HOT cross buns, HOT cross buns, one a penny two a penny, HOT cross buns

So firstly, apologies galore.  I've not blogged in the last 2 weeks but that does not mean I haven't been busy in the kitchen.  I have.  But we went away for an Easter break so I have also been enjoying the cakey-bakey goodies that Paris has to offer.  In fact I rather overindulged in cheese, wine and patisserie!  We stayed in an apartment right on the edge of the 1st and 2nd Arrondissement that was literally a stone's throw from a market street filled with ice cream parlours, bakeries, butchers, wine shops, flower shops, bistros....it was an amazing location.  I'm hoping to take some inspiration from the trip so watch this space.

Saying that though.  Easter isn't complete without Hot Cross Buns, and whilst the Parisians lulled me into a food coma they didn't do Hot Cross Buns.  I however do!

I have a recipe folder filled with a ton of recipes that I have never tried.  I tear them out of magazines and file them away, never to attempt.  In fact one of the reasons I started writing the blog was to actually start making these recipes.  With the lead up to Easter the supermarkets, bakers and my mum start stocking up on the Hot Cross Buns.  I've spent a couple of weekends at the folks recently and have been loving toasted, butter smothered Hot Cross Buns for brekkie.  So, given my recent bread/dough successes I felt confident enough to give the Hot Cross Bun recipes a go.

I'm pretty certain this recipe is a Delia and certainly is seems pretty similar to the one listed on her website.

Now for this recipe I didn't have any mixed spice to hand but I did have a variety of spices in my spice/herb drawer so I searched around on t'net and made the mixed spice myself.

To make the mixed spice:
2 tbs ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves

I didn't have ground cloves but had whole cloves so I started by grinding them in my trusty pestle and mortar.  Then I dumped everything else in and gave it all a good grind (wow, that sounds rather sordid.  Oh well).

Mixed Spice 

I made the recipe pretty much as directed except (as usual, I can't just stick to a recipe!) I didn't have any mixed peel and in all honesty I'm not a massive fan of my Hot Cross Bun being citrus-ey tasting.  

Ooh, frothy!

Here's a handy tip for working out what "hand-hot water is" (I mean, its not exactly a scientific statement is it??  What is lukewarm to me is hot to my little one!)  Anyway, go by this method - 1 part boiling water to 2 parts cold water.  Bosh - hand-hot water.

They smelled amazing when they were cooking.  Filled the whole house with a bready, spicy aroma.  Better than a Yankee Candle!

As you can see I didn't make the white crosses - I simply didn't have time to make shortcrust pastry as the recipe suggests. However, on the Delia website she suggests making the white crosses using "a flour and water paste made with 4 oz (110 g) plain flour and approximately 3 tablespoons water. Roll out thinly and divide into small strips, dampening them to seal" so I'd try that next time. Much simpler!

The best BEST way to serve them is cut in half, toasted and smothered in butter.  Bloody gorgeous!

I took them into work and they went down a treat.  One colleague ate 2...a second ate 3...he claimed he was doing me a favour.  Personally these are the best thing I've made yet.  I had one for breakfast all week and every time I opened the tub I got a waft of spicy goodness.  Yummers.

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore

My earliest proper mummy/daughter cooking memory takes us back to the reception class of my primary school in North London.  It was the '80s, I was wearing a loud Osh Kosh B'Gosh outfit, my 2 younger siblings had not yet joined the party and my mummy was the most important person in my world (I apologise, that sentence sounded a lot more "Dirty Dancing" than I intended).  I'm not sure if it was a "show-and-tell-your-parent" type scenario or if, it being a middle class area where most of the mothers didn't work, it was expected that the mothers would come in to class to help once in a while.  Either way I was incredibly excited about my mum's visit and couldn't wait to show off "my-mother-cos-she's-better-than-yours".  My mum was coming into class to teach us all how to make pizza and so my class spent a lovely afternoon making pizza with my mother.  MY MOTHER.  I was not a happy camper.  In our house my older sister was very much a daddy's girl and I was very much a mummy's girl.  That's just how it was.  I wasn't used to sharing my mummy or her praise.  As the afternoon progressed I grew more and more frustrated* with the fact that my mother was being nice to the other kids and not giving me 100% of her attention (much like my husband is behaving right now because I'm writing this blog instead of giving him my undivided attention).  I'm pretty certain I caught a "talking to" and I'm also certain I deserved it.  I don't remember if the pizza was any good.

Pizza ranks very highly in our house.  One of the biggest things we miss from living in the US is Jerry's Pizza in Middletown, CT.  For some reason the UK pizza places just can't get it right.  We've ordered local, Pizza Hut, Perfect Pizza, Dominoes, Papa Johns and still they never get it right.  Well since the Christmas CT trip I vowed to find out how to make NY style pizza dough so, as part of my procrastination to avoid spring cleaning, I took a bash at it tonight.

