Chocolate Chelsea Buns

These were a bit of an experiment, I have a recipe for this that has just chocolate chips in them so I thought I would add the cocoa and see what happens. When it came time for first proving of the dough I left it over night as after a couple of hours it was not doing much.
So for the chocolate I used some of my Caramel chocolate that my lovely partner had brought from the shop and it works quite well, you can use any you want.
You will need to check your buns after 10 minutes to see if the foil need to go on to prevent the fruit and buns from burning, mine was ok after 20 minutes it just depends on you oven.
These are yummy served warm with cream poured over the top.

What you need:
9 oz strong plain flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 oz cocoa powder
1 oz butter
1 1/2 tsp dried yeast
4 fl oz warm milk
1 egg
1/2 oz melted butter
3 oz mixed sultanas and currents
4 oz chopped chocolate
3 tbsp maple/golden syrup

What you do:
In a large bowl sieve the flour, cinnamon, salt and cocoa powder.
Rub in the 1 oz butter then mix in the yeast.

In a jug beat the milk and the egg together

 then pour into the flour mix.

 Mix until you have formed the dough then place onto a lightly floured worktop and knead until you have a smooth and elastic dough (about 10 minutes). Place in a floured bowl and cover with cling film. Leave in a warm place until it has doubled in size.

Turn out onto a floured work top and knead for a few minutes

 then roll out into a rectangle that is about 31 cm x 23 cm.

Using the melted butter and brush over the dough. Sprinkle on the fruit and then the chocolate. Leave about a 1 inch boarder.

Roll up the dough, it will need to be tightly rolled, then cut into 12 equal pieces.

Lightly grease a tin, and place the dough pieces in the tin. If you have a 7 inch square tin use that,

Cover with cling film and leave in a warm place until it has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 190 o'C and bake for 20 minutes, then cover with tin foil and bake for another 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and brush over the maple/golden syrup.

Then leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turnout on to a wire rack to cool completely.

Leave to cool slightly then eat or cool completely and eat either way they are yummy.

Happy baking
Shelly.
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Bread for stews and casseroles.

Ok so now that the weather is starting to get cold and wet our family tend to have stew and casseroles. Not all the time but a good few times, espically when cooked in the slow cooker. To me this is the perfect bread for it. It has a nice soft crust and it just seems the bread is perfect for dunking in the sauces.


What you need:
1 lb 2 oz strong plain white flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 oz dried yeast
2 oz soft butter (flora)
1/2 pint water

What you do:
In a large bowl put the flour, salt, yeast and butter and mix together.
Add in half the water and mix, then mix in the remaining water until you have a dough.
Flour a work top and place dough onto this and knead for 10 minutes.
Place back in the bowl and cover with cling film and leave in a warm place until it has doubled in size. About 2 hours.
Grease a baking tray with butter and then line with grease proof. Lightly sprinkle with flour.
Flour your hand then remove the dough from the bowl and place onto the baking tray. Shape into a circle.

Lightly cover with cling film and leave to prove for about 1 hour.
Preheat your oven to 220 o'C.
Dust your dough with flour then using a sharpe knife put a few slashes onto the dough.

Place on the second from bottom shelf and bake for about 30 minutes. Until the dough is a nice golden colour and sounds hollow when tapped.
Remove the bread from the baking tray and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Happy baking.
Shelly
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Spotted Dick

Oh how I love this pudding. To me this is a pudding for those cold days  plus I can not help but love those old school day puddings. Now this does make quite a large roll. So once I have sliced off what is needed plus the extra slices for friends and family, I tend to wrap the rest in foil then reheat in the microwave. I tend to put it in a bowl with the custard.

What you need:
8 oz plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger
4 oz caster sugar
6 oz fresh bread crumbs
6 oz mixed sultanas and currents
4 oz grated veg suet
zest 1 lemon
2 eggs
170 ml milk

What you do:
In a large bowl sift the flour, ginger and baking powder and add the sugar.
Add in the bread crumbs, sultanas, currents, zest and suet mix until combined.
In a jug whisk the milk and egg together then pour into the dried mix. Mix until combined.
Cover with a tea towel and leave for about 10 to 20 minutes.
Lay a large piece of baking paper onto a work top a flour lightly. Place your dough onto this and shape into a rectangle.

This will need to be able to fit into your steamer or bamboo steamer, so its about 20 cm long.
Roll the pudding dough up in the grease proof and screw up the ends like a Christmas cracker. Make sure they are not to tight as the dough will rise.
Wrap in a tea towel and place in your steamer/bamboo steamer.
If using a bamboo steamer place in a wok and pour in enough water to fill to about one third make sure it does not touch the tea towel, add more water when required as you do not want it to dry out.
If using a normal steamer place on pudding mix on the second shelf and fill the highest water level, when the buzzer goes off carefully remove the shelves and refill with more water.
You will need to cook this for about 100 minutes.
Once cooked carefully remove from the steamer and remove the tea towel and grease proof paper. Leave to stand for a couple of minutes on a wire rack then slice and serve.

Happy Baking.
Shelly
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Honey Biscuits

These honey biscuits are just really yummy, they have a nice honey taste with out being too sweet (hoping that makes sense). I tend to leave mine in heaps when baking as it gives a nice chewy cookie but if you want a more crispier cookie you can flatten them with a fork. I love these with some thing hot to drink. They are not really a dunkin type of biscuit.
Now considering my daughter hates honey and these have honey in them (plus I tend to make them when she is out so she does not see the honey going into them) she loves these. Strange I know but must run in the family as my sister hates anything with tomatoes in but loves pizza.

