Hippety Hoppity!

It's Easter! Time for chocolate hangovers and hot cross buns coming out the wahzoo. So here's an easy recipe for hot cross buns (guess what we're having for breakfast??).

Hot Cross Buns
(makes 12)
Ingredients:
1 tbsp dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm milk
1/2 cup sugar (I use raw sugar)
4 1/2 cups plain flour
2 tsp mixed spice
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup dried cranberries
1 egg
50g melted butter

Method:
In a large bowl add the sugar, flour, yeast, mixed spice, cinnamon and dried fruit. Mix until combined.

Make a well in the centre and add the melted butter, egg and milk.

Use a butter knife to mix then tip out onto a lightly floured bench and knead for 8 minutes or until smooth and elastic (add more flour or milk if dough is too sticky or dry).

Place dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size (I left mine overnight so the dough would be ready to bake for breakfast).

Take dough out and knead lightly then portion into 12 segments of roughly equal size.

Roll into balls with your hands and arrange on a greased baking tin (I prefer a tin for buns and rolls as the heat up the sides gives a more even cooking).

Allow to rise in a warm place for another 40 minutes. Use this time to preheat the oven to about 200C and make up a mixture for the crosses.

Crosses: mix flour and water till it is a wet paste and pipe over the buns.

Glaze mixture: 1/4 cup hot water, 3 tbsp of caster sugar.

Bake for 10 mins then turn oven down to 180C and cook for another 20-25 mins or until springy to touch.

Brush glaze over them as soon as they are out of the oven. Eat hot or allow to cool!

Baking Butter Biscuits

A bit of alliteration and some delicious basic biscuits are the result!

Butter Biscuits
(makes 30)
Ingredients:
125g butter, softened (I used salted butter to cut down on the sweetness of the biscuit)
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg, at room temperature
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp milk

Method:
Preheat oven to 180C. Line two baking trays with baking parchment/paper.

Using a food processor or electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and vanilla until pale and creamy. Add egg and mix well until combined.

Sift flour and baking powder over butter mixture. Add milk and stir/mix until just combined.

Using 2 teaspoons of dough at a time, roll dough into balls. Place on lined baking trays. Using a lightly floured fork, flatten biscuits slightly (remember to allow room for spreading).

Bake for 12 - 15 minutes, swapping trays over in the oven after 10 minutes, or until light golden. Allow to cool on trays for 5 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar. Biscuits will keep up to a week in an airtight container.

Mango Muffins

I've been reading Julia Child's autobiography/biography My Life in France on my newly acquired Kindle and it just confirms for me how much I love her. It's her openness and willingness to throw herself wholeheartedly into her new life with husband Paul in France that I find so enchanting. That, and of course, her absolute fascination with food, particularly French cuisine. I fully intend to wax lyrical about the book and about Julia herself, but not here.

This blog is purely for the fruits of such inspiration. So, duly inspired by Julia Childs and the fact that I bought two crates of mangoes yesterday and am casting around for what to do with them before they spoil, I've come up with a recipe for Mango Muffins.


Mango Muffins
Ingredients

• 1/4 cup (65ml) vegetable oil - don't use olive oil, the flavour is too strong
• 1/2 cup (125ml) milk - a little extra if the mix is too dry
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup (110g) white sugar
• 1 3/4 cups (220g) plain flour
• 1 cup (or 1 large) mango, peeled and diced - be adventurous and liberal with the mango
• spray oil

Method

Preheat oven to 190C. Oil a 12 cup muffin tin or use paper liners.

In a small bowl, combine oil, milk and egg. Beat lightly.

In a large bowl, mix flour, salt baking powder and sugar. Toss in diced mango and stir to coat with flour. This is an important step and is often missed out. When you add fresh fruit to cake or muffin mix, it's important to coat it in the dry ingredients/flour mix to stop the fruit from disintegrating when cooking.

Pour in milk mixture and fold together trying not to crush the mango too much.

Spoon mixture into muffin cups. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until the tops bounce back from the touch and a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Cool 10 minutes and remove from the tin.

These are deliciously light, soft and fluffy muffins. They can be stored in an airtight container for 2 to 3 days or frozen...if they last that long!

Ebony and Ivory....

Brownies seem to be making a come back and this weekend, I offered to make brownies for my godson's birthday party. Never one to take the road most travelled, I wondered what brownies would be like with white chocolate instead.

Let me tell you, they're delicious. That's a huge admission coming from someone who divides the world into "those who like white chocolate" and "those with taste". This particular use of white chocolate has even me admitting that it may have its uses.

Needless to say, they don't come out a rich brown colour, but they are a satisfying caramel colour. My youngest son has decided that they also deserve a name change, so in our house, we're calling them "Whities".

Whities
Ingredients

• 125g white chocolate (roughly chopped or use "melts")
• 125g butter, cubed
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups caster (superfine) sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (get the best quality)
• 1 cup plain flour, sifted
• 1/4 tsp baking powder, sifted
• 100g peanuts, roughly chopped

Method
Preheat the oven to 160C. Grease a 20 x 30cm baking tin and line base and sides with baking paper.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of hot water, stirring until smooth. Allow to cool a little.

In an electric mixer or food processor, beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla for 3 - 4 minutes or until pale and fluffy. Beat in the cooled chocolate mixture. Add the sifted flour and baking powder and beat until smooth. Stir in the nuts.

Spoon the misture into the prepared baking tin and smooth the surface. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until caramel coloured and the top has formed a crust. DO NOT OVERCOOK - this isn't a cake and should be soft and moist in the middle.

Allow to cool in the tin. Remove and cut into squares or rectangles. Dust with icing sugar. Whities can be stored in an airtight container for 3 - 4 days or frozen for longer.

For the regular Brownies, substitute the same amount of dark chocolate.