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

Canadian Maple Syrup and Pecan Cookies

I know, I know, it's been far too long. I'M SORRY. But I've been really busy, with my new (ish) full time job as a financial journalist. I cannot apologise enough, so I will just bombard you with pictures of cake:

Quite impressive, if I may say so myself. And I may, and I do. But I'm afraid I'm not going to give you the recipe for this, mainly because someone's already done it: http://cakefixation.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/how-to-make-fire-breathing-dragon-cake.html.

Mine is slightly different in that I made chocolate chip sponge and used a white chocolate and rice crispy mixture to made the head and neck of the dragon and I understand that rice crispy treats include marshmallow (I've never made them). Also my dragon doesn't breathe fire, because: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gLMSf4afzo

Instead, I'm going to give you the recipe for my very tasty Canadian inspired maple syrup and pecan cookies.

So, I went on a business trip to Canada. And in my goody bag, courtesy of the government of Ontario, I found a bottle of maple syrup:

So I decided to put it to good use and make cookies for the office (they did send me to Canada, after all).

And the results were very good.

You will need:
225g butter
220g soft brown sugar
an egg
100ml maple syrup
2 tsp baking soda
350g flour
50g roughly chopped pecans
a little granulated sugar to sprinkle

1. Beat together the brown sugar and butter to a light fluffy consistency

2. Beat in the egg and maple syrup.

3. Sift in the flour, baking soda and mix in the nuts.

4. Roll into golf-ball sized balls (use an ice-cream scoop if you have one) and put on a baking tray. Flatten with a spatula and bake for 10-15 minutes at 175 degrees C/gas 4.

5. Cool on a wire rack and eat while good and squidgy. Mmmmm.

Orange and Pistachio Biscuits

I made up this recipe earlier today, and it may already be my new favourite biscuit recipe! It's a really good combination of flavours, and as rich and buttery as shortbread should be, but the texture is added to with the crunch of the nuts and slight chewiness of the orange zest.

This is another video blog, but I'll just write out some quick instructions so you don't have to keep replaying the video if you want to make them.

Here's the video:



And here are the instructions:

You will need:
250g plain flour
75g caster sugar
175g unsalted butter
60g roughly chopped pistachios
50g dark chocolate
grated zest of one large orange
dash of Cointreau

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Rub the butter into the flour and sugar with your fingertips in a large bowl.
2. Add the zest and nuts and mix through, then add the Cointreau and knead the mixture into a ball.
3. Roll out the ball to half a cm thickness, then cut out the biscuits with a biscuit cutter and place them on a lined baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes.
4. In the meantime, melt 50g dark chocolate in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Let cool a little and then spoon into a piping bag.
5. Take out the biscuits and allow them to cool on a wire rack.
6. When the biscuits are cool, drizzle them with the dark chocolate.
7. Devour.

Ellie
xxx

Lavender and White Chocolate Macarons

I've got a treat for you. Today, you are going to witness...

...my first ever video blog! Exciting, isn't it? I decided that to broaden my skills as a journalist I should start video blogging. So here it is, please be gentle as it's my first one. And I apologise for any mumbling, bad lighting and for sticking my tongue out when I'm concentrating.

To make the shells for this, just use this recipe, omitting the cardamom and lemon curd and colouring the mixture purple rather than yellow.



And here's a picture of the finished macarons:

Ta-ta bakelings, be good.

Ellie
xxx

Macaron Wars VI: Return of the Pastry

Yes, that's right, I've cracked macarons. By which, ironically, I mean that my macarons did NOT crack. Neither were they porous, neither did they have holes in. They even had feet. They looked kinda like this:

Aren't they beautiful? And the secret to macarons was waiting for me all along in this book, which I saw out of the corner of my eye in Bookham library.

I have a lot to thank this lady for, because she taught me that macarons are actually pretty easy. Yeah, I said it. All that banging the trays on the work surface like you see on GBBO? Not necessary. Folding the mixture oh-so-carefully to preserve every tiniest air bubble? No. Aging the egg whites? Please.

All you need to do is follow a few simple steps, be precise with your ingredients and you can make macarons like the French. And then, and this is the exciting bit, you can start experimenting. I already have, and the process below is the result of one of my experiments. But as I haven't perfected that recipe yet, I'll give you the ingredients to a different macaron - lemon and cardamom. This recipe makes 12-16 depending on size.

