hot cross buns

Every year on Good Friday we enjoy making our own Hot Cross Buns.

My dear friend Sandra (miss you too) requested the recipe so here it is.

It is originally out of a Family Circle Magazine.

Hot Cross Buns

2 t yeast

1 1/3 C warm water

1/4 C sugar (you could use honey)

4 C plain flour

1/4 C full cream milk powder

1 t mixed spice (I also add 1 t cinnamon)

1 C sultanas

1/2 C mixed peel (I use diced dried apricots instead as they are sweeter and add more flavour)

80g butter melted and cooled

2 eggs lightly beaten

1. Mix together yeast water and sugar and wait 10 minutes or until it has bubbled up.

2. Add other ingredients to bowl of electric mixer with dough hook attached

3. Add yeast mixture and mix for 5 minutes on low

4. Cover and set aside until doubled in size (if you are in a hurry or it is cold you can do this in the oven on a very low temp under 50C)

5. Punch dough down give it a quick knead and divide into 16 equal pieces

6. Place in lined pan close together

7. If you wish to put crosses on them now is the time, mix a little flour and water in a small ziplock bag and cut one corner and pipe on (I am not very good at piping but try my best)

8. Cover and leave to rise until doubled in size.

9. Heat oven to 200C 

10. Spray buns with water and place in oven. 

11. Bake for 10 minutes and then reduce heat to 180C and bake for 15-20 minutes longer, you can tell if they are cooked if they sound hollow when you tap them.

12. Cool for 5 minutes in tray before removing onto wire rack.

13. Make a glaze out of a little icing sugar and water and a bit of cinnamon (like a really runny icing) brush onto buns while still hot.

14. Serve warm with lashings of butter. 

Leftovers can be cut in half and toasted for breakfast the next day.

If you want something different than the buns you can make an Easter loaf by diving dough in half to make two loaves.

Take one and cut it into 3 equal pieces roll these out and plait to make a plaited loaf, do the same with other piece of dough, brush with egg white and sprinkle on flaked almonds and sugar, cook as for Hot Cross Buns. 

I usually make this as well but I can't find a photo.

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raspberry almond cake

 I made this cake for myself for my birthday.

It was a lovely cake, but I think it needs to be served with something.

Whipped cream and/ or a chocolate ganache would be my first choice, unfortunately being gluten and dairy free I would have to go to my second choice of a dairy free ice cream either vanilla or chocolate or a raspberry sorbet.

Raspberry and Almond Cake

2 C frozen raspberries, thawed, juice included

6 eggs

1 C sugar

255g almond meal

Preheat oven to 160C

Puree raspberries with their juice.

Beat eggs and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy, add puree and almond meal.

Stir well, pour into a greased 22cm cake tin (I used a springform tin, lining bottom and greasing the sides) and bake for 60-70 minutes.

As you can see from the photo I dressed it up by putting flaked almonds on top before baking and dusting with icing sugar once cooled.

The note in the book says you can swap raspberries for apples, bananas, oranges or mandarin. 

Topped with cream cheese and sprinked with poppy seeds, this cake is beautiful.

homemade sausage rolls

B4 requested homemade sausage rolls for lunch on his birthday.

These are really yummy and use ordinary mince not sausage mince.

I used kangaroo as that's what we buy these days, but any mince would be fine.

I actually started to write out this recipe when B2 came into the room and said, "Haven't you done that before?", sure enough when I looked I found I had done a post on it last year here. 

So if you want to make these delicious sausage rolls look them up.

Note to self check before posting if you have already shared the recipes. 

I found after posting my apple pie recipe that I had done it last year as well! OOPS!

mazurka cake

This is a Polish Easter Cake. 

When I was in Year 11 our Home Economics teacher wanted us to make something a little less traditional than hot cross buns for Easter and found this recipe in a magazine. 

It blew the home ec budget providing 250g of almonds per cake for 15-20 of us.

I have made it just about every year since- it is thus the longest of our family's Easter traditions.

