Not Quite Edd Kimber's Cinnamon Buns

Way, way back in October there was a feature in the Waitrose Kitchen magazine about baking books. Presumably to round up the books that were released last autumn in time for the Christmas present buying. There are quite a number of books featured, one of which is Edd Kimber's second book, 'Say it with Cake'. The recipe given from this book is his Cinnamon Buns.

I had a desire to make something different (and a little indulgent) for breakfasts at the time and decided to give the recipe a go. I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to get round to writing these up, because they're actually very good! I've had a quick look around the net and can't find an authorised reproduction of the recipe, but it is a reasonably standard enriched milk dough, with a little butter and a little sugar added along with an egg. 

After proofing

The recipe was for 16 buns and I can see from my photos that I only made nine, so I'm assuming I halved the recipe. And since the recipe for the dough contained an egg, I'm certain I missed this out. The filling in the recipe consists of butter, light brown soft sugar, currants and cinnamon, 3 tablespoons of it! I have a bit of an on-off relationship with cinnamon and am usually more off it than on. The thought of three tablespooons (or even one and a half for my halved recipe) was rather a lot and I decided to switch for mixed spice, which I am really very fond of. It does contain cinnamon, but tempered with the flavours of other spices too, which just makes it much more appealing to my tastebuds. I also decided to leave out the currants (I never claimed to be following the recipe exactly!).

There is a topping of cream cheese, icing sugar and milk given to drizzle across the buns, but because I was going to be freezing these I decided that I would use a simple glace water icing instead, which worked just as well. 

Soft and super sticky

These were gorgeous - the enriched dough was soft and sweet and I was really taken with these buns. I was glad I used mixed spice for the filling and missed out the currants (they're another thing I can take or leave) and the incredibly sticky filling and sticky icing on the top made these a very delicious breakfast indeed. An excellent recipe and one I should return to.

Chocolate Sliders

I made sliders, based on Dan Lepard's recipe quite a long time ago now (in fact, just over a year... how time flies). They have been on my mind again recently. The lovely soft, moist texture was what appealed to me both then and now so I thought I'd make them again. This time however, I wanted to add my own twist - chocolate!

Soft and moist texture

Not for any particular reason, just because adding chocolate to things generally makes them better. I have been meaning to make a chocolate loaf (yeasted bread rather than cake) for many years now and thought that this recipe would lend itself well to the addition of chocolate. See below for my thoughts and musings after tasting them....

Before prooving

Chocolate Sliders
Ingredients
25g cornflour (cornstarch in the US)
275ml milk (I used semi-skimmed)
1tsp sugar (5g)
12g butter
50g cocoa powder
325g strong white bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried (instant) yeast

Makes 14

I followed Dan's instructions for these again with minor modifications:

- Slake the cornflour with a little of the milk to form a smooth paste (slaking is just the term used to refer to the process of mixing a small amount of the liquid with the cornflour - it prevents lumps forming when the mixture is heated) and then add the rest of the milk, mixing until smooth. You will find that the mixture does not have any lumps in it because the lumps are removed before the majority of the milk is added. Heat until boiling, stirring all the time - the mixture will remain quite runny for ages and then suddenly thicken up. Remove from the heat at this point, stir in the sugar and butter and allow to cool a little.

- Add the flour, cocoa powder, salt and yeast and mix well to form a dough. I had to add a little water here as my dough was too dry to come together. Leave for 10 minutes or so, and then knead briefly until smooth. I then kneaded my dough again after about 20 minutes and then left it to increase in size.

- Leave until significantly increased in size. I didn't time this as I was busy with various other things, but I think it was left for longer than Dan's specified 90 minutes.

- I wanted mini slider size rolls so weighed out 50g pieces of dough (yes, using a scale to make sure they were all the same) and shaped them into balls. I placed these relatively close together on a lined baking tray and left them to rise again. I place them close together to get a slight 'batching' effect, where the edges of the buns met rather than staying separate.

- Preheat the oven to Gas 6/200C in sufficient time before you think you'll need it (yes, that's vague - your oven might take 30 minutes to heat up, it might take 5. Mine probably takes about 10 but it was on anyway). 

- Dust lightly with flour and then bake for 20-25 minutes. I have no idea how I decided when they were done - they went into the oven dark brown and came out dark brown.... The time is based on Dan's recommendations but with a little added to allow for using a lower temperature.

