Chelsea Buns

I have done it. Proper Chelsea buns... no cheating... I followed a recipe of the famous Paul Hollywood. It was my first time making "rich sweet dough" and it was a bit of nightmare to begin with, as the dough was really wet and sticky. Perseverance. I kept kneading though the dough seemed to be stuck to my hand forever. However, my hard work paid off as the dough gradually became pleasant to work with. Paul's recipe on BBC Food site said the the butter should be melted in a saucepan with milk. I was a bit confused because he put all the independents (flower, sugar, yeast, salt, egg) together in the bowl, then poured in the warm milk on the BBC show "The master class of GBBO." So I followed his GBBO method and put all the ingredients in the bowl then, poured in the warm milk. I used mixed dried fruit, glace cherries which really needed to be used up, and orange and lemon peel.

Proved and ready to put in the oven

Hurray... just came out of oven.

Ahhhhh. It was worth it. Very soft and beautifully bouncy dough.

Rich and sweet. I'm so happy about the result. :)

 

Oh, by the way,............Look, NO soggy bottom.

Apple Crumble Muffins

Apple crumble is a classic pudding that goes with a good old English Sunday roast and everybody's favourite, isn't it?  Here is a muffin version of apple crumble.  You can enjoy the very moist but light sponge, juicy apples and crunchy crumble topping. I used brown sugar to get a toffee like rich flavour, but you can use white caster sugar for a lighter finish. Do not forget to add cinnamon to both batter and topping mixture as the cinnamon flavour is the key to this muffin.... well, of course, if you like cinnamon. Anyway, I think apple and cinnamon is an unbeatable combo. 

I also added walnuts to the topping mixture to create an even crunchier texture. 

These muffins make a lovely Sunday breakfast with a big mug of coffee. :) 

Ingredients for 8 Muffins       

• 200g Plain flour
• 100g Caster sugar
• 50g Soft brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons Baking powder
• 2 teaspoons Cinnamon powder 
• ¼  teaspoon Salt
• 90ml Milk
• 80ml Vegetable oil
• 1 large Egg, beaten
• 5 drops Vanilla extract
• 2 large Apples - peeled, cored and chopped

   

 for Crumble Topping

• 30g Plain flour
• 15g Granulated sugar or Demerara sugar
• 15g Soft butter or Low-fat spread
• Cinnamon and crushed Walnuts, ( Oats, Hazelnuts, Sesame seeds, Pumpkin seeds ...... etc.)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 C / Gas 6 and add paper cases to a muffin tray.

2. Measure out flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add milk, oil, egg and vanilla. Stir until just combined (mixture will be lumpy).

3. Gently fold in chopped apples and spoon mixture into muffin cups. Sprinkle Crumble topping on top of each. 
4. Rub together the flour, sugar and butter (or low-fat spread) until the mix resembles bread crumbs. Sprinkle over top of each muffin. 
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Golden Syrup Cake

Here is the regular loaf tin version of the Golden Syrup Cake on the BBC Good Food.

I wanted to bake a very sticky syrupy cake.
Yes, this cake is seriously sugary... and it actually becomes even stickier the next day.
Well, certainly this will cheer you up when you are very tired and a bit fed up.
Go on.
Have a cuppa and a slice.   :)

Ingredients 

•  4 oz Butter (or Low-fat spread)
•  4 oz Sugar (light muscovado adds depth but caster is fine)
•  8 oz Golden syrup
•  8 oz SR flour
•  1 Egg
•  150 ml Milk

Method

1.     Preheat the oven to 140C/fan (or 160/C - gas mark 3). Grease the tin and line the base with baking paper leaving a little to cover the bottom corners and sides. Press into place.

2.     Place butter (I used low-fat spread), syrup and sugar into a large pan and heat gently until the ingredients are just melted together, stirring occasionally. Leave to cool for 10 minutes (it helps if you place the pan away from the hob during this time since it will remain warm).

3.     Beat the eggs with the milk. Add the flour and milk/egg mixture to the cooled syrup mixture in the pan and beat steadily with a wooden spoon until all the lumps have gone. This may take a few minutes so you will need a little patience. Pour the mixture into the tin.

4.     Bake for around 50 minutes to an hour. The cake will be well risen and springy, but still very moist. After a few minutes cooling time, pierce the cake all over with a skewer and spoon the extra golden syrup over the top. Leave to cool completely in the tin.

This cake keeps for a week and only improves with time! 

Really Fruity Tea Cake

 I was looking forward to baking this cake last night when I was soaking the dried fruit in my favourite Earl Grey tea.... 
When I came across the fruity tea cake recipe in BBC Good Food, I couldn't resist trying this out immediately. Sadly, I didn't have "dried berries and cherries" that the original recipe suggested and I didn't particularly want to rush to the shop to buy them at 10pm. So, I emptied all my dried fruit jars and got 250g of mixed dried fruit, apricots and prunes. Well, That's all I had. So, I adjusted the original recipe for tea soaked dried fruit. I used Earl Grey tea instead of normal tea because I love the flavour. 
Next morning, I found all the dried fruit looked plump and juicy and ready for me to bake a cake with them. 
The cake was really rich in flavour and moist.... and really really low-fat.  Look at the independents. :) 

Ah, and it would be even nicer if I added some kind of  liqueur, like brandy, cointreau or cherry liqueur to be a bit naughty. :)  Perhaps I could add some spice such as cinnamon and cloves to make a version of Christmas cake.  

Ingredients

250g mixed dried fruit, apricots, and prunes

200ml hot Earl Grey tea

Juice of 1 orange (about 75ml/2½fl oz) plus zest

50g butter (or Low-Fat spread)

100g light brown sugar

1 egg

225g self-raising flour

4 tbsp demerara sugar

Method

1.     Place the dried fruit in a bowl and pour over the hot tea, orange juice and zest. Cover with cling film, then leave for at least 4 hrs or better still overnight.

2.     Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line the base of a 2lb loaf tin. Beat together the butter (or low-fat spread) and sugar until creamy, then beat in the egg followed by the flour. Carefully stir through the fruit mixture including the tea and the orange juice. Spoon the mixture into the tin, then smooth over the surface with the back of a spoon. Sprinkle all over with a thick layer of demerara sugar.

3.     Bake for 1 hr or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin, then turn out.

1 Egg Muffins

What would you do if you have only one egg in your fridge? Here is an idea for sharing one egg with others. It's a very basic recipe, so you can add dried fruit, chocolate chips, etc. (I added chocolate chips for these muffins above... yum...) The texture of the muffin is very nice and bouncy. The batter is quite runny, so I was a bit worried about how the muffins would turn out, but  they were light and moist. 14-16 normal size muffin cups.

Ingredients

• 180g Caster Sugar
• 370g SR flour
• 300 ml Milk
• 1 Egg
•  90g Softened Butter

·      

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 °c
2. Sift flour into a large bowl and rub in butter to a fine breadcrumb type mixture
3. Stir in sugar, milk and egg. (mix together before adding into the flour mixture)  Do not over-mix!  batter should be lumpy
4. Scoop the batter into the muffin cups.
5. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes