Hot Cross Buns

Happy Easter to you 

This recipe comes from Donna Hay, I found it on facebook and decided to give it ago like all Donna's recipes it is easy to follow and not complicated, the only two things I would do differently is say don't start the milk, yeast & sugar section until your ready to add it o all the other ingredients,  and next time I make these, which will probably be tomorrow I will be adding another 2 teaspoons cinnamon, just to get rid of the "Yeasty taste. 

•  2 tablespoons dried yeast*
•  ¼ cup (55g) caster (superfine) sugar
•  1½ cups (375ml) warm milk
•  4¼ cups (635g) plain (all-purpose) flour
•  2 teaspoons mixed spice
•  2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
•  50g butter, melted
•  1 egg
•  ¼ cup (55g) caster (superfine) sugar, extra
•  1½ cups (240g) sultanas
•  ⅓ cup (55g) candied mixed peel, optional

crosses

•  ½ cup (75g) plain (all-purpose) flour
•  ⅓ cup (80ml) water

glaze

•  2 teaspoons sugar
•  1 teaspoon powdered gelatine
•  ¼ cup (60ml) water

Combine the yeast, sugar and milk in a bowl. Set aside for 5-10 minutes or until bubbles form on the surface.
Combine the flour, mixed spice, cinnamon, butter, egg, extra sugar, sultanas, mixed peel and yeast mixture in a large bowl. Mix with a butter knife until a sticky dough forms. Knead on a lightly floured surface for 5–10 minutes or until it feels smooth and elastic when pressed. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel and stand in a warm place for 30–40 minutes or until doubled in size.

  Lightly knead the dough again, divide into 12 pieces and roll into balls. Place in a 23cm-square cake tin lined with non-stick baking paper. Cover with a clean tea towel and set aside in a warm place for 25–30 minutes or until doubled in size.

  Preheat oven to 200ºC (390ºF). To make the crosses, combine the flour and water to make a smooth paste. Place in a piping bag** and pipe crosses onto the buns. Bake for 30–35 minutes or until well browned and springy to touch.

  To make the glaze, combine the sugar, gelatine and water in a saucepan over medium heat and stir for 2 minutes or until dissolved. Brush warm buns with the glaze and serve with butter. Makes 12.

 

* You will need this amount of yeast because of the amount of sugar in the recipe.

  ** To make a piping bag, fill a ziplock bag with the cross mixture and snip off one corner.

Charlie's Choc Banana Bread

I Love Banana Bread,
But up until a couple of years ago had never tasted it, for some strange reason the thought of Banana Bread had never appealed to me at all, That soon changed when I was at Gloria Jeans Coffee shop one day with a friend and tried my first slice, the rest as they say is history! any excuse I could over the next couple of months I would visit Gloria Jeans for a slice of Banana Bread and you know what I don't even drink coffee ... 

I soon found that the same Banana Bread was at McDonald's too so even more Banana Bread love happiness,  But how much Banana Bread can a girl really have soon the novelty wore off and I didn't worry about it,
Then one day one of my online facebook friends Charlie was raving about a fantastic Banana Bread she had made, so I asked for the recipe and she sent me the link for this awesome creation.  Even though the recipe is really on Nigella Lawson website to me it is Charlies Banana Bread, and if you happen to have the Gloria Jeans one please share :)

 

CHOC BANANA BREAD ( originally from Nigella Lawson )

INGREDIENTS

250g (2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

125g (4 1/2 oz) unsalted butter, softened

250g (1 cup) caster (superfine) sugar

3 ripe medium size bananas, mashed

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

175g (1 cup) good-quality dark or milk chocolate chip

                      




         

       METHOD

 

	Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4). Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl and put to one side.
	Mix the butter, sugar, banana, eggs, vanilla extract and chocolate chips in a separate bowl. when well mixed Add to the dry ingredients and stir to combine, being careful not to over mix. if you over mix it wont rise as well.
	Pour the batter into a non-stick, or lightly greased and floured, 19 x 11 cm (7 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch) loaf tin and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes or until the bread is cooked when tested with a skewer.
	Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

Puff the Perfect Pastie

Puff the perfect pastie lived by the Sea, yep that's what you will be humming after you have made these Pasties too.  Well OK maybe not quite but you will be enjoying one of the nicest perfect pasties ever made that I do promise.

Awhile ago a good friend of mine gave me a few homemade pasties she had whipped up to try they were so great I asked if we could have a pastie making day well today was that day, she arrived on my doorstep with a bag of goodies for us to use in our cooking.

We soon set about talking and cooking to the tune of her Nasty Pastie Recipe, and when the first patch was cooked we sat out the back eating our goods for lunch with a dollop of Tomato Sauce and saying how good they were and that we will defiantly be making them again.

Jen wrote her Nasty Pasty Recipe out for me.

I love Pasties...I made up this recipe and hit the jackpot. 

 

1 x 500gm bag undressed coleslaw mix

500gm turkey mince

500gm sausage mince

6 medium potatoes, finely diced
2 finely diced carrots

1 cup frozen peas  

¼ cup Worcestershire sauce

¼ cup BBQ sauce,

½ cup Tomato sauce

2 tbsp dried onion flakes,      

2 tbsp crushed peppercorns

1 tsp salt & 1 tsp pepper

2 packets of frozen puff pastry sheets.

1 friend (more if kitchen is big enough)

Put all ingredients in a large pot, Mix well then cover and simmer for 1 hour or until potatoes are cook and liquid has been absorbed. Allow mixture to cool. Cut pastry sheets into quarters and add 1 heaped dessert spoon on each one. Pinch to seal, prick with fork, brush with egg wash. Bake in moderate to hot oven and bake until golden.

Share with a friend and freeze some for a quick snack of delicious golden bliss of a Nasty Pasty.