After prooving

Texture wise, these were perfect - just how I remember the sliders from last year. So soft and moist - almost cake like (in a bread-y sort of way). Taste-wise I have to confess to being slightly underwhelmed. I had remembered enjoying the sliders so much last year and thought that these would be just as good. Although I said at the beginning that adding chocolate to most things makes them better, the substitution of such a large proportion of the flour for cocoa powder actually ended up making a slightly bitter roll. Not inedibly bitter, but it took me by surprise. I think that adding chopped chocolate to the basic dough would have been a better way to add chocolate flavour to the sliders. Either that, or to add more sugar to the dough to counteract the bitterness.

However, nothing ventured, nothing gained and although the bitterness of the bread took me by surprise the first time I ate them, they have very much grown on me and I'm glad I tried the experiment. I have been eating them for breakfast (what?! bread is definitely a breakfast item, even if it is chocolate bread...) and although they aren't the best spread simply with butter I think they'd be divine with Nutella (for those who can). I can definitely recommend them with choccy Philly or spread with butter and a square of 70% chocolate (I used Lindt because a 10g square is just the right size for these rolls). I think the chocolate is quite a French thing - I am given to understand that a few squares of chocolate in a pain-de-mie (sweetish soft white bread) roll is a common snack for children in France (though I could be mistaken - they probably eat Mars Bars like the rest of the world!)

Choccy Philly - really not silly...

I am submitting these to We Should Cocoa this month, where the theme is 'Bread'. Founded by Choclette of Choc Log Blog and Chele of Chocolate Teapot, the host this month is Nazima of Franglais Kitchen.

I am also submitting them to Breakfast Club, founded by Helen of Fuss Free Flavours and hosted this month by Choclette of Choc Log Blog.

No-Knead Mini Hot Cross Buns

Can I confess to a little secret? My favourite hot cross buns are were from Marks and Spencer. I predominantly love the softness of them. I think this is mostly confined to hot cross buns, because I'm more than happy with my delicious homemade crusty bread, sometimes with a soft crumb, and sometimes a sourdough with a sturdier crumb. But when it comes to hot cross buns all I really want is a soft bun, and sometimes that's hard to achieve at home.

I think it's years since I actually bought hot cross buns, so at least I am trying to make my own! My hot cross buns from 2010 and 2009 were really excellent, and whilst they tasted lovely, they didn't quite achieve the desired softness that I'm seeking.

I decided to take the recipe from 2010 and tweak it a little more to try and achieve that elusive combination of utterly soft crumb with the excellent taste that comes from homemade breads. This is what I've come up with. I think it helps that this must be pretty much the easiest sweet dough I've ever made. These really are pretty much effortless - no kneading at the beginning and just the tiniest amount to gently remove some of the air before shaping the buns.

I think that in the past my efforts towards the perfect hot cross bun have been hampered by baking for too long, and at too high a temperature, worrying the crumb would be undercooked. This time I decided to cook lower and shorter. I also decided that whilst making this a milk based dough to add richness I would also add a little cornflour - a technique that contributes to the supersoft texture of these soft white baps.

Crossed and ready to bake

No-Knead Hot Cross Buns
Ingredients
150g extra strong flour (Canadian)
175g plain soft flour
25g cornflour
1tsp salt
2tsp mixed spice
generous tsp fast yeast
25g caster sugar
zest of one lemon
180ml milk (I used semi-skimmed)
100ml water (see method below)
30g butter
85g raisins
40g dried cranberries

Method

- Soak the raisins and cranberries in some boiling water (just to cover) for about an hour. You can skip this step if you want, but it just makes the fruit soft and juicy in the final buns.

- Scald the milk (i.e. bring almost up to boiling point), add the butter, allow it to melt and the milk to cool until it is just warm (so as to not kill the yeast).

- Mix all flours, sugar, salt, yeast, mixed spice and lemon zest together in a large bowl.

- Add the milk/butter mixture, 100ml of water (I used the water that had had the raisins and cranberries soaking in it) and mix to a soft dough. The dough will be very sticky - don't worry, you don't need to knead it!

After mixing, before rising

- Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave the dough for 1 1/2 to 2 hours (I left mine about 2 hours while I went out to do some shopping).

- The dough will have grown significantly.

After rising, before shaping

- Tip onto an oiled surface and knead very briefly and gently to remove the air.

- Divide the dough into buns of your chosen size. I made 10 buns of 40g and 8 of 50g, but you could obviously make them bigger if you want.

- Space them on a baking tray - close together to maximise the soft edges (batch effect) or further apart for separate buns. A no-brainer for me - close together for maximum softness!

Before proofing

- Allow to proof for around 45-60 minutes until they have grown together. During this time preheat the oven to Gas 6/200C.

