Apple and Ginger Buns: Bread Machine Recipe

Fresh from the oven and brushed whilst hot with a sugar glaze

I've had my bread machine for years now, it makes perfect dough or a perfect loaf of bread, except for the annoying hole in the base of the loaf where the paddle comes out. You either love your bread machine or put it at the back of the cupboard for the rainy day that never comes.

The buns in the middle are the best because they are fluffy on all four sides.  Best eaten warm on the day you bake them but we couldn't get through all that lot and I froze the majority which is a shame.  Defrost and reheat gently in the microwave to refresh.

Diced fruits cooked with a minimum of liquid 

Cooled fruit spread over the dough 

The risen dough spirals before baking

Makes: 12

You will need:  2 beaten eggs, 175ml milk, 2 tablespoons room temperature butter, ½ tsp salt, 500g strong white flour, 50g caster sugar, 1¼ tsp fast-action dried yeast.

Filling: 400g cooking apples (peeled, quartered, cored and diced), 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 2 tablespoons water, 50g caster sugar, 125g mixed dried fruit, 50g quartered glace cherries, 2 tablespoons ready-chopped glace ginger.

Glaze: 2 tablespoons caster sugar, 4 tablespoons milk.

1. Add the dough ingredients in the order specified in your instruction book.
2. Place the pan into the bread machine.  Shut the lid and set to the dough setting.  Press start.
3. For the filling: place the apples into a saucepan with the lemon juice, water, sugar, dried fruit and half the cherries.  Cover the pan and simmer for 5 minutes or until the apples are starting to soften. Remove the lid and cook for 3-5 minutes or until the liquid has evaporated and the apples are tender.  Stir in the ginger and leave to cool.
4. When the dough programme has finished, remove the pan from the bread machine, scoop out the dough and knead.  Press out the dough using the fingertips to stretch out into an oblong. Roll out to an oblong measuring 37 x 30cm.
5. Spread the cooled mixture over the dough to within 2cm of the edges.  Roll up starting from one of the longer edges.
6. Cut a slice of dough off both ends and then cut it into 12.  Place the dough spirals onto a greased roasting tin measuring 30 x 20cm.  Cover the dough coils with oiled clingwrap and leave to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.
7. Remove the clingwrap and bake in a preheated oven 200ºC for 20-25 minutes or until golden and the centre coils sound hollow when you tap them.  Sprinkle over the remaining chopped cherries.
8. Make the glaze.  Heat together the sugar and milk until the sugar has dissolved.  Boil for 1 minute, watching it very carefully, brush over the hot bread.  Leave in the tin to cool.

Soft fluffy dough

Recipe taken from Bread Machine Easy by Sara Lewis.

Nigel Slater's Hot Cross Bread and Butter Pudding

Nigel Slater may not be too thrilled about my little Easter chick but I think he's cute.

I had the last two packs of cinnamon and raisin Hot Cross Buns, a purchase one Sunday from Waitrose on the M6, and just a few miles away from where Nigel was brought up.

Making hot cross buns and then cutting them up for bread and butter pudding, that's just one step too far......they very conveniently come in a pack of four.

A generous handful of sultanas were sprinkled over the buns, the recipe says to sprinkle over peel too - not for us though.  The custard base uses egg yolks instead of whole eggs, a pot of double cream and the equivalent in milk, which makes a glorious custard. I always freeze my left over egg whites for a meringue making session.

The two of us couldn't polish off all this pud by ourselves, it heats up perfectly in the microwave and my husband said it tasted even better the second day, and he should know, because he's a bread and butter pudding expert.

Taken from Nigel Slater - The Kitchen Diaries II - sadly I can't find a link out to the recipe.

I am entering this into Dish of the Month - March 2013. Hosts are Janice at Farmers Girl Kitchen and Sue at A Little Bit of Heaven on a Plate.

Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Cheddar Cheese Tart: Recipe

In market towns they have plentiful supplies of purple sprouting broccoli, white sprouting broccoli is worth looking out for too (Nigel Slater has written a helpful article in the Guardian). My greengrocer sells purple sprouting broccoli in a small bundle and it is ridiculously expensive, I had to take a deep breath before handing over my money.

The recipe for this tart is from April 2013 Delicious Magazine, fortunately it only needs a few broccoli spears.  The original recipe uses Wensleydale Cheese and also double cream but I've adapted the recipe, I had a slab of Cheddar cheese and a pot of creme fraiche in the fridge and they worked perfectly.

Adapted recipe.

You will need: 26cm loose based flan tin

few spears of purple sprouting broccoli
2 tbsp olive oil
2 shallots, finely diced
3 large eggs and 2 yolks, beaten
250ml creme fraiche
150g Cheddar cheese, grated
35g cream cheese

For the pastry:
300g plain flour
145g butter, chilled and cubed
approx 4 tbsp iced water

1. Whiz the flour and butter in a food processor until the consistency of fine breadcrumbs. Add 4 tablespoons of iced water and whiz again until the pastry starts to come together.  Tip out onto a board and form into a ball of dough.  Shape into a round, and cover with cling wrap and chill for 30 minutes. Remove from the fridge and allow to stand for a while, otherwise it will be difficult to roll out the pastry.
2. Preheat the oven to 190ºC.  Roll out the pastry and line the tart tin with pastry, I always use this method from Delia's site How To Bake a Pastry Case.
3. Reduce the oven temperature to 180ºC.
4. Blanch the broccoli spears in salted boiling water for 2 minutes, drain and refresh in ice-cold water.    Drain really well again.
5. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the shallots for 10 minutes to soften.
6. Whisk the eggs, yolks, cream, Cheddar and cream cheese in a jug, season.
7. Spread the shallots on the base of the pastry case.  Pour over the egg mixture.  Arrange the broccoli florets over the egg mixture.  Bake for approximately 20 minutes until just set.
8. Remove from the oven and cool.  Best eaten whilst warm.

Easy One Pot Chicken: Recipe

All photographs taken with the Nikon D3200

Easy one pot chicken recipes are a delight and this is a favourite of ours. I'm happy to make this instead of the usual Sunday roast because it saves hours of labour.

I try to make good use of natural daylight to take photographs

If hubby is around he guards the food I've placed on the patio table whilst I take photographs, basically he's there on creepy crawlies alert and to make sure the local cat doesn't jump onto the table.

The chicken was reduced and cost £3.00 from Marks and Spencer - most root vegetables can be used, the prosciutto can be replaced with streaky bacon, but either way the bacon is a must for that salty hit and to be honest the crispy prosciutto is the best part of the dish. This recipe is a winner on both taste and cost.

Occasionally I've found the chicken has cooked through but the vegetables need more cooking time.  If they have been particularly stubborn I place the veg in a casserole dish with some of the juices, cover and pop them in the microwave for a few minutes.

You will need:  Large casserole dish

1.5kg chicken
50g softened butter
4 slices prosciutto
2 onions
2 carrots
1 celery stalk
2 leeks
3 unpeeled potatoes
1 sprig of rosemary
250ml white wine
250ml chicken stock
flat leaf parsley

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.  Place the chicken into a deep casserole dish.  Rub the butter over the chicken, cover with prosciutto slices. Scatter over a few rosemary leaves.
2. Cut the celery into large pieces, peel the carrots and potatoes and chop into chunks, slice the leeks and wash thoroughly.  Scatter the vegetables around the chicken, pour the wine and stock over the vegetables.  Season.  Place the cover on the casserole and place in the oven for an hour.
3. Remove the casserole dish from the oven and give the vegetables a stir round.  Spoon some of the juices over the chicken. Leaving the lid off  place the chicken casserole in the oven for a further 30 minutes to brown the chicken.
4. To serve:  Place the chicken and vegetables onto a serving dish with the broth from the casserole dish and scatter over the parsley.