I flicked through a couple of my US cook books and couldn't find anything so turned to the good old t'internet and this one seemed worth trying.

The recipe - NY style pizza (slightly adapted as usual)

Pizza dough

1 1/2 cups warm water (between 105F-110F)

4 1/2 cups of bread flour
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 1/2 teaspoons of granulated sugar
2 teaspoons of salt
2 teaspoons of active dried yeast

Tomato sauce

1 small clove of garlic
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon of basil
1/2 teaspoon of oregano
salt and pepper
dash of Tabasco

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast, sugar and salt in the warm water (you can give it a bit of a stir to help it out).

2. Add the olive oil and flour and stir with a metal spoon until the ingredients all come together into a dough (this should not take too long).

3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 12 minutes.

4. Mold the dough into a ball (the dough ball shouldn't have any visible seams anywhere but the underside of the dough ball).

The dough chills out with
the towels

5. Lightly wipe a little olive oil around the inside of a large bowl and place the dough ball into the bowl, seam side down.  Apply a little olive oil to the top of the dough ball (this helps stop it forming a skin).  Cover the bowl cling film and allow to proof for 1−2 hours in the airing cupboard or wherever you feel the need to put your dough (you can leave it at room temperature but our kitchen can get a little cold).  You can make the dough in advance and store it in refrigerator to use the next day. 

6. While the dough is proving make the tomato sauce.  Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and cook the garlic until it is lightly golden.  Add all of the other ingredients to the pan and cook for a further 5-10 minutes.  Leave aside to cool.

7. Once at least doubled in size retrieve the dough, divide into 2 pieces and turn one of the pieces out onto a lightly floured surface.  Leave the other piece in the bowl and cover. 

Lightly flour the top, then using your fingertips evenly flatten out the dough ball. 

8. Working from the edge to the centre of the dough, press the dough into a 12" circle.  Then place both hands on the dough and stretch with fingertips and palms maintaining an even pressure. (you could also use a lightly floured rolling pin).

9. Transfer the dough (now our base) onto a pizza stone (or a baking sheet would work).

10. Call for "assistance" to make the pizza.  Apply the tomato sauce, and allow a half naked toddler to help put the toppings on (we decided to go with half ham and pineapple and half pepperoni - little Miss Naughty also decided to provide an additional topping and sneezed on the pepperoni half - which was fine by me since it was the husbands half) and sprinkle tons of mozzarella cheese all over it.  Please note that the toddler will also need to be watched to prevent a reduction in the amount of toppings available...the ham and pineapple, in our instance, kept disappearing.... 

Half ham and pineapple, half pepperoni and sneeze

11. Bake in a really hot oven - 225C until the crust is golden and the cheese all melted.

  

  

12.  EAT!

The pizza was pretty good.  In fact, in the words of the husband it was "pretty damn close" which with him is a fantastic response for my first effort.  The little one also enjoyed it, barely speaking and sitting still the entire dinner.  Result!

The actual making of the dough was a pretty easy process to be honest - whack everything in the bowl in the right order, mush it into a dough then let it prove.  Bish, bash, bosh and you're done!  That being said, I will play around with it next time, for example:

(i) I didn't exactly follow the original recipe (see a pattern here?) as it said "half a teaspoon of yeast" but:

• it didn't specify whether it meant fresh yeast or active dried; and
• every other recipe I looked at called for at least 2 teaspoons of active dried yeast,

so I went with 2 teaspoons of active dried yeast (as noted in the recipe above).

(ii) It was tricky getting the oven the right temperature to cook the pizza evenly.  Next time I will put the stone in the oven to heat up, prepare the pizza on a separate board and then try to transfer it onto the hot stone.  I may also lower the temperature of the oven to stop the sides cooking faster, or even attempt to use the grill with the hot stone to get the heat going from top to bottom; bottom to top.

(iii) In line with (ii) I'm seriously tempted to by myself a pizza peel.

(iv) The dough really rose very well (a little too well), so next time I will try a couple of things, either:

• divide the dough into 3 balls and stretch the dough out even thinner;
• still divide the dough into 2 balls but prick the dough all over with a fork to see if that helps aerate the base (and not rise so much); or
• use a little less yeast.

(v) With the sauce, I'll use a little less herbs next time.  I like a herby tomato sauce on pasta but not so much on my pizza.

Who needs Dominoes eh??

Oh, and if you're wondering what happened to the other dough ball just wait...

*devil child

Please rise!

This Christmas morning, having opened all of our presents and waiting for the little one to slowly (painfully slowly) work her way though the mountain of presents her grandparents had bought her, my mother-in-law called us for breakfast.  What greeted us was an enormous tray of enormous pumpkin cinnamon rolls.  They were hot (fresh from the oven) sticky, sweet, gooey and incredibly naughty - the kind of treat that makes you gain about 5lbs simply by smelling them.

Point is, they were crazy good.