- Make a paste from a little flour and water, transfer to a plastic food bag and snip off a tiny (and it really does need to be tiny, especially for mini hot cross buns such as these) corner to form a piping bag. Pipe crosses over your buns.

Half way

Piped and ready to go into the oven

- Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes. I used steam in the oven for these. Remove to a wire rack and allow to cool.

- To glaze, warm the golden syrup in a small pan and brush over the buns.

- Split, butter and enjoy! Or toast if you prefer.

Before glazing

Fabulous hot cross buns. I'm so,so happy with this dough and the way they turned out. I think this will definitely be my go-to recipe now. I can see it being very happy to accept all sorts of variations - different spices, different dried fruits (apple, pineapple, cherry, whatever you care to use) and perhaps even fresh apple too. I meant to add candied peel this time round and forgot - I'm not usually much of a candied peel lover (in fact the pre-cut stuff is revolting, only the stuff you chop yourself is nice) but I think it'd definitely be a good addition here, and if you like another tsp of spice these buns would take it.

Soft, spiced buns spread generously with butter, with a sticky glazed top - an utterly amazing way to start the day! I don't think I can sufficiently express how good, and easy these are. Give them a go, it doesn't really matter that Good Friday has been and gone, you won't regret making these.

Buttermilk loaf - Breakfast Club #17

I love it when unplanned baking works out for the best! As I'm sure regular readers will have gathered by now, I have a very bad habit of buying ingredients with no plans for them. They sit in the fridge, all the while I'm wondering what to make and the expiry date is advancing upon me. Finally I have to either use the item or shamefully dispose of it.

This bread is the result of one such occasion when my conscience got the better of me and a tub of buttermilk was the item in question. I recalled making buttermilk baps ages ago, to a Dan Lepard recipe published in the Guardian in August 2009 and although I didn't want rolls, I wanted a loaf I thought I'd use the same recipe as I recalled that it seemed to be a good one.

As I followed the recipe as given (albeit with slightly less kneading at slightly longer intervals!) I won't reproduce the recipe here. I was doing other things whilst making this bread and forgot to check on it while it was prooving. When I did remember it looked over-prooved, and was slumping onto the edges of the tin. I had mentally written it off as being a flat topped disaster, but thankfully the dough was very resilient and still had some life left in it, giving a pretty excellent oven spring that lifted the dough off the edges of the tin and into a proud dome. I was really pleased as I seem to time baking my loaves wrongly quite often and rarely get such good oven-spring! This was a truly enormous loaf, and I haven't really managed to capture that with my photos.

It has a beautifully even texture and has a moist and light crumb with a delicious chewy crust - just perfect for a few slices of hot buttered toast or a fabulous lunchtime sandwich. Just looking at the pictures now is making me hungry!

I'm sending this to Krithika for Breakfast Club - the theme this month, hosted by Krithi's Kitchen is Bread! Although this might look like quite a boring bread it tastes anything but boring, and given that half of the UK population will probably be eating cereal (yuk!) for breakfast, surely the other half will be eating toast (yum!) and this loaf is the ideal one for toasting.

Top Teacakes - Short and Tweet

I love a good tea-cake; toasted, lavishly buttered and enjoyed with a good mug of hot chocolate on a chilly winter's morning, it's the perfect way to start the day. Well, we haven't got the chilly mornings yet (not that you'll catch me complaining about that - I hate the cold!) but that just means that I'll have to make these again when such mornings roll around.

This week's 'Short and Tweet' challenge set up by @EvidenceMatters was to make Dan's Top Teacakes, to be found on page 88 of Short and Sweet or here, from the Guardian Guide to Baking.

I'm really glad that these were chosen for the challenge because I probably wouldn't have got round to making them otherwise. After all, I have been meaning to make them since November 2007, so I obviously needed an additional push! I think it was the scale of the recipe that put me off them - there is only me here to eat my baking efforts (although actually, my colleagues might quite like these!) so any bread recipe requiring 600g flour in addition to lots of other add ins and three eggs is going to take me a long time to get through. I decided to make 1/3 of the recipe (recipe uses three eggs, hence not halving it!) and also decided to make the teacakes much smaller. The recipe says nine, but I got six out of my 1/3 recipe, so mine are half of the recommended size. Having said that, these are still substantial buns, the original size must be massive!

I followed the recipe pretty closely (for me) - my kneading wasn't quite spaced as Dan instructed and I probably left the dough for about 1 1/2 hours in total for the first stage, and then nearly two hours at the second stage after shaping. My kitchen wasn't very warm, so I decided that after an hour I would encourage them a little by very briefly preheating my oven, turning it off and sticking them in there. This technique worked well, and I'll do it again.

