Mincemeat Chelsea Buns

Chelsea Buns are gloriously sticky and sweet.

The buns are traditionally made with an enriched yeasted dough and filled with a mixture of butter, sugar, dried fruit and spices. The filled dough is rolled into a spiral and individual buns are created by cutting cross sections of the dough.

 

The buns are placed in a roasting pan and are baked together with their sides touching, so that they merge together during baking and have to be torn apart to serve.

 

Whilst still hot, the buns are usually glazed with a cold eater and sugar solution, which produces a lovely sticky finish to the buns when cool.

 

Over the years, I have tried out quite a few different recipes for Chelsea Buns and the dough recipe given here is my favourite. The dough is not sweet, but the overall effect created is one of sweetness due to the filling and topping used.

 

I recently made some jars of mincemeat in preparation for Christmas and decided that I would use some of my stash in these buns. I was delighted with the results and think that these would be a lovely treat over the festive season. I also deviated from the traditional recipe by using a simple glacé icing as a glaze to the finished buns.

 

As with many of the recipes I gravitate towards, this one is quite straightforward and I urge you to try it.

Ingredients:

500g strong white flour
1 tsp salt

1 x 7g sachet of fast-acting yeast

300ml milk

50g butter

1 large free-range egg

450g mincemeat

Icing:

100g icing sugar

1 teaspoon water

Method:

1. Place the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and stir until thoroughly combined. Make a well in the centre of the flour and sprinkle in the yeast.
2. Warm the milk and butter in a small saucepan until the butter is melted and the mixture is lukewarm. Pour into the flour mixture, add the egg and mix together thoroughly until the contents of the bowl come together into a soft dough.

3. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead well for 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.

4. Place the dough into an oiled bowl and leave to rise, covered with cling film or a clean damp tea-towel, for about hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

5. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Roll out dough into a rectangle about 30x20cm. Spread the mincemeat over the dough to within about an inch of the edges.

6. Roll along the long side of the dough to create a tight spiral. Using a sharp knife cut into 10 even slices.

7. Grease a deep roasting tin or baking tray thoroughly with butter.

8. Place the buns, cut side up, into the greased baking tray leaving about 1cm space between each one. You want them to be close enough so that when they rise further and then bake, they will bake with their sides touching. Leave to rise for about 30 minutes in a warm place.

9. Preheat oven to 190C/fan Oven 170C/Gas Mark 5.

10. When the buns are ready, put them in the pre-heated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden-brown. Remove the buns from the oven and let them cool slightly before transferring them to a cooling rack.

11. Mix the icing sugar and water together in a small bowl to create a smooth but slightly runny icing. Drizzle the icing over the cooled buns and allow to set before serving.

 

Makes 10 buns.

 

Apple, Pear & Blackberry Crumble

This is such as simple recipe… I really cannot stress how easy it is. It is also incredibly versatile – you can use whatever fruits you have to hand.

Apple crumble is incredibly popular in our house especially if served with a large spoonful of lightly whipped cream, a scoop of vanilla ice-cream or a generous puddle of custard. Another favourite fruit to use is Rhubarb… so delicious. I sometimes throw in a few strawberries to keep the rhubarb company, if I have some.

Basically you just pile all the fruit into an oven proof dish, and depending on the tartness of the chosen fruit – sprinkle on some sugar to taste, top with the crumble mixture and pop into the oven for just over half an hour.

It is that simple.

The crumble is a doddle to make. You roughly rub the butter into the flour and add some caster sugar before mixing together.

As you will be aware, I am on a bit of a pear fest at the moment, so I used apples, pears and some blackberries. I love the way the blackberries give a rosy colour to the other fruits as they cook.

Be confidant and do try out different fruit combinations using whatever is in season. You can’t beat a good crumble.

Ingredients:

4 large cooking apples, peeled cored and sliced

2 large pears, peeled, cored and sliced

Handful of blackberries

50g caster sugar

Crumble:

175g plain flour

115g butter

100g caster sugar

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 5. Mix the prepared fruit together into an oven-proof dish and set aside.

Make the crumble:

2. Place the flour in a bowl and rub in the butter. You do not need to be too fastidious about this as it is actually better if some small lumps of butter still remain. Add the sugar and mix all the crumble ingredients together.

3. Spread the crumble out evenly on top of the fruit. Place on a baking tray and put into the pre-heated oven for approximately 35 minutes until the crumble is a golden colour and the fruit juices are bubbling around the edges. Allow to cool slightly and serve whilst still warm with cream, ice-cream or hot custard.

 

Serves 6.
 

Christmas Gingerbread

The baking of Christmas biscuits or cookies has long been a tradition in many countries.
 