What you need:
4 oz soft butter
5 oz light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/12 tbsp Clear honey
8 oz Plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 heaped tsp ground cinnamon

What you do:
Preheat the oven to 180 o'C and grease and line baking trays.
In a large bowl beat the sugar and butter together util light and creamy.
Beat in the egg until fully combined.
Beat in the extract and honey until fully combined.
Fold in the flour, baking powder and cinnamon until fully combined.
Scoop out a heaped tsp full and place on the baking tray. Make sure you spread them out as they will spread a bit.
Place in the oven and bake for 10 to 20 minutes and are turning golden brown.  I do mine for about 10 minutes  that way the are chewy in the middle.
Leave to cool on the baking trays for a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Happy Baking
Shelly
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Chocolate Roly- Poly

Traditionally Roly-Poly is made with jam but since Amelie does not like jam I tend to make mine using chocolate. Which I must admit I prefer.
I tend to use plain dark chocolate for this but you can use any you want. I tend to use about 200g of chocolate when making this but I must admit I do tend to eat a few bits before it is melted with the butter.

What you need:
filling
200g Chocolate
2 oz butter
Dough
20g butter
6 oz self raising flour
2 tbsp caster sugar
80g shredded suet
4 fl oz milk (you might not need all of this)
plus milk to glaze.

What you do:
Filling
Place a bowl over a sauce pan of boiling water. Add the chocolate and butter and mix until both have melted. Remove from heat and set to one side to cool.

Dough.
Preheat oven to 200 o'C.
Place a wire rack onto a roasting tin.
Cut out grease proof paper to the size of 30 cm. Butter this and make a pleat along the middle.
Cut out  foil to the size of 35 cm.  Put these to one side.
Sift the flour onto a large bowl.

Add the butter and using your hands rub it in to the flour. (do this the same way you would when making pastry)

Using a knife mix in the suet and caster sugar until evenly mixed.
Using the knife mix in the milk a little bit at a time until you have a firm dough. Do not let the dough get sticky.
Place the dough onto a floured surface and roll out to about 22 x 30 cm rectangle.
Spread with the cooled chocolate leaving a 1 -2 cm wide boarder around the sides and one end.
Brush the boarder with some milk.
Roll the pastry up like a swiss roll. Start at the end that has the chocolate.
Pinch the edges together to seal in the chocolate.
Fill up your kettle and put it on.
Place the roly-poly onto the greased side of the grease proof paper making sure the the seam is at the bottom and the pleat at the top. Twist the ends up.
Place this onto the foil.

 Tightly seal the edges but make sure that you dont tightly warp it over the roly-poly as it wont expand.
Place this onto the wire rack and pour in the boiling water from the kettle until the roasting tin is about one third full. Do not let the boiling water touch the foil.
Place in the oven and bake for 60 minutes.
Once cooked open the oven door to let all steam out then remove. Carefully unwrap and slice and serve.

Happy baking
Shelly
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Bread and Butter Pudding

This has to be one of my favourite child hood desserts. I tend to stick with the traditional mixed dried fruits but you can use any dried fruits you want or chocolate chips, you could even do a mixture if you wanted to.
This is best when just coming out of the oven with warm custard but because I now have my darling 3 week old baby I tend to bake when when I can so I ended up making this in the middle of the day to be reheated in the afternoon.
I have also found that once you have added the milk mix you need to cover it and let it rest for at least 40 minutes before baking as it tastes nicer.
You will notice that some of the ingredients do not have amounts that is because the butter you need enough to spread on the bread and the nutmeg you just need to sprinkle onto the top of the pudding. The amount you use is up to you.

What you need:
butter
4 slices of white bread
4 oz mixed dried fruit
2 oz caster sugar
2 eggs
450 ml milk. Warmed
nutmeg

What you do:
Grease a oven dish with butter.
Butter your bread and cut into quarters. I tend too cut of the dark bit of crust as well.
Arrange half the bread in the dish then scatter with over two thirds of the fruit and two thirds of the sugar.

Repeat with the remaining bread and dried fruits and half the sugar.
In a jug beat your milk and eggs together

 and carefully pour over the bread.

 Cover and leave to stand for at least 40 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 180 o'C
Sprinkle the remaining sugar over your bread and butter pudding. Then sprinkle nutmeg over the pudding as well.
Bake in the oven for 40 to 50 minutes or until the pudding is golden and has lightly set.
Remove from the oven and serve.

Happy Baking
Shelly.
XXX

Chequered biscuits

These biscuits are fantastic with a  cup of tea espically if you want to dunk them into your tea. Normally when making these I would roll them out into long sausage shapes then stick together using a bit of egg white but I have found the way I have written about to be quicker and easier plus it means I don'e need to use the egg white.


What you need:
5 oz butter
4 oz icing sugar
7 oz self raising flour
1 1/2 oz cocoa powder

What you do:
In a large bowl beat the butter and icing sugar until light and creamy. Fold in the flour until you have a firm dough.

Divide the dough in half. Wrap one half in cling film and place in the fridge. The other half you will need to knead in the cocoa powder until fully combined.  Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge. Leave these in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 190 o'C and grease some baking trays and cover with grease proof paper.
Remove from the fridge and divide each piece of dough into 3 portions.

Roll each into a sausage shape and place next to and on top of each other to create a chequered design.

I then place my dough between two sheets of cling film and rolled it out into a long rectangle.
Slice your dough up and place onto the baking trays. Make sure you spread them apart as they will spread out a bit.

Bake in the oven for 5 to 15 minutes. (depending on how thick you cut the dough) or until the are turning golden brown.

Leave on the baking tray a few minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Happy Baking
Shelly.
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