For the ingredients, I used white chocolate, not beef dripping, raisins (roughly chopped) rather than currants, as I often find currants either seedy or stalky (whichever, they sometimes have nasty crunchy bits in them) and then used 1/4 tsp each ground ginger and mixed spice for the spices. Then, out of necessity rather than choice I used chopped dried cranberries instead of mixed peel. I discovered a while ago that whilst I hate chopped mixed peel, I really quite like candied peel that you can chop yourself. Sadly I haven't seen any in the supermarkets this year, and I'm upset that they seem to have stopped stocking it. If anyone has seen any, please let me know otherwise I'll have to investigate making my own!

I baked at 200C rather than 220C, (Gas 6 rather than Gas 7) because I always find these sweet, fruited breads colour too quickly when I bake at such a high temperature. That is also the case here, the buns are darker than I like, perhaps next time I'll try Gas 5. To compensate I baked for 20 minutes, turning the buns upside down after 15 minutes to brown the bases. It just means that they'll only need toasting on one side!

They're very tasty buns, but I do wish I hadn't darkened the crusts quite so much, I'm not a fan of dark crusts on sweet breads. The spice is very subtle, next time I might increase this a little more. The texture of these isn't the same as shop bought tea cakes, which are very light and fluffy. These are denser, but in a good way - after all, you need a good weight of bun to hold the melting butter and these are just right... There is plenty of fruit in the buns which is a good thing in my view, but again, I wish I had been able to get some mixed peel, there's just something delicious about the contrast of the slightly bitter mixed peel, the sweet bun and the rich melty butter.... mmm, melting butter!

Thanks to EM for picking these, and also to Jo for saying how lovely they were, without both of these prods to make them, I probably would still have left them.

Sticky Blueberry Jam Bread - Breakfast Club #15

Well, I've called this a bread, mostly because it's a yeasted dough, but it actually tastes far more like cake to me! Which is great, I get to eat cake for my breakfast if I make this bread mmmmm, cake!

I blame the whole thing (quite happily though!) on Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, who, months and months ago, posted a recipe and method for an absolutely amazing looking blackberry crown. She was fortunate enough to be given some delicious homemade blackberry jam by a kind friend and wanted a fitting way to use this gift. So her blackberry crown bread, inspired by the presentation of a recipe in Dan Lepard's The Handmade Loaf and using a recipe for a sweet dough by Richard Bertinet, was born. And I was in love! (Hop over to the recipe, look at the last picture of the cut bread and tell me you don't want to eat it - I won't believe you!)

Time passed, as it does and then when Helen at Fuss Free Flavours announced that this month's Breakfast Club theme was conserves, I realised that the time to make this bread had arrived. For the genius of this loaf is that you don't need to put the conserves on the loaf for they are already contained within the loaf, clever no?! Although additional butter and jam wouldn't go amiss when eating this for breakfast.This month the event is being hosted by Sonia's Kitchen.

I halved the recipe as given and am giving the amounts I used below:

Basic Sweet Dough
Ingredients
125g full-fat milk
1tsp instant yeast (although the original recipe specifies fresh)
250g strong white flour
30g unsalted butter, at room temperature
20g caster sugar
5g salt
1 large egg

Method
- Pour the milk into a pan and warm to body temperature.
- Mix the yeast into the flour, distributing evenly and then rub in the butter.
- Mix in the sugar and salt, then add the eggs and milk.
- Continue with your usual method of kneading (I favour Dan Lepard's method of using oil on the work surface and not kneading all that much) leaving the dough until it has doubled in size.

To make the loaf

Jam of choice and matching fruit - I chose blueberry, but I think raspberry would work well, along with Celia's choice of blackberry, or even perhaps cherry.

Pinch off pieces of dough - from memory I think I used pieces 50g in size and used nine altogether. Form into balls and then flatten out, forming a little pocket. Add a small amount of jam and pinch the ball back into shape. As you finish shaping the balls, pop them into a greased small loaf tin (I used one that is smaller than a 1lb tin, but had some dough left, with which I made some little rolls) and layer them up with light muscovado sugar and fresh blueberries. Sorry, I didn't really measure the amounts of these, but a light sprinkle of sugar and as many fresh berries as you fancy. Check out Celia's post for how much she used.

Confession time that I forgot to note how long I cooked this loaf, but as Celia points out, it is high in sugars, both added and natural from the milk in the loaf, so a lower temperature than normal is needed. Celia suggests starting at 200C/Gas 6 for 10-15 minutes and then dropping the temperature to 175C/Gas 3-4 for a further 20-30 minutes, and I am sure I followed her advice. Keep a beady eye on this loaf because it would be a shame to allow it to burn.