Many of the recipes that are commonplace today can trace their roots back to Medieval Europe. Christmas cookies that are highly spiced mainly originate from Germany, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe where as the more shortbread-like recipes hail from England. German lebkuchen, a type of gingerbread is particularly associated with Christmas, but other variations include the lemon and cardamom flavoured krumkake from Norway and papparkakor from Sweden which use ginger and black pepper.
 
I think that I have established without a doubt my particular fondness for all things ginger flavoured. I think it is the most amazing spice, imparting as it does a spicy heat that just makes your month tingle. It therefore comes as no surprise that I love Christmas gingerbread.
 
In many ways, the title “gingerbread” is somewhat of a misnomer as there is nothing bread like about these biscuits. Rather, they are quite hard and crunchy but are not unyielding in the mouth. Gingerbread is usually highly decorated, either with chocolate and little sweets, or as I have done here - with piped royal icing. The gingerbread dough can also be simply decorated by impressing it with designs using carved wooden moulds. Some moulds are highly intricate and produce the most beautiful looking biscuits.
 
The baking and construction of decorative gingerbread houses to display at Christmas time has experienced a revival in recent years. Some food historians believe that the first gingerbread houses may have appeared as a result of the popular Grimm's fairy tales, specifically as a result of the publication of Hansel and Gretel, a fairy tale about two children left to starve in a forest. In the story the children chance upon a house made of bread and sugar decorations. The ravenous children feast upon the sugary shingles. Certainly around the time that Hansel and Gretel appeared the baking of gingerbread houses was hugely popular in Germany, so there would appear to be some truth in the belief that they were inspired by the story.
 
I have decided that I am going to attempt baking a house this year, but for now, here is the recipe for simple biscuits. If you remember to pierce a little hole in the biscuits prior to baking, you can then thread some ribbon through them later and use them as edible decorations.  This is a great recipe; - it so simple to make and puts up with quite a lot of handling without deteriorating.
  

Ingredients:

125g unsalted butter
100g dark muscovado sugar

85g golden syrup

300g plain flour

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

2tsp ground ginger

Icing:

50g icing sugar

1tsp water

Method:

1. Heat oven to 200C/Fan Oven 180C/Gas Mar 6. Line two large baking trays with non-stick baking parchment.
2. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a small saucepan. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger into a large bowl and then stir in the melted butter mixture to make a stiff dough.
3. Roll out the dough between two sheets of baking parchment until about ½ cm thick. Use cookie cutters to stamp out your desired shapes. Remember to try and place similar sized shapes together on the same baking sheet because depending on the size of the cookie, they may take slight less or more time to cook. If you want to use them as decorations, remember to pierce a small hole in the top of each cookie at this stage.
4. Bake in the pre-heated oven for approximately 10 minutes until just beginning to brown around the edges. Remove from the oven when baked and leave to cool on the baking trays until they harden up. Remove to wire cooling racks to finish cooling completely.
To decorate:

5. Place icing sugar and 1tsp water in a bowl and mix together to form a thick but smooth icing. Place the mixture into a small disposable piping bag fitted with a fine, plain nozzle and pipe out decorative patterns on the biscuits. Allow the icing to set.

 

 Makes 18-24 biscuits, depending on chosen size of cookie cutter.
 

Stem Ginger Shortbread

There is very little to say about these biscuits other than to note that whilst they may look plain they do in fact, pack a real gingery, buttery punch of flavour.
 
The dough that I use to make these biscuits is my basic shortbread dough to which I add ground ginger and some finely chopped preserved stem ginger.
 
I roll out the dough to a thickness of about 1cm and then stamp out individual discs using a 6cm round-fluted cookie cutter. You can use cookie cutters in other shapes but, for these biscuits, I favour the restrained elegance of the fluted cutters.
 
Most types of shortbread biscuits are enhanced by a light sprinkling of caster sugar when they emerge just baked and hot from the oven - so that is what I do here. I love the way some of the tiny, sweet crystals always cling to my mouth after each bite of biscuit, forcing me to lick my lips and submit myself to another gentle kiss of sugar.

Shortbread contains very few ingredients and as such I really believe that you need to use the best that you can find. In particular, I urge you to use quality butter; the better the quality of the butter, the better the flavour of the finished biscuits.
 
One final piece of advice… These biscuits are wonderful with a nice cup of tea. The modern world can be a stressful and busy place, so it’s lovely making time to indulge in simple pleasures such as a cup of tea and a few homemade biscuits.

Ingredients:

300g plain flour

200g butter, softened

100g caster sugar plus a little extra to sprinkle over the shortbread

½ tsp ground ginger

3 balls of stem ginger from a jar of preserved ginger

 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/Fan Oven 150C/Gas Mark 3. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking parchment and set aside.

