Hot Cross Buns

It's so close to Easter, and FINALLY I successfully baked some hot cross buns. Light, fluffy and fruity, these buns are like the upgrade of a current teacake. I've always had them at Easter but in the past, the sweet dough has never quite worked to plan. However, on Valentine's day, I received the amazing gift of a stand mixer, which works perfectly for kneading enriched doughs such as these. The dough needs to be fairly wet and sticky and so kneading by hand is a messy job. If you don't have a stand mixer, don't be tempted to add more flour to de-stickify the dough - just cope with having dough covered hands for 10 minutes :)

My hot cross buns are fairly traditional with mixed dried fruit containing raisins, sultanas and mixed peel, and spiced lightly with cinnamon. I added a glaze to give the shiny look that's so appealing - you could add some orange zest in this glaze for a fruity twist, but that's up to you (as it's not that traditional!) However, you can add whatever dried fruit or spices you like, or why not go crazy with the recipe - try adding chocolate chips, nut pieces, or even (though I haven't tried this myself), after the first proving stage, you can roll each dough ball around a ball of chocolate truffle, then prove and bake.

They turned out beautifully and, if left in an airtight container, will stay fresh for a few days.
My favourite way to eat these is halved, toasted, and then slathered with butter.

I hope you enjoy making these as much as I did.

Makes 12 big buns

Ingredients:

For the buns:

• 300ml (1 & 1/4 cups) skimmed milk, warmed until it is tepid
• 7g (1 packet, or 2 tsp) dried, fast-action yeast
• 1 egg
• 500 grams (3 cups) plain flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 90g (1/3 cup + 1/2 tbsp) softened butter or margarine
• 300g (2 cups) dried mixed fruit (I used a mixture of raisins, sultanas and mixed peel)
• 65g (1/4 cup) caster sugar 

For the cross:

• 80g (2/3 cup) plain flour
• 60ml (4 tbsp) water

For the glaze:

• 60ml (4 tbsp) skimmed milk
• 30g (2 tbsp) caster sugar
• 1 tbsp orange zest (optional)

Method:

1. Pour the warmed milk into a bowl and sprinkle over the yeast. Leave for 5 minutes in a warm place until it is getting a bit frothy.

2. Whisk the egg into the milk/yeast mixture and set aside.

3. Sift the flour into a bowl of a stand mixer, and add the salt, caster sugar, cinnamon and softened butter. Start the stand mixer on a low setting (with the dough hook). If not using a stand mixer, rub the butter into the flour mixture with your hands until it resembles breadcrumbs.

4. Slowly pour over the milk mixture, then turn the speed of the mixer up slightly to ensure it is picking up all of the mixture from the sides of the bowl. Leave kneading for 7 minutes. If kneading by hand, knead for 10-12 minutes.

5. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm place for at least 90 minutes, until it has at least doubled in size.

6. Lightly dust your surface with flour and tip out the dough. Knock the dough back by flattening it. Pour over the mixed dried fruit and knead in until well incorporated.

7. Lightly grease a rectangular baking tray (around 20 x 25cm) and dust with flour. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll each dough piece into a ball and place, evenly spaced, in the tray. You want there to be around a 1 inch (2.5cm) gap between each ball of dough.

8. Cover the tray with cling film and leave to rise for a further hour.

9. Preheat the oven to 190c (170c fan)/375f/ Gas mark 5.

10. To make the cross, pour the flour into a bowl and pour over the water slowly, beating with a wooden spoon. Once the mixture is smooth but moveable around the bowl (the consistency of thick buttercream), pour into a piping bag. 

11. Cut the end off the piping bag around 1 cm from the tip. Pipe crosses across each bun (I did these by going across the length of all the buns, then across the width of all the buns).

11. Bake the buns for 15-18 minute, until well risen and golden on top.

12. In the last five minutes of baking, prepare the glaze by pouring the milk, orange zest (if using) and sugar into a saucepan. Heat on a low heat for 3-4 minutes until bubbling and slightly reduced.

13. As soon as the buns are out of the oven, use a heat-proof pastry brush to brush some of the glaze onto each bun.

14. Leave to cool.

15. Enjoy!

Sweet Potato and Bacon Soup with Almond Butter

This is possibly my new favourite soup. It's my boyfriend's speciality at the moment - he found the recipe in one of Marcus Wareing's cookbooks, and it is packed full of flavour and goodness. The soup is rammed full of sweet potato and bacon flavour, and topping with a dollop of homemade almond butter makes this a really satisfying meal. This recipe is very similar to Marcus', but with a few little tweaks.