I said before my mother-in-law is a good baker, well that doesn't stop with cakes.  She's also particularly good with breads.  I, however, am particularly rubbish with breads....

Bread: A catalogue of failures:

1.  About a week ago I made a very nice bit of broccoli soup for my dad and sister and attempted to make some foccacia with it.  We had a packet of foccacia bread mix (the "just add water" variety) so I figured it would be pretty tough to muck it up and the end result would be me looking like the perfect little housewife.  Things did not go to plan.  I made up the mix and put the dough in the airing cupboard to rise.  I came back an hour later and NOTHING had happened.  Being my usual impatient self I just shoved it in the oven and hoped the heat might kick start something.  It didn't and whilst it smelled really good it was like a brick.  When I served it I said it was unleavened bread and they appeared to buy the little white lie (it still tasted good).  On closer inspection I later discovered that the packet said "Best Before June 2010" so this may have been the root of the problem.

2.  On another occasion I attempted to make french baguettes.  I bought a great pan from William Sonoma my favourite store  (oh my god they deliver to the UK now, girl clap!), got very excited and set everything up to do some baking.  They looked good, they rose, they smelled good but then I tasted them.  Salt.  Lots of salt.  I have no idea what happened to this day but all I know is that the bread tasted like an overly salted pretzel.  It was still edible but wasn't really what I was aiming for.  I was going for a "du pain, du vin, du boursin" type moment and instead got a "hoo-ee y'all it tastes good with Heluva Onion Dip" type moment.

These may be just 2 examples, but I already had the fear in me about my bread making abilities.  The problem was that the husband loved the pumpkin cinnamon rolls and with his birthday fast approaching (and as previously mentioned rather strangely he doesn't like cake) I knew they would be a good thing to make as a substitute birthday cake.  However, I sucked it up and decided I'd try it.  I'd also shot myself in the foot and bigged it up at work promising to bring some in so the stakes were now pretty high.

Again, this is one of my M-i-L's recipes and she would prefer me not to publish it so instead of rambling on like I did last time with the cookies I figured I'd talk through the process.  I also took a bunch of pictures when things started going right as I was so excited about it (I am fully aware of how pathetic that sounds).  And I guess revealing certain ingredients isn't against the rule, I mean everyone knows bread has yeast in it!

Step 1 - mixing the ingredients to make the dough and first proving 
I have an amazing Kitchen aid mixer however its American so has an American plug.  Even using a step down we have had a couple of casualties with our American electricals, big ticket items too, including my beloved Dyson and our PC (smoke actually came out of the back of the PC).  I am now terrified to even attempt to plug my Kitchen aid in.  Anyway, the whole point is that I had to mix by hand and was paranoid that it wouldn't mix well.  The dough was quite sticky because of the sugars and pudding mix (this usually helps keep whatever you're baking stay moist - no giggling please!) so was difficult to mix by hand but it finally came together (mixing was also tricky with my 2yr old "helper" who wanted to help pour ingredients in whilst providing a running commentary).  With great trepidation I put the dough in the airing cupboard and held my breath for an hour and a half.  I have to say, I was almost hoping that it wouldn't rise so I could add it to my list of bread failures but...

Ta daaaaa!

Step 2 - Rolling out the dough and second proving
It was going well!  Now I was paranoid that I'd knock the air out of in in the rolling.

I punched the dough down and freaked out that the dough was too sticky but chucked a load of flour on the board and hoped for the best.  I then attempted to roll the dough into a rectangle of sorts, brushed melted butter all over the rectangle and sprinkled a mixture of cinnamon and sugar all over it.  
    

Yes, this does look like dough with dirt sprinkled all over it
(nothing but the best for my family!)

        

Starting at the back long side (don't ask me why I didn't start from the front, looking at it here that clearly seems more logical) I rolled the dough into a log (next time I do make the rolls I'm going to roll the dough out on baking paper so I can just pull the paper forward to help roll the dough more easily).  The recipe said to pinch the edge to seal the dough but the flour really didn't want this to happen to it didn't work great.

Next I cut the log in half and then each half into 3 pieces.  I placed the pieces in a buttered dish and reintroduced the dough to the airing cupboard.  Having decided that this time they definitely wouldn't rise I was again pleasantly surprised....

Before

After spending time with the towels

Step 3 - off to the oven!
Then it was off to the oven whilst I set my hands to the cinnamon icing and resisting the urge not to just eat the bowl of icing.  The icing was more of a spreading consistency so as soon as the rolls came out of the oven I spread the icing all over the rolls.

Step 4 - Lick the icing bowl, the whisk, the spatula and eat an enormous piece of cinnamon roll

And there you have it, ooey, gooey and going straight to your hips!

The verdict was pretty good all round - husband ate them, Posie ate them and the guys at work ate all but a corner of a piece from the tray I took in.  So its official, I CAN make bread.  Maybe I'll try iced buns next?