For everyone who is not British: Hot Cross Buns are the Easter treat in Britain. You’ll find them in every last supermarket. Traditionally eaten only at Easter, they are now available pretty much all year round. However, the smell of the spicy buns coming from the oven is such a treat, so give it a go and make them yourself! The recipe below is made by the ‘Ferment & Dough’ method, which allows the yeast ideal conditions to grow before being mixed together with the butter, spices, salt etc, all of which reduce the yeast activity.

Preparation

Ingredients - Ferment

• 25g sugar
• 25g yeast
• 270g water
• 105g wholemeal flour

Ingredients - Dough

• 55g wholemeal flour
• 365g strong bread flour
• 15g Skimmed Milk Powder
• 60g Butter
• 50g Sugar
• 50g Egg (1 medium)
• 5g Salt
• 10g Mixed Spice
• 55g Sultanas
• 105g Currents
• 25g Mixed Peel

Method

1. For the ferment, dissolve yeast in water and add and dissolve the sugar. Stir in the flour to form a smooth batter, cover and leave in a warm place for 30-40 min until nicely risen and starting to collapse.
2. Sieve together the flours for the dough together with the salt and milk powder.
3. Put in a mixing bowl and rub in the butter by hand or with a beater on slow speed.
4. Mix together the egg, sugar and spice and add to the mixing bowl together with the ferment.
5. Mix with dough hook for 2min on slow speed and 6 min on second speed. By hand this will take about 10 - 15min.
6. Leave in a covered bowl to bulk ferment for 40min, then knead in the fruit by hand. Return to the bowl and cover for a further 20min.
7. Divide into 60g doughpieces and mould round by pressing with hand on the doughpiece cupping your fingers around it and moulding it round in circular movements. Rest for 10min then re-mould briefly to tighten up the dough.
8. Line up the buns on a tray, leaving some space to expand. Cover with a plastic sheet (i.e. carrier bag) and prove for about 40 min in a warm place until nicely risen.
9. In the meantime, prepare a smooth batter for the crossing from 50g plain flour, 1 g baking powder, 1g salt, 10g butter and 55g milk. Stir all together until smooth and fill into a plastic feezer bag.
10. When the buns have finished proving, cut a small opening into one corner of the freezer bag and pipe across the top of the buns in lines from left to right and top to bottom of the baking tray.
11. Bake at 230C for 10 - 15min.
12. On removal from the oven, brush the hot buns with a mixture of 50g milk, 10g sugar and 10 g egg (all whisked together), which will give the buns a lovely shine.
13. Serve with butter and jam. They taste great cut open and toasted as well!
14. Enjoy!

A nice and easy sourdough bread to start you off with. It’s a mixture of rye and malted flour (sold in the UK as ‘Malthouse’, ‘Granary’ or ‘Harvester’ flour). You will need to produce a starter culture and a production sourdough before you can start.

Preparation

Ingredients

• 175g Sourdough
• 75g Rye Flour
• 160g Malted Flour
• 3g Salt
• 100g Water

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients to a smooth dough. In a mixer this will take about 5-6 minutes, longer if mixing by hand. The dough will be quite sticky. If you mix by hand you could use a little oil on the work surface and your hands to make mixing easier.
2. Shape the dough into a ball and put smooth side down into the bowl lined with the tea towel. The towel needs to be well floured, so the dough doesn’t stick to it.
3. Cover the surface of the dough with a little flour and then cover the bowl and leave in a warm place for about 2-3 hours.
4. The dough is ready to go in the oven when it is well risen but still has a little resistance when you touch it.
5. Turn the loaf upside down onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for about 35 minutes. Tap on the bottom to see if it sounds hollow. If it does, it is ready to come out of the oven.
6. Cool on a wire rack and don’t cut open until completely cool.

