Hot Cross Buns

Last year I tried hot cross buffins, this year I kept it simple (or traditional, if that's misleading...) and made hot cross buns! They are best served warm (toasted or microwaved, depending on your preference) with a generous amount of butter, or honey, or whatever you put on your buns. I think we can all agree that these are better that store-brought, and you can choose to omit any weird fruit-stuff you don't like like glace cherries, for example. These make your house smell amazing as they cook :D

Hot cross buns
Prep time: 20 minutes, plus 3 hours proving
Serves: 8
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Cooking temp: Gas 7, 220C

Ingredients:
150ml semi-skimmed milk
25g margarine or butter
250g strong wholemeal bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
37g caster sugar
Half a sachet of instant dried yeast
A small egg, beaten
75g jumbo raisins
25g mixed dried fruit pieces/peel such as apricot and orange
1 small apple (or half a larger one), peeled, cored and very finely chopped
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
A bit of lemon juice
For the cross:
35g plain white flour, and more to dust
For the glaze:
2 tbsps apricot jam

Method:

1. Bring the milk to a boil in a small pan (watch it carefully!! Mine exploded somewhat :D ) then remove from the heat and add the butter. Stir until melted.
2. Combine the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a bowl and make a well in the middle. Pour in the milk mixture with the beaten egg and fold with a wooden spoon, then with your hands, to a very sticky dough.
3.  Turn out onto a floured surface and knead to an elastic dough that stretches nice and smoothly, hopefully not so sticky any more. Place in an oiled bowl, covered with oiled clingfilm, in a warm place to prove for an hour. It should double in size and go puffy.
   
4. Meanwhile, combine all the fruits in a small bowl with the cinnamon and cover with a splash of lemon juice to stop the apple browning. After it's hour, tip this mixture  into the dough and knead until evenly distributed. Leave for another hour (!), after which it should grow to fill your bowl (depending on it's size, I guess...)
   
   
   
   
5. Divide into 8 equal pieces, 78g (ish, weigh your mix and divide by 8) each. Roll each ball over a lightly floured surface and space out well on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover lightly with oiled clingfilm again.
   
6. Preheat the oven and place the buns on top to prove for their last hour.
   

   

   So massive!!!!

7. In a bowl, combine the flour with water, adding it one table spoon at a time until you have a very thick paste you can just stir. (3-5 tbsps). Using a small-holed piping nozzle, pipe crosses across each bun - doing a line down all the buns one way and then repeating in the other direction.
   
   
   
   
8. After, cook for 20 minutes until golden-brown in the middle of your oven.
9. In their last 5 minutes, be heating up the jam until melted. Strain through a sieve to remove any chunks and pour into a small bowl. Using a cooking brush, liberally apply the warm jam to the buns as they come out the oven, then leave to cool on a metal wire rack.
   
   
   
   
10. Serve and enjoy - happy Easter!

(Vegan!) Banana Muffins with Strusel Topping

We made up this amazing recipe which is suitable for vegetarians and vegans; dairy free; egg free; but definitely not taste free :). Don't be put off by vegan recipes - I think everyone agreed that this tasted of perfection... Banana replaces egg in this recipe (which you can apparently also do for pancakes, a range of cakes and other recipes).

Banana Muffins
Prep time: 20 minutes
Serves: 6-7
Cooking temp: Gas 6,
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients
For the topping
3 tbsps oat granola
30g self raising flour
20g sunflower spread or soya butter
40g demerara sugar (or granulated brown sugar)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
For the muffins
100g wholemeal flour (can be bread flour)
60ml soya milk
40ml melted sunflower spread
3 tbsps dark muscavado sugar
2 tsp baking powder
3 bananas - two mashed rougly with a fork and the other mashed/blended to a puree
 
Method 

1. Preheat your oven and line a deep muffin tin with 7 paper cases for muffins.
2. For the topping: in a mall bowl, rub together the flour and spread to rough breadcrumbs. Stir in the granola, sugar and cinnamon and set aside.
   
3. In a larger bowl, combine the flour, sugar and baking powder and make a well in the middle.
4. Combine the wet ingredients in a measuring jug and pour in to the bowl with the pureed banana. Mix then add the chunkier banana pieces.
   
5. Fill the cases 2/3 full, then add a generous sprinkle of topping to each muffin
   
6. Bake for 20 minutes, not too close to the top of the oven or they'll catch. 
7. Leave to cool on a plate (removed from the muffin tin so they don't go soggy) 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. These are great for breakfast or in a lunchbox, or just for desert :) The slightly denser banana-bread like muffin goes really well with the crunchy granola.
   

Rhubarb and Custard Crumble + More

Rhubarb is in season - but if you don't have any, you can use loads of other fruit (see the attached recipes).This is a bit like a trifle but, frankly, nicer. If you don't like custard, try the same amount of cream mixed in with a bit of natural yoghurt and 1/2 a tsp of vanilla essence

Rhubarb Crumble
Serves: 4
Prep time: 1 hour
Cooking temp: Gas 4, 180C
Cooking time:  25 minutes

Ingredients
For the crumble
225g plain flour
200g fridge-cold unsalted butter
150g granulated demerara sugar
100g porridge oats 
For the rhubarb compote
 400g rhubarb (peeled and trimmed weight)
40g caster sugar
2 tbps orange juice
For the custard
125ml double cream
125ml milk
1/2 a vanilla pod, slit, OR 1/2 a tsp of vanilla essence
2 large egg yolks
40g caster sugar
1 tsp cornflour

Method

1. Preheat the oven.
2. Cut the cold butter into small cubes and combine with all the other crumble ingredients in a large bowl. Rub to crumbs, then mash some together into larger lumps to form a very rough crumble. Break these up slightly over a shallow, wide baking dish and bake for 25 minutes until golden brown. Mix with a large spoon half way through.
   
3. Meanwhile, slice the rhubarb into 5 cm lengths and put into a small saucepan with the sugar and juice. Cook on a low heat for 15 minutes until the juices run and the rhubarb is beginning to break down (but hasn't lost its shape). Leave off the heat to cool slightly.
4. Put the cream, milk and vanilla pod / essence into another saucepan and bring to simmering point. Remove from the heat and leave to infuse for 10 minutes - or, if you use the essence, ignore this step. 
5. Beat the egg yolks with the cornflower until it is creamy. Pour over the hot cream, whisk whisking with an egg whisk. Put it all back into the pan and heat (not to a boil), stirring with a wooden spoon. The custard should coat the back of the spoon.
6. Layer up 4 desert glasses with the rhubarb, custard and a good scattering of crumble on top. You'll have too much - see below for further possible uses...
   
   

   

   With yoghurt

   

   With custard

What to do with the independent crumble (which, we discovered, is a handy thing to have about to make super quick  deserts): (it will store well in an airtight container for a few days)

• Scatter over fruit and yogurt, like granola for your breakfast
• Layer up with a stewed fruit compote... we cooked up 4 nectarines with a splash of red wine, sugar and water/lemon juice and left it to reduce on a low heat with the lid on for 10 minutes. Lovely. Then, top with more cream or yoghurt as before, if you don't want to go to the effort of making custard
• Over a blueberry compote: take 2 cups of blueberries, 3 tablespoons of water, 1/4 cup of sugar and 2 tsp of lemon juice. Cook half the blueberries with the rest of the ingredients for 10 minutes in a saucepan on a medium heat. Add the rest and cook for a further 8 minutes. Serve warm.