You will need:

For the shells:
1 tsp freshly ground cardamom (that means you grind it yourself, lazy)
50g egg whites
33g caster sugar
60g ground almonds (any other nut will also work if its finely ground enough. I've already tried coconut)
90 icing sugar
a dash of yellow paste colouring
a disposable piping bag
lined baking tray

For the filling:
lemon curd - if you care to make your own I used this recipe but I only made half, that was more than enough, and I converted all the ingredients into grams because CUPS MAKE ELLIE ANGRY

1. Sift the icing sugar and almonds together into a bowl, using a medium sieve. Any pieces of almond that won't go through, chuck them out and replace them with some that will.

2. Beat the egg whites in a very clean bowl, adding the caster sugar gradually until they reach stiff peaks. You'll want to add the colouring at some point during this process.
3. Mix the egg whites into the dry ingredients using a spatula or large metal spoon. You don't need to be too careful about folding the mixture to keep the air in. I know this will sound strange if you're an experienced meringue maker but bear with.

 4. You now need to use a spatula to press down on the mixture, squashing it against the bottom of the bowl to squash the air out until the mixture is smooth and ribbons off the spatula. This will definitely take no longer than 5 minutes.

5. Put the mixture in a piping bag and use a clean spatula to push the mixture down towards the tip of the piping bag. Then twist the piping bag above the mixture to stop the mixture from coming out the top and snip the tip off, leaving a 1cm wide hole.

6. Pipe rounds of about 3cm onto the lined baking tray and then leave at least 30 minutes to set until they are dry to the touch. If you like you can decorate them with seeds, finely crushed nuts or cocoa powder before they set. While they set preheat the oven to 160C for a fan oven, 170-180C for a non-fan oven.

  7. Bake in the centre of the oven for 10-12 minutes but set a timer for 8 minutes and check then - they may not need any more baking. When cooked leave to cool on the baking tray then scrape off carefully with a palette knife or flat spatula.
8. Match up the discs to ones of equal size and either pipe or spoon the filling onto half of the discs, then place its partner on top, using a circular motion so that the filling squashes enticingly just out of the shell.
9. Ta-dah!

As you can see, those experimental ones (they happen to be mojito flavoured in case you're interested) didn't turn out quite as pretty as the others. They are very pretty.

As you can see, you can also decorate them with drizzles of chocolate, dipping in melted chocolate or using my old favourite, edible glitter.

Ta-ta for now,
Ellie
xxx

Pistachio and Pecan Salambos

I've been meaning to put this recipe up for a while, but I've been busy looking for a job, doing placements and generally failing to get on the career ladder.

I made these choux pastry bun things for a house party I was going to. I'd planned to get up early in the morning and fill them with cream then. But to cut a long story short, I was deprived of my car very early that morning and had to get a lift into uni with my dad at ridiculous o clock in the morning.

So at 8 in the morning I was standing in Kingston with a bag on my shoulder containing 50 balls of choux pastry, 2 boxes of cream and no idea how to transfer the cream into the pastry. If I had been at home I would have used an icing bag or my icing syringe to get the cream into the pastry, but as it was I ended up standing in a friend's kitchen clumsily ripping my beautiful pastry balls in half and spooning cream into them.

I also discovered that they do not travel well. The caramel melted a bit and got really sticky. And I severely hurt my shoulders carrying my pastry around.

But all this not withstanding, choux pastry is fun and tasty. So you should try making it. I'll give you the recipe for the pecan salambos with coffee flavoured cream, since that was my own invention, whereas the recipe for pistachio salambos with orange flavoured cream is in the Bake Off recipe book.

You will need:

For the pastry:
100g plain flour
¼ tsp salt
75g unsalted butter
3 large beaten eggs

For the topping:
25g finely chopped pecans
175g caster sugar
gold edible glitter

For the filling:
250ml double cream
2 tbsp icing sugar
1 tbsp coffee liqueur (the recipe said 1 tsp but that's hardly worth it)
1 piping bag and 2 baking trays lined with baking paper

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6. Sift the flour onto a sheet of greaseproof paper and set aside until needed. Put the salt, water and butter in a pan and heat gently until the butter has completely melted. Quickly bring the mixture to the boil and tip in the flour all in one go.
2. Take the pan off the heat and beat very hard and fast with a wooden spoon until it turns into a smooth dough. Put the pan back on a low heat and beat more slowly until it begins to come away from the sides of the pan in a smooth glossy ball.

3. Cool until barely warm and then add the eggs gradually, mixing with an electric mixer. Add enough egg to make a shiny dough that is stiff enough to pipe. Spoon into the piping bag and cut off the tip of the bag, to leave a 2cm opening. Pipe mounds about 4cm across and 3cm high on the lined baking sheets, spacing them well apart to allow for spreading. Bake for 25 minutes.