My boyfriend always makes this with his favourite bread - a cottage loaf. He wrote a guest post a few months ago about it (see here).

This recipe makes around 6 big bowls but would be a very easy recipe to double up.

Ingredients:

• 1.6kg (3-4 big) sweet potatoes
• 2 medium onions
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 celery sticks
• 2 litres (8 cups) chicken stock
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 200g (7/8 cup) smoked bacon rashers
• 100g (1 cup & 1 tbsp) toasted flaked almonds (bake flaked almonds at 200c (180c fan)/390f for 8-10 mins, until golden and smelling toasty)
• 3 tbsp olive oil (we've also used walnut oil previously, which worked really well)
• 250ml (1 cup) skimmed milk
• A few sprigs of thyme, to serve
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

1. Peel, and chop the sweet potatoes into chunks, around 2cm (around 1 inch) in size. Roughly chop one of the onions and the celery sticks, and then tip the sweet potato, chopped onion, celery, bay leaves and stock in a large saucepan.

2. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat and leave to simmer for around 20 minutes, until the sweet potato is soft and easy to cut through.

3. Finely slice the remaining onion, and dice the bacon into 1cm (around 1/2 inch) cubes. Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan, and tip in the onion and bacon. Keep the pan on a medium to low heat and stir frequently for 15 minutes, until golden.

4. Pour the toasted flaked into a food processor, along with the olive oil and pulse until the almond butter is the consistency of crunchy peanut butter. Season well.

5. Once the sweet potatoes are soft, fish out the bay leaves and then blitz the mixture until it is completely smooth. Whisk in the milk.

6. Add three quarters of the fried bacon and onion to the soup, and bring the soup slowly back to a simmer. Taste and season (it needs a good amount of black pepper).

7. When ready to serve, ladle into bowls and top with some of the reserved fried bacon and onion, a few thyme leaves, and a tablespoon of the almond butter. This soup is amazing served with a crusty bread, but is filling on its own.

8. Enjoy!

Orange, Oat and Nutty Chocolate Cookies

Here's a cookie recipe I baked for Mother's day a few weeks ago. Although I write "cookie", this biscuit is like a cross between a biscuit and a cake, due to it being soft. I used wholegrain plain flour, which gave a nice depth to the cookie flavour, as well as making them a little healthier. I also added mashed banana, orange zest, desiccated coconut and chopped walnuts to add to the health appeal. I then added dark chocolate chips for an extra health/delicious kick. They are perfect alongside a nice cup of tea or coffee.

These will keep in an airtight jar for up to a week.

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients:

• 100g (1/3 cup + 4 tsp) butter or margarine, softened
• 50g (1/6 cup) mashed banana
• 100g (1/2 cup + 2 tsp) soft brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 50g (1/3 cup) chopped walnuts (or your favourite type of nut)
• 50g (1/3 cup) dark chocolate chips
• Zest of one orange
• 100g (3/4 cup + 3 tbsp) wholemeal flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 25g (1/4 cup) desiccated coconut
• 100g (1 cup) rolled oats

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180c (160c fan)/350f/ gas mark 4. Grease and line 3 baking trays with greaseproof paper.

2. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter/margarine and the brown sugar together, until all of the sugar has been incorporated into the butter and it smooth.

3. Add the mashed banana, egg, vanilla extract and orange zest, with a tablespoon of flour, and beat until the banana has been evenly incorporated.

4. Sift over the flour and baking powder, then add the salt, chopped walnuts, dark chocolate chips, rolled oats and desiccated coconut. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture with a large spoon or spatula. You will end up with a very thick dough - if it is getting hard to work with a spoon, use your hands to bring the dough together.

6. Take heaped teaspoons of the mixture and roll into a ball. Place on one of the baking trays, and then flatten down slightly. Space the cookies a few centimetres (1 inch or so) from each other, to prevent merging when baking.

7. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned on top. Leave to cool for a few minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

8. Enjoy!

Gingerbread Cocoa Macarons

Ahhh it's been a while since I made macarons. Recently my boyfriend bought me the best gift of a kitchenaid stand mixer and yesterday I thought it was time to try out the beast :) Using a stand mixer saves a lot of effort when it comes to whisking the Italian meringue base of the macaron shells, and seemed to give a much better macaron mixture. That could be also because my handheld electric whisk is probably 10 years old (and was very cheap when I bought it then!).