OK, you’ve hopefully made a nice active sourdough starter, next you need to make the actual sourdough or ’sour’ for short. The sour is the basis on which your actual sourdough bread dough are based. With the one sourdough you can make an endless variety of breads. So here goes:

Preparation

Ingredients

• 40g Sourdough Starter
• 120g Rye Flour
• 240g Warm Water

Method

1. Mix all ingredients together, either with a mixer or by hand. It is not necessary to mix the dough intensely, as there is no gluten development as with wheat flour.
2. Cover the bowl and leave in a warm place for about 18 hours (plus/minus a few hours should be fine)
3. Voila - this is you sourdough and you can use it for any sourdough breads you like.

Conny’s Tip

You can use any rye flour you like, light or dark (wholemeal). I use Dove’s Farm organic wholemeal which works really well.

Ever wanted to try your hand at a sourdough bread, but thought it was to complex or time-consuming? Well, it isn’t. True, it will take a few days to get it going, but it won’t really need much attention and it only takes a couple of minutes to do the initial feeding. I actually think it’s easier to make a sourdough rye than a white yeast-raised loaf. So give it a go and be amazed!

The sourdough starter is the first stage in producing sourdough bread. The second stage is the actual sourdough and the last the bread dough. Once you’ve got a good starter going the other two stages are childsplay (well, almost).

Preparation

Ingredients

• 80g Wholemeal Rye Flour (I use Doves Farm)
• 160g Water (warm but not hot)
• 1 tsp natural untreated honey

Method

1. Day 1: Mix 20g of the flour, 40g of the water and the honey in your plastic container. It is not necessary to mix it really well, the natural yeasts will do that for you. Cover and leave in a warm place for 24 hour.
2. Day 2: Mix in another 20g of flour and 40g of water and stir into the mixture, cover and return to its warm place.
3. Day 3: Repeat as for Day 2. The sour should show some activity by now.
4. Day 4: Repeat as above.
5. Day 5: Tadaa! You should now have a nice sourdough starter which will smell and taste acidic and is ready for the next stage. So, have a go and by the time you’ve got your sourdough starter going, I’ll post the next step in the production process.

Conny’s Tip

Honey contains a lot of natural yeasts, however, the cheap honey in the supermarket is always heat treated, which destroys these yeasts. Incidentally it also destroys a lot of enzymes which are good for you! I keep bees and make my own honey (but I don’t expect you to go that far). The next best thing is to buy some honey from a local beekeeper or a healthfood shop.

Gateau Pithivier - fresh from the bakery school! We made is on Tuesday and it came out really well. It is a classic French patisserie product made from puff pastry and frangipane cream. In Northern France it is also known as ‘Galette des Rois’ (The Kings’ Cake) and traditionally eaten on Epiphany on 6th January.

Preparation

Ingredients

• 500g Puff pastry
• 250g Frangipane Cream
• 50g Raspberry Jam (or any jam you fancy)
• A little egg for brushing
• Icing sugar for dusting

Method

1. Roll out the puff pastry to about 4mm thickness. Use guides if you find this easier.
2. Cut out two 8″ circles by cutting around an 8″ cake tin or cut a circle out of cardboard and use this as your guide.
3. Spread the jam in the centre of the base to about 1″ (2.5cm) of the edge.
4. Fill the frangipane in the piping bag fitted with the 12mm nozzle and pipe in a spiral onto the jam, again, only go to about 1″ from the edge of the circle. Pipe a little more in the centre, so that the filling is slightly dome shaped.
5. Roll out the circle for the top very gently, so it is slightly bigger than the base.
6. Brush the outside circle of the base (the bit you didn’t cover with the filling) with egg and cover the base with the top.
7. Press down firmly on the edge to seal the to circles together. You can use a fork or your fingers to do this.
8. Brush the top with egg and decorate by scoring with a sharp knife starting just slightly outside the centre in a circular movement (see picture).
9. Rest for about 45min before baking, than bake for about 30 minutes.
10. Dust with icing sugar while still hot and return to a hot oven briefly until the icing sugar has melted to form a light glaze.
11. Enjoy!

So very English - the traditional Rich Fruit Cake, used as a base for wedding cakes, celebration and birthday cakes etc. It’s full of fruit and very heavy, so easy to work with if you cover it in marzipan, icing or whatever else takes your fancy. I am just working on a wedding cake for a friend and have baked a 7″ and a 10″ of these over the weekend. The kitchen smelled so fantastic all day.