4. Turn the oven down to 180C/gas 4, quickly open and close the oven door (to get rid of steam) then bake for another 5 minutes until crisp and golden.
5. Take from the oven and make a small hole in each choux ball to let the steam out and put back in oven for 5 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

6. For the topping, have the nuts ready and spread out on a plate. Make the caramel by gently heating the sugar with 3 tbsp of water. Swirl the sugar and water to combine but don't stir, it will make the caramel crystallise.

7. When the caramel turns a deep brown and smells of, well, caramel, turn the heat off. Dip the balls in the hot caramel (keeping your fingers well clear!) and then into the nuts. Leave to set on a wire rack and sprinkle with edible glitter.

 8. To make the filling whip double cream, icing sugar and liqueur together until they reach stiff peaks. Spoon into the piping bag and pipe cream into each ball through the steam hole, or split the balls in half and pipe or spoon in.
9. Serve as soon as possible.

And I had enough leftover pastry dough to make these rather inelegant eclairs:

Ta-ta for now bakelings,

Ellie
xxx

Nectarine Frangipane Tart

It's usually called 'Peach and Frangipane Tart', but I prefer nectarines. And I'm really glad I used nectarines because it came out amazing and prettier than the tart in the Great British Bake Off recipe book. When the tart came out the oven the nectarines looked like they were glowing and they just fell apart on the fork and melted in the mouth. Mmmmm peachy.

Actually, as I have already explained it was more like: mmmmmm nectariney.

Anyway I have slightly altered the recipe because I didn't particularly like the way it was done in the book (sorry Mary and Paul). Enjoy!

For the pâte sucrée (posh word for enriched sweet pastry):
200g plain flour

¼ tsp salt

100g butter, chilled

4 large egg yolks

100g caster sugar

finely grated zest of ½ an unwaxed lemon

For the filling:

100g butter, softened

100g caster sugar

finely grated zest of ½ an unwaxed lemon

2 large eggs, beaten

100g ground almonds

100g plain flour

4 medium just-ripe yellow-fleshed nectarines

1 tbsp flaked almonds

icing sugar, for dusting

1 x 23cm loose based flan tin, greased and lined with baking paper

1. Sift flour and salt onto a clean surface (I used a marble slab) and make a well in the centre. Pour in the egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest and work into the flour with your fingers or a scraper/spatula.

  2. Once the flour has been thoroughly worked in, cut the butter up and rub it into the mixture with your fingers. The mixture will be very sticky but try not to flour your hands or the pastry.

3. When the dough starts to come together dust the surface very lightly with flour and knead the dough until glossy, smooth and easily shaped. Roll into a ball, then flatten into a thick disc and wrap in clingfilm. Chill for 30 minutes.

  4. Dust the worktop with flour and roll dough into a circle and use it to line the flan tin. Use a piece of excess pastry to push it into the corners - if you use your fingers you may break it. Save any trimmings - you'll use them later. Preheat the oven to 190C (170-80 in a fan oven)/gas 5.
5. Beat the butter for the filling with a wooden spoon or electric mixer until soft and fluffy, then beat in the lemon zest and sugar, followed by the eggs. Spoon into the pastry case and put in the fridge until needed.

6. Bring a pan of water to the boil and make a small cut in each nectarine near the stalk. Boil the nectarines for 12 seconds or until their skins peel off (2 of mine took a lot longer than 12 seconds). Cut each peeled nectarine in half and remove the stone. This may get a bit messy but don't worry too much, the frangipane will rise and cover most of the mess. With one of the halves, cut into slices, leaving about a cm attached at the top of the half, near the stalk. Fan out the slices and put this half in the middle, then place all the others around it. I could actually only fit 6 halves around it so I ate the last one. Bake for 25 minutes.
7. While the tart is baking, roll out the trimmings and cut into leaf shapes. Take the tart out the oven and place the leaf decorations on top along with the flaked almonds. Lower the oven temperature to 180C (160-70 in a fan oven)/gas 4 and bake for another 25-30 minutes until both pastry and frangipane are golden.
8. Leave to cool for at least 10 minutes but then eat - it's best served warm. I'll let you into a secret - if there are leftovers the next day, Mary and Paul would have you reheat them in the oven but I just give them 30 seconds to a minute per slice in the microwave. Don't tell anyone.

I think I'm getting better at taking these pictures of baked goods you know.

Bye for now,
Ellie
xxx