Remember that the jam/blueberries will be scorching hot when the loaf comes out, burning in only the way hot sugar can - ouch! It was very sticky underneath too - mmmm, sticky! I had to take quite a few shots to get one where there was more bluberry in evidence....

Oh boy am I ever glad I made this loaf. It lived up to and exceeded my wildest bread-y dreams. So soft, so light, and ever so delicious. I really must make this again soon. I haven't eaten much brioche in my life (another thing to recify!) but to my mind this was soft and cakey like a brioche, but without nearly so many eggs or as much butter or sugar. It was, however, perfectly sweet and buttery for me, and I love the idea that I'm eating cake for my breakfast. I would urge you to give this a go - it's fabulous!

I am also submitting this to Jac's Bookmarked Recipes event, hosted at Tinned Tomatoes. This was bookmarked from Celia's blog, Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, and also from its original source, Dough by Richard Bertinet.

Raisin, cinnamon, cranberry bread scrolls

More pictures than words this time I think. Inspiration by Joanna, recipe by Dan Lepard, resulting bread scrolls courtesy of a very little skill, some patience and an oven.... Dusted with sugar and good to go. These are made using the lovely soured cream dough - see here for original recipe.

I made up the full amount of dough, and then used just over half for these rolls. The other half went to make a standard loaf. Stretch the dough, keep stretching, it'll get there eventually. Half cranberry, half raisin and cinnamon.

Roll up tightly and then cut into slices. Place in lined tin and allow to proove.

This will happen eventually - longer if your kitchen is chilly, shorter if you sit the tin on top of the cooker when you're cooking something else.... I can't quite remember how long I baked them for - try about 30-35 minutes.

All dusted with icing sugar and ready to eat. Curiously these weren't the best example of bread scrolls I've made. I preferred these owl rolls. I think it's to do with the ratio of crust to crumb with this dough. They were great, but not amazing. Good to grab for breakfast on the go, even better dipped into hot chocolate....

Sour cream bread two ways

Something slightly less sweet for those days after Christmas when the last thing you want to think about is chocolate and rich desserts. Although I don't quite understand why I don't fancy rich desserts because I didn't particularly over-indulge over the festive period. I think it must be down to this nasty cold that is refusing to budge and is affecting my sense of taste too.... Anyway, this is one from the archives (there's a lot in there!) that I made shortly after Dan published the recipe. The choice of this bread was partly inspired by a tub of soured cream sitting unloved in the fridge, but also by the rave reviews of this bread on Dan's forums here.

I wanted to use my whole tub of sour cream, but for reasons of space in the freezer (i.e. I couldn't make this bread, plus another and fit them both in!), the bread had to make something suitable for lunchtime sandwiches, and for breakfast, when I like a slice of bread with added dried fruit for preference. I decided to make the whole recipe but split the dough in two and knead about 90g of dried sweetened cranberries into one portion of the dough. When it came to shaping I shaped each dough separately and left them to rise on the same baking sheet. You can see from the pictures that they joined together during baking - not really a problem though! Otherwise I pretty much followed the recipe as given apart from not needing to bake for as long as specified as my dough was in two smaller quantities.

Taste/texture? You can see that the texture was fabulous - very fine grained and moist. In fact, this bread kept very well in the freezer - suffering little from freezer burn. I wonder if this was to do with the fat content. The bread I usually make has very little added fat and is sometimes prone to freezer burn if I don't get through it fairly quickly. The loaf smelled lovely while it was baking and cooling - warm and creamy but I didn't find the loaf particularly creamy to eat.

It has to be said that this is not my favourite Dan Lepard bread recipe. I don't really know why - as you can see from his forums most people were raving about this bread, but although it was nice enough I didn't think it was anything special. I'm definitely in the minority here! I think that at the time I made it I was craving wholemeal bread more than pure white and this has perhaps tainted my memories of it. The part I liked least was the crust - again for no particular reason, but perhaps I overbaked it slightly or something like that. The recipe probably deserves another chance, when I'm in a white bread 'mood'. I will admit that the half with cranberries in was enjoyed greatly for breakfast and would have been delicious toasted, if work ran to providing a toaster!

I think if I make this bread again, which is a possibility if I have sour cream left over from something else, I'll bake in a tin rather than freeform, because I think this might help keep the crust from browning as it did. The crust was definitely my least favourite part of the bread and I can't really put my finger on why.

Because I baked two loaves and didn't space them apart sufficiently, I got a nice soft joining bit - yum!