster sugar
225g eggs, or for those of us who are not crazy and do not weigh eggs, 4 medium eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
200g glacé cherries, halved
200-300g icing sugar
30-50ml water
enough red sugarpaste to make red noses for 24 cupcakes
24 red cupcake/muffin cases

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time and add the vanilla extract.

2. Sift the flour into the mixture in two batches. Do it from nice and high above the bowl to get lots of air into the mixture. Fold the flour in and then fold the cherries in.

3. Put an equal amount of batter into each cupcake case. I use an ice cream scoop because apparently that is the perfect amount of batter. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

4. When the cupcakes are golden brown and the tops spring back when lightly pressed, take them out and leave to cool.

5. When the cupcakes have cooled, level off the tops of any uneven ones with a knife (watch those fingers though). If, like me, you are trying to keep the tops off then probably don't eat them.
6. Beat the icing sugar and water together, adding the water a little at a time as you may not need it all. Spread all the cupcakes with icing.
7. Roll out the red sugarpaste (you may have to dust it with icing sugar to stop it sticking) and use something like a bottle top to cut out all the red noses, place on the cupcakes whilst icing is still wet. If you dusted the sugarpaste with icing sugar then wet a finger and use it to dab away the icing sugar.

8. Sell to raise money for charity. Hurrah!

Until the next time I decide my waistline can take cake and remain intact,

Ellie
xxx

Lemon Meringue Pie

It occurred to me this week that I have never before made a lemon meringue pie, so I decided to make one this weekend.

Lemon meringue pies are a baking classic - a crisp, butter pastry encasing a silky, bittersweet filling and topped with a pile of fluffy meringue. So understandably, I was a bit nervous about taking on this baking challenge. I feared I would produce an uneven pastry leaking a sticky, sloppy, soup of lemon curd and topped by a broken, weeping meringue.

So before I started I armed myself with the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book and some tips from this baking blog.

Luckily, my lemon meringue pie turned out pretty well for a first attempt. Not perfect - the ratio of filling to meringue was a bit off, but I think this was because I used enormous lemons and eggs that were a bit too small. The large amount of filling also caused the pie to leak, creating what Paul Hollywood would  scorn as a soggy bottom. But to you Paul, I say this: No-one has a dry bottom when you're in the room, you silver fox.

Also, my egg whites were not stiff enough to pipe, so next time I'll use the Italian meringue technique. The recipe below includes the alterations I would make next time I attempt a lemon meringue pie.

This is what the pie looked like:

And this is how to make it:

You will need:

For the pastry:
175g flour
87g butter or margarine meant for use in pastry (I used Stork)
3-5 tbsp water
an 8-inch quiche or pie tin

For the filling:
2 unwaxed lemons
2 large egg yolks
5tbsp cornflour
125g granulated sugar
300ml water

For the meringue:
2 large egg whites
75g caster sugar
80ml water
a sugar thermometer

1. Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

 2. Add the water, a little at a time until the mixture comes together in a dough. Roll it into a ball and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3. Roll out the dough on a floured surface until more than large enough to line the tin. Slide the tin underneath and use a piece of excess dough to push the pastry into the corners of the tin. Then trim off any excess by rolling a rolling pin across the top of the tin.

4. Bake blind for 10-15 minutes, using a piece of foil or baking parchment, weighed down with baking beads, dried beans or uncooked rice, to stop the pastry from rising.

5. Bake for another 5 minutes until firm, then put aside to cool.

6. To make the filling, zest and juice the lemons into a saucepan and add the granulated sugar and 300ml water. Heat until the sugar dissolves, then add the cornflour and whisk, then continue to heat until thickened.

7. Remove from the heat and beat in the egg yolks. Pour the warm filling into the pastry base, level out with a spatula and set aside to cool.
8. Preheat the oven to 150C. To make the meringue, heat the caster sugar and 80ml water until it reaches 110C on the sugar thermometer. Continue heating and meanwhile, whip the egg whites into stiff peaks. When the sugar syrup reaches 115C, pour it slowly into the egg whites, whipping all the time but being careful not to get any of the sugar syrup on the whisk.
9. When the meringue cools (up to 15 minutes later) pipe it onto the cooled lemon filling, making sure it is completely covered, then bake for 35 minutes.

Et voila, there it is:

Not perfect but very tasty. And if you follow my recipe yours should be a little more perfect than my first attempt.

See you next time my little meringues,

Ellie
xxx

Coconut Macaroons

Hi there,

Sorry I've been a bit quiet recently, I'm really busy at university at the moment.

Anyway, coconut macaroons! Fluffy little mounds of toasted deliciousness, and so easy to make.

You will need:

160g shredded coconut
80g caster sugar
20g flour
1tsp vanilla extract
2 egg whites
a pinch of salt

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together.

2. Add the egg whites and vanilla and beat until fully combined. Then drop teaspoonfuls on a greased baking sheet.

3. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden and toasty. You're done!

I think these are best eaten fresh and still warm in the centre. You could also dip them in chocolate or drizzle it over them. They're pretty good plain though.

Til next time,

Ellie
xxx

Peppa Pig Cupcakes

In case you don't know, Peppa Pig is a children's cartoon character and she looks something like this:

So today I made these cute cupcakes for a 2 year old's birthday party. They're easy enough to to involve the kids (maybe not at the more delicate icing bits!), cute and tasty. I'll give you the recipe for a batch of 12, just multiply the quantities by whatever you need to.

You will need:

112g caster sugar
112g unsalted butter
2 eggs
112g self-raising flour
2 tsp vanilla extract
375g icing sugar (strawberry flavour if you need it)
red food colouring
45ml water
15 pink marshmallows
24 white chocolate chips (plus spares)
3 squares chocolate (milk or plain)
an icing bag and cocktail sticks

1. Preheat the oven to gas 4/180C. Beat the caster sugar into the butter until light and fluffy.

2. Beat the eggs in one at a time, then add the vanilla extract and stir in.

3. Sift the flour in and fold until fully combined with butter and egg mixture.

4. Divide the mixture amongst 12 muffin cases, filling each about halfway. I use an ice cream scoop to measure out the mixture for each case, because apparently that's exactly the right amount. Bake for 12-15 minutes until slightly golden brown.
5. Cut off the top of each cupcake, to level it off.

6. Beat the icing sugar and water together. If not using strawberry icing sugar, use enough colouring to colour the icing the same colour as the marshmallows. This will be a very small amount so be careful! Cover the cakes in the icing (there should be quite a bit left over), and whilst still wet, put a marshmallow on each cake, quite off-centre and towards the right. Cut the remaining three marshmallows in half vertically and then into 4 horizontally, then stick on the edge of the cake above the nose and slightly to the rest. Wait for the icing to set.

7. Set a tbsp of the remaining icing aside and then colour the rest a darker pink. Put into an icing bag and cut a tiny bit off the end. Pipe a smile on each cake below and just to the left of the nose, then pipe little nostrils on each piggy snout. Cut a little more off the end of the icing bag and pipe a rosy cheek to the left of each snout.
8. Cut the tip off each chocolate chip. Microwave the plain and milk chocolate squares for 30 seconds and use a cocktail stick to blob a little dot on each chocolate chip - it should look like an eye. Repeat with all the chocolate chips.Wait for the chocolate pupils to set, then use another cocktail stick to put a blob of the remaining pale pink icing on the underside of each chocolate chip. Stick each pair of eyes below and a little closer together the marshmallow ears. When you're finished your cakes should look like this:

Oh, and here is a picture of a cake I made for my friend Joe before he jetted off to Sumatra to play with orangutans. Like this one, it is my own recipe but I cannot give you the recipe because I made it up as I went along. Also, there was a lot of swearing, and this is a family friendly blog:

It's made of chocolate sponge and orange flavoured buttercream so it's a CHOCOLATE ORANGE-UTAN. Do you get it? *prolonged manic laughter*

Stop judging me. You know cake puns are like an illness to me.

Ciao for now,
Ellie
xxx

Love Heart Biscuits

Hi,

It's Valentine's Day. I hate Valentine's Day. This is not for any silly reasons like 'Ohh, it's a consumerist conspiracy'. It's because I'm single. So I am taking my petty revenge by posting this recipe too late for you to make these biscuits for your lover. Sucks to be you. You'll have lost the recipe by next year.

You will need:

For the biscuits:
100g ground almonds
200g plain flour
good pinch of salt
80g icing sugar plus extra to dust
125g unsalted butter, chilled and diced
3 egg yolks
2 heart-shaped cookie cutters, one smaller than the other

For the filling:
200g raspberries or blackberries
2 tsp cornflour

3 tbsp caster sugar

1. Put the almonds, flour and salt in a blender and pulse to combine. Add the icing sugar and pulse until mixed in.

  2. Add the butter and process to coarse crumbs.

2. Beat the egg yolks in and stir until mixture forms a dough. Roll the dough into a ball and wrap it in clingfilm, then chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C.

3. Roll out the dough to the thickness of a pound coin and stamp out as many hearts with the larger cutter as possible. Then cut out the centre of half the hearts with the smaller cutter, and knead all the trimmings together and roll out again. Continue until all the dough is gone, but be aware that the more you work the dough the crumblier and harder to work with it will become. Bake the biscuits for 12 minutes until barely coloured and transfer them to a rack to cool for 10 minutes.

4. To make the filling, put the berries, conflour and caster sugar in a saucepan and heat whilst stirring until the berries soften and the juices run. Bring to the boil and simmer for 2 minutes, still stirring, until thickened. Pour into a bowl and leave to cool. If you have used blackberries you may want to force the filling mixture through a sieve to produce a smooth mixture.
5. Spread the hearts without the cut-out with the jam filling, then top each with a cut-out shape. Dust with icing sugar and serve.

The biscuits will keep for 4 days before being filled, but after you have filled them you should eat them that day.

Enjoy

xxx