Due to the high sugar content of this cake, you can keep it for ages, in fact it best to make the cake 2 - 3 months ahead and let it mature and give it a soaking of your favorite alcohol every 4 weeks of so. Once it is iced, the cake will keep for 9 - 12 months, believe it or not. Sorry, I don’t have an image of the rich fruit cake itself - the cake is in there though, honest! The picture shows a royal iced cake I finished today in my confectionery design class.

Ever wondered how to make a traditional Rich Fruit Cake? Well, here’s how:

Preparation

Ingredients

• 155g Cake Margarine
• 155g Dark Brown Sugar
• 25g Marzipan
• 175g Egg
• 1g Almond flavour
• 1g Orange flavour
• 155g Medium (All Purpose) Flour
• 5g Mixed Spice
• 5g Cinnamon
• 180g Raisins
• 310g Currants
• 205g Sultanas
• 130g Glace Cherries
• 90g Mixed Peel
• 30g Sherry (or Rum or Brandy)

Method

1. Soak fruit in sherry for 24 hours.
2. Cream the margarine with the sugar and the marzipan until light and fluffy.
3. Mix almond and orange flavors (I use natural extracts) to the egg and add slowly to the mix. Do this by adding a little at a time, blending it in on a slow speed and then beating it briefly on a high speed.
4. Sieve the flour and the spices three times and mix into the batter.
5. Add the fruit and blend in.
6. Grease you cake tin with butter and line with greaseproof paper and fill with the mixture. Level the mixture by gently pressing down with your knuckles (dip them into water first so the cake mix doesn’t stick to them).
7. Due to the long baking time and the high sugar content of this cake, it needs to be protected from burning. To do this line a baking tray with two layers of thick paper (i.e. brown parcel paper) and also tie a double layer of this around the cake. To protect the top, cover the cake tin loosely with a sheet of greaseproof paper for the first 2/3 or so of the baking time.
8. Bake in the oven for about 3 hours. Check well before though. I check after 2 hours and then every 20 min to see if it’s baked. A skewer inserted into the cake should come out completely clean.
9. Let the cake cool in the tin until cool enough to handle. Then turn out of the cake, keeping the greaseproof paper on the cake to protect it.
10. If you like, sprinkle another 30g of alcohol over the top of the cake.
11. To store until needed, make sure it’s completely covered in greaseproof paper and then wrap in foil. Store in a coolish, dry place.

Conny’s Tip

To stop the cake mixture curdling when you add the egg, make sure the egg is at room temperature. If it’s cold, try warming up the sugar briefly in the oven, before creaming with the margarine.

OK, this is something for the breadmaking novice. A simple white bread loaf made from the basic ingredients: flour, water, salt, yeast and fat. Even such a simple recipe will taste much nicer than any white loaf you can by in the supermarket. If you are more experienced, try molding the bread into different shapes or add any seeds, herbs or spices that you like.

Preparation

Ingredients

• 600g strong white bread flour
• 350g warm water
• 13g fresh yeast (ca 8g dried yeast or 4 g fast action yeast)
• 12g salt
• 12g vegetable fat + more for greasing the tins