2. Place the butter and caster sugar in a large bowl and using a hand-held electric whisk, beat together until light and fluffy and a pale colour. Finely chop the stem ginger into small dice and set aside.

3. Sieve the flour and ground ginger together, add the diced stem ginger and work into the butter and sugar mixture with a wooden spoon to form a dough. Knead briefly with your hands to bring together into a bowl and place on a lightly floured work-surface.

4. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough until about 1cm thick and using a 6cm round fluted cookie cutter, stamp out discs of the dough. Place on the lined baking sheets leaving space between each biscuit.

5. Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes until the shortbread is a light golden colour. Remove from the oven and lightly sprinkle with a couple of tablespoons of caster sugar. Leave to cool. The shortbread keeps very well for several days in an air-tight tin.

 

 Makes 18 Biscuits.


 

Hazelnut Cake

I have been experimenting with hazelnuts again! Ever since I managed to get my hands on a bottle of Frangelico, an Italian hazelnut flavoured liqueur, I have become more than a little obsessed with all things to do with hazelnuts.
 
Yesterday was cold and gloomy yet again and SHOCK... HORROR, the weather forecasters were predicting a strong likelihood of light snow falling in parts of the country. We are definitely in winter now! However, there is a lot to recommend this time of year, not least of which is a ready excuse to try out and to develop new recipes that I have been meaning to get to for quite a while. To be honest, it’s too cold and dark outside to do much else in the evenings.

 

Like a little squirrel, which had accumulated a rich store of nuts to sustain themself through the season when Winter disdainfully stretches out her icy fingers, I set to preparing the hazelnuts for the cake that I had decided I was going to bake.

 

I quickly decided that I did not want to include chocolate in the cake that I was going to bake. I wanted it to be about the hazelnuts in all their glory. There is no doubting that hazelnut and chocolate is a marriage made in heaven, but I wanted to focus on the hazelnuts alone.

 

I used whole hazelnuts, which had already been skinned. I have previously spoken in another post about my hatred of certain culinary tasks and skinning nuts is at the forefront of this list. So I decided to spend a little extra and buy ready-blanched nuts. I roasted the nuts on a baking tray in a hot oven for approximately 7 minutes until they had darkened in colour and the kitchen had taken on their sweet, nutty aroma. You do need to watch the hazelnuts carefully, because they can burn very easily. It is worth roasting the nuts because it really brings out the flavour of the nuts.

 

When the nuts had cooled completely I whacked them into my mini food-processor and ground them until fairly fine, but still retaining some texture. If you over-grind them, the oils in the nut are released, resulting in a type of hazelnut butter which is not what I wanted in this recipe.

 

I made a basic Madeira-like sponge cake recipe and folded in the nuts at the end just prior to baking. I wanted to achieve a cake that had a close crumb, but was still had a lightness about it. I felt that anything too spongy with a very aerated crumb would conflict with the texture of the hazelnuts. (You will note that I did not use any raising agent in the cake but I made sure that I creamed the butter and sugar together until really light and fluffy and I also sifted the flour twice). I also chose to include some vanilla paste as I thought that the floral notes in the vanilla would complement and accentuate the hazelnut flavour I wanted to achieve.

 

I thought a little about whether to ice or glaze the cake and if so, what to use. I decided against using a buttercream this time, and instead opted for a caramel glaze which I then sprinkled with some roughly chopped roasted hazelnuts. Caramel has a natural affinity with all nuts and this was certainly the case here. Next time, and there will be a next time, because this cake was so delicious, I think I will split the cake into three layers and sandwich the layers together with a hazelnut praline buttercream but I will still cover the cake in the caramel. If you want a simple cake, just follow the recipe that I present here. It really is yum! I am going to try out the buttercream idea and will report back.

 

Postscript: I have now made this recipe twice; once with standard plain flour and once with Tritamyl Flour, which can be consumed by coeliacs. There was very little difference between the two, but if I was pushed, I would say that the latter did not rise quite as much. Both cakes were lovely!