I usually serve it as dessert or for afternoon tea on Easter Day.

It has no raising agents and was probably traditionally served as part of Passover by Jewish families.

It is also gluten free - which is a bonus if you have any guests who can't eat wheat.

I usually make it on Good Friday while I'm waiting for the hot cross buns to prove.

It keeps quite well and freezes well if you want to get a head start.

Mazurka Cake

Ingredients:

4 eggs separated

grated peel of one orange

3/4 C caster sugar

3T sour cream

250g of hazelnuts or almonds toasted (I always use almonds)

pinch salt

Method:

1. Grease a small spring form pan (I also put baking paper in the bottom).

2. Preheat oven 180C/ 375F.

3. Beat egg yolks and orange peel until thickened in a large bowl. 

4. Gradually add caster sugar, beating constantly with an electric mixer until very thick and creamy.

5. Beat in sour cream.

6. Place nuts in blender or food processor and process until finely ground, fold into cake mixture.

7. In a medium bowl beat egg whites and salt to soft peaks.

8. Gently fold into cake mixture until no white streaks remain.

9. Pour into prepared tin.

10. Bake for 35-40 minutes, it is cooked when top springs back when pressed lightly with fingertip.

11. Cool slightly before removing from tin, cool completely

Topping:

1/2 C cream

1T icing sugar

1T dark rum (I use whatever I have on hand it was Kahlua  this year)

Whip together and serve with cake, either spread over the top or serve with dollop at the side.

You only need a small slice each, we served 10 and still had some left over.

middle eastern roast lamb

Every year we have a Passover meal on the Thursday before Easter. 

I think the first year we did it involved some hastily defrosted lamb chops and red cordial- it was very last minute. 

Over time and as the children have got older it has become a really family tradition, we have added in elements as we have learnt about them and incorporated them into our meal. 

B1 says it is his favourite celebration. 

I found this recipe in a small Jewish cookbook I purchased at the supermarket checkout about 8 or 9 years ago. 

I have adapted it and only use half the spices and where they use a boned shoulder I just use a leg.

The version below is my adaptation, if you want it spicier double the amount of spices

Middle Eastern Roast Lamb

1/3 C oil

2 cloves garlic

pinch cayenne pepper

2t ground cumin

1t ground coriander

1t cinnamon

1t paprika

2t finely grated lemon rind

1/4 C lemon juice

roast lamb big enough for your family

8 small brown onions halved

extra olive oil

2 bay leaves

Method:

1. Mix the oil, garlic, spices, rind and juice in a bowl

2. Rub onto the lamb

3. Place onions in bottom of roasting dish and place lamb on top

4. Put bay leaves in tray and pour 1 1/2 cups water into dish

5. Place in the oven 190C until lamb cooked to your liking

6. Top up water as necessary.

7. Prepare and cook roast vegetables of choice- we usually have potato, sweet potato, pumpkin and carrot

8. When cooked remove lamb and set aside to rest

9. Put onions in with roasted vegetables to brown them up

10. Use the juices to make the gravy- the spices make this the tastiest gravy ever!

The lamb is beautifully tender and juicy.

Crispy roast vegetables

Waiting for Passover to begin.

wedding anniversary

To celebrate our 20th Wedding Anniversary we had a lovely three course meal with the children.

We stared with a prawn cocktail with a twist.
I made a mango and avocado salsa (chopped mango and avocado, coriander, mint with lime zest and lime juice, brown sugar and sweet chilli sauce) and a lime mayonnaise (mayonaisse, sour cream, lime juice and zest) to go with it and some chopped Asian style lettuce from our garden on the bottom of the dish.


Then for the main we had our favourite harrissa lamb cutlets.
Dessert was reminiscent of our wedding cake (pictured below) we had a Croquembouche.


(I would really like to make one of these one day).


So I made profiteroles and filled them with a custard cream and served them with macerated strawberries and chocolate fudge sauce. YUMM!!

It was a lovely family meal and we thought the children should be involved after the weekend.