In any case, I filled some of the chocolate macaron shells with a mocha ganache (as in my previous macaron recipe - see here), the perfect treat for any coffee lover.

However, I was feeling experimental and decided to spice up a buttercream with a blend of spices, predominantly ground ginger. After filling some shells with this filling, I tried one - and WOW, the filling had the essence of gingerbread, with the soft cocoa biscuit encasing the filling beautifully. These are a gift for my mum for mother's day and I just know she's going to love them!

The macaron shells can be frozen (once baked, but not filled), so you can make them in advance, then just defrost and fill them when required :)

Makes around 24 macarons (48 shells)

Ingredients:

For the shells:

• 150g (1 & 1/4 cups) ground almonds
• 10g (1 & 1/2 tbsp) cocoa powder (the best quality you can afford)
• 175g (1 & 1/2 cups) icing sugar
• 4 (125ml/1/2 cup) medium egg whites
• 165g (3/4 cup) granulated sugar
• 50ml (3 tbsp and 1 tsp) water

For the filling:

• 150g (2/3 cup) softened butter
• 300g (3 cups) sifted icing sugar
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• pinch of salt
• 1 - 2 tbsp milk

Method:

1. Place the ground almonds, cocoa and icing sugar in a food processor (or high power blender) and blitz for 2-3 second bursts, until the mixture is very fine and the cocoa is evenly distributed. Be careful not to blitz for too long as the almonds can turn to butter!

2. Sieve the almonds/cocoa/icing sugar into a large bowl. Add 2 of the egg whites, and beat until a smooth paste is formed.

3. Heat the granulated sugar and water in a saucepan, stirring occasionally until the sugar has dissolved. Then stop stirring and place a sugar thermometer in the pan. In a grease-free bowl, add the remaining two egg whites. Once the sugar/water has reached 112C, start whisking the egg whites at a medium speed (I used a stand mixer and found this required less of my attention than a hand held).

4. Once the sugar/water syrup has reached 118C, the egg whites should be white and frothy (like shaving foam). Turn the stand mixer down to a low speed, then carefully pour the syrup onto the egg whites, whisking constantly. Be very careful not to touch the syrup as it is super hot! Once all of the syrup has been added, turn up the speed of the mixer to high and keep whisking until the mixture is shiny and forms peaks when the whisk is lifted from the mixture (this should take between 5 and 7 minutes).

5. Use a metal spoon to fold a third of the egg white mixture into the almond/cocoa/sugar paste. Once incorporated, gently fold in the remaining egg whites.

6. Fill a piping bag with the macaron mixture, and cut off 1cm from the end (or use a large round nozzle). Grease and line four baking trays with parchment paper and hold the piping bag vertically above where you want to pipe. Pipe directly down onto the tray until you have a circle 3cm wide (or whatever shape you like - I also like making rectangles so that they look like mini eclairs). Repeat across the trays, leaving about 1&1/2cm gap between each macaron shell.

7. Tap the tray on the surface a few times, then leave at room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour, until a "skin" has formed on the macarons - this means that when you gently touch the macaron, no mixture goes on your finger.

8. Preheat the oven to 170c (150c fan)/ 340F/ gas mark 3. Before you place the baking trays into the oven, tap the trays against the surface again. This gives the perfect "foot" of a macarons. Bake the macarons for 10-12 minutes - keep an eye on them after 8 minutes in case they are browning too much. Remove the macarons from the oven and transfer the macarons (with the baking paper still attached) to a wire rack to cool.

9. To make the filling, cream the butter against the sides of a mixing bowl until it is very soft and spreadable. Add half of the icing sugar and beat in.

10. Add the remaining icing sugar, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, cayenne pepper and salt and start beating in. If the mixture is very stiff, add a splash of milk to loosen the mix. The buttercream needs to be thick enough that it holds it's shape when lifted from the bowl, but not so thick that it requires muscle power to move the buttercream around the bowl.

11. When the macaron shells have completely cooled, flip half of them over. Fill a piping bag with the spiced buttercream and pipe about a teaspoon of buttercream on each flipped shell.

12. Top each covered macaron shell with an uncovered shell and press down lightly.

13. These are best to eat at least 24 hours after sandwiching as the shells go very soft. However, they are still delicious straight after assembly! They should keep in an airtight container for around a week (they will get softer as time progresses).

14. Enjoy!

If you liked these, here are my other macaron recipes :)

• Mega mocha macarons
• Mint chocolate macarons
• Chocolate, peanut butter and salted caramel macarons eclairs
• Chocolate and raspberry macarons
• Festive spiced macarons