Ingredients:

Cake:
200g butter, softened

200g caster sugar

200g plain flour, sifted

4 eggs

½ tsp vanilla paste

125g ground hazelnuts

Caramel Glaze:

100g caster sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

3 tblsp water

125ml double cream

To finish:

1 tblsp of roughly chopped roasted hazelnuts

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/Fan Oven 150C/Gas Mark 3. Grease and line the bottom of a deep 23cm round cake tin with baking parchment and set aside.
2. Place the softened butter and caster sugar in a large bowl and using an electric hand-held whisk, beat together until light and fluffy. Take your time doing this to ensure that they are well mixed.
3. Add the eggs one at a time and continue beating ensuring that each egg is well mixed I before you add the next. Add the vanilla paste and mix thoroughly.
4. Next add the sifted flour and the hazelnuts and fold into the egg and sugar mixture. Once thoroughly mixed, pour the cake batter into the prepared cake tin and place into the pre-heated oven for approximately 50 minutes. Check the cake after about half an hour and if it looks like it is browning too rapidly, cover with a little aluminium foil.
5. To test whether the cake is cooked through, insert a thin skewer. When withdrawn the skewer should not have any raw or undercooked cake batter on it. Remove from the oven and allow cool in the tin for about ten minutes. When cool enough to handle, remove from the tin and allow cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the caramel glaze:

6. Place the sugar, lemon juice and water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil over a high heat. Stir continuously. After a couple of minutes a caramel will start to form. Allow it to turn a dark caramel colour and then remove the pan from the heat.

7. Carefully and slowly pour in the double cream, still stirring until you have a smooth caramel. Be very careful when adding the cream as the mixture can splutter and bubble up furiously.

8. Allow the caramel to cool in the saucepan for about five minutes and when it has thickened slightly, but still liquid, pour it onto the top of the cake and smooth out with a small palette knife so that the top and sides of the cake is evenly coated. Sprinkle a few roughly chopped toasted hazelnuts over the top of the cake and allow stand at room temperature for 2-3 hours so that the glaze can set.
 

Serves 8-10.

Simple Shortbread

Gosh! I must be on a bit of a biscuit binge at the moment… but here is another simple biscuit recipe that tastes delicious and is extremely versatile.

 

What I love about this recipe is that the ratio of ingredients is so easy to remember and is basically 3:2:1 of plain flour:butter:sugar. It is a classic shortbread recipe which I have baked here in the shortbread mould that I recently bought but you could just as easily make individual biscuits by rolling out the dough to about half a centimetre thick and using a circular 6cm cookie cutter to stamp out. You can make thinner biscuits, but you will need to decrease the baking time.

 

The basic dough can be flavoured with lemon or orange zest or you can experiment using different spices. I sometimes make thin, individual biscuits flavoured with freshly ground black pepper which I serve as an accompaniment to the strawberry mousse that I often make when fresh Irish strawberries are in season (these may sound a little odd, but the pepper compliments the strawberries so wonderfully). The point is that this recipe is extremely versatile provided you keep to the basic ratios given above.

 

If I were to impart any advice, it would be to use the best butter that you can lay your hands on. You can use unsalted butter, but if I’m completely honest, I rarely do because I like the very subtle salty flavour. This is NOT a recipe where margarine can be substituted. It has to be butter and given that I believe that Ireland produces the best butter in the world – I always use Irish butter!

 

My food obsessions not only include the eating of food, but also cover an OCD like compulsion to continuously add to my extensive food book and magazine collection. I am a complete sucker when it comes to buying new cake tins and other kitchen equipment. I'm lucky in that I have quite a lot of storage space in my kitchen, but every cupboard is overflowing with various tins, tools and implements.

 

My two daughters love all things even vaguely related to One Direction and whilst I'm sure that I would find it amusing to meet Harry, Louis, Zayn and the other 1D boys, it would be nothing compared to the idiotic, incoherent, star-struck fool I would become if I met some of my favourite chefs. I would be an absolute simpering eejit. Alas, the opportunity to do this does not look like it’s going to present itself in the near future so I shall continue to console myself with the acquisition of more cookery equipment!

 

My latest purchase was a circular wooden shortbread mould, into which you place your shortbread dough to imprint a pattern before removing from the mould prior to baking. I found that it worked very effectively although the thistle pattern which was carved into the wood did not imprint as distinctly as I had hoped it might.

Ingredients:

300g plain flour

200g butter, softened

100g caster sugar plus a little extra to sprinkle over the shortbread

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/Fan Oven 150C/Gas Mark 3. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking parchment and set aside.

2. Place the butter and caster sugar in a large bowl and using a hand-held electric whisk, beat together until light and fluffy and a pale colour.

3. Add the flour and work into the butter and sugar mixture with a wooden spoon to form a dough. Knead briefly with your hands to bring together into a bowl and place on a lightly floured work-surface.

4. Divide the dough in half with a sharp knife. Form each half into a circle and roll out gently with a rolling pin until it is roughly the size of your shortbread mould (My mould is 20cms wide). Lightly flour the mould and press the dough into it. Gently remove and place on one end of the lined baking tray. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

5. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes until the shortbread is a light golden colour. Remove from the oven and score each round into eight wedges and lightly sprinkle with a couple of tablespoons of caster sugar. Leave to cool. The shortbread keeps very well for several days in an air-tight tin.

Makes 2 rounds of shortbread.