Method

1. Put the flour and the salt into a large bowl and blend by hand.
2. Make some space in the middle of the bowl and pour in the warm water and add the yeast.
3. Use your fingers to disperse the yeast in the water and gradually incorporate more and more flour.
4. When about half of the flour is incorporated, add the fat and mix in all the flour until you have got a workable dough.
5. Take the dough out of the bowel and start kneading on your work surface.
6. It’s going to be a bit of a workout, but the dough needs to be kneaded for about 15min (well, try at least 10min).
7. Alternatively, if you have a food mixer, put all ingredients into the mixing bowl and mix the ingredients with the dough hook for 2 min on 1st speed and 6 min on 2nd speed.
8. Next the dough needs to ferment for about an hour, this is called ‘Bulk Fermentation Method’. To do this, put the dough in a clean plastic bowl and cover it with a clean plastic bag (or lid if you have one).
9. About 3/4 through the fermentation time, you need to briefly need the dough again. This stage is called ‘knock back’, as you are knocking back any large air bubbles and so disperse small air bubbles evenly through the dough. I do this about 40-45 minutes into the fermentation process and then let the dough ferment for the rest of the hour.
10. When the hour is up, use your plastic scraper to divide the dough into two (if making 2 small loafs).
11. Shape the dough into a round ball. The reason for this is to get some tension in the dough in order to get it to rise properly during proving and hold its shape. The way to do this is to roughly shape it into a ball and then push it along the work surface if you right hand (or left if you are left handed), with your hand on the side of the ball gently curved around it. Keep your hand on the work surface as you move it along. You will feel the dough tightening up if you do it right. Don’t worry if you don’t get it at first, it takes a bit of practice.
12. The dough ball now needs to relax for about 10 minutes before you give it its final shape. Leave it on the work surface and cover it with your plastic bag.
13. After the 10minutes are up its time to give the loaf its final shape. Flatten the dough with the palm of you hand, still keeping it round. Roll it up loosely and then flatten again to give you a longish rectangle. Fold the right and left side into the middle so the meet in the middle and press down again. No roll the dough piece up tightly starting at the top and gently press down on the seam to make sure it holds together.
14. Place the shaped loaf seam facing down into your tin, sprinkle with a bit of flour and again cover with your plastic bag. Now is usually a good time to pre-heat your oven.
15. The loaf now needs to proof for about 35-45 minutes (exact time depends on room temperature) until doubled in size.
16. When proofed, make a cut along the length of the loaf if you like, for a so-called ’split tin loaf’. Bake in the oven for about 25-30min until nicely golden brown all around. To test if it’s baked, take out of the tin and tap on the bottom. It should sound hollow when it’s baked.
17. When the loaf is baked, remove from the tin and cool on a cooling wire before cutting.
18. Lastly - enjoy!!!

Conny’s Tip

Add your favorite seeds to the dough for some extra flavor. Any larger seeds benefit from soaking before adding to the dough (i.e. sunflower seeds). Soak in water a few hours before or even over night.

A new cookie is born! I have developed this cookie especially for the the MaB site’s header. They look fantastic and are fun to make. Serve with a cup of tea of coffee - yummy!

Ingredients

• 285g Flour
• 110g Butter
• 135g Caster (fine) Sugar
• 55g Egg (about 1 medium)
• 2g Vanilla Extract
• 1g Salt
• Strawberry Jam
• Egg for brushing

• Yield: ca 20
• Oven temperature: 190C

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven.
2. Sieve the flour with the salt twice.
3. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy (either in a food mixer fitted with the beater, an electric hand mixer or even by hand).
4. Slowly beat in the egg and vanilla essence.
5. Add the sifted flour the the mixture and beat until mixed in.
6. If your mixture is quite soft, wrap it in cling film and leave it in the fridge for 30min. Otherwise dust your worktop and roll out to about 4mm (roughly a sixth of an inch).
7. Use your MAB cookie cutter to cut out flower shaped cookies. Place half of them on a baking tray lined with baking paper (silicon paper is best if you can get it). Use a small round cutter, or any object that will cut a small round shape to cut out the centre of the remaining cookies. These will be the top half of the cookie.
8. Whisk your egg lightly and brush the cookies on the tray lightly with egg. Place a top on each of the cookies and then brush the top with egg.
9. Stir the strawberry jam to smooth it a bit. Use a teaspoon, or better, a piping bag if you have one, to fill the centers of the cookies.
10. Bake for ca 10min until lightly browned and cool on a wire rack. Once cool, keep the cookies in an airtight container - or better still, invite you friends over for a cup of tea and eat them!

Conny’s Tip

If you find it difficult to roll out the pastry evenly, try using ‘guides’. Guides are strips of wood or plastic that you position either side of the pastry and roll it out in between these while the rolling pin remains on top of the guides. The guides should be the desired height (4 mm in this case). You could try using strips of wood from your local DIY shop. Just make sure the wood is smooth so you don’t get any splinters in your pastry.