Oat buns

We have eaten so much good Danish bread. There is endless variety: traditional rye made with sourdough; versions with chia, carrot, potato for moistness. Various focaccia and baguette type things. And everything in between (lots of nuts and seeds!). Last weekend we went to Relæ with Y+M, and fell in love hard with the sourdough bread they serve there - it's from Manfred's, their other place over the road (also had the best beer I have ever had). S especially became a little obsessed. So yesterday we returned to Jægersborggade to try and track down that bread (after a very successful mission to a secret secondhand store). It turned out to be pretty easy: they were selling the bread as wholes and halves for quite a reasonable price, right from the restaurant. So we went home happy, with a bag full of tasty, stretchy, crunchy, wonderful sourdough (not to mention the radio, DVD/CD player, three jackets, one shirt and waterproof trousers we'd picked up earlier...).

So anyway, yesterday for some reason I was looking at the side of a packet of oats and became intrigued by the recipe there. Thought it was about time I tried to follow a recipe written in Danish. With the help of Google translate I figured it out. And realised we had pretty much all the ingredients. Including grahamsmel, which I hadn't been able to identify previously. So I made these oat buns, using up some slightly out of date fresh yeast, testing the grahamsmel, and with freshly made yoghurt. I think I could understand the recipe! One thing I noticed, that I remembered from some Swedish hagebutten soup stuff Anna had given me once upon a time, is that Scandinavians seem to measure volume in decilitres (1 dl = 100 ml) rather than millilitres.

(makes 10 rolls)

25 g yeast (gær)
200 ml (2 dl) lukewarm water (vand)
250 g plain flour (hvedemel) (used white spelt instead)
75 g graham flour (grahamsmel)
250 g oats (havregryn)
100 ml yoghurt
1 tbsp (spsk) sugar (sukker)
2 tbsp oil (olie)
1 tsp (tsk) salt
more yoghurt and some sesame seeds to finish

Dissolve (opløs) the yeast in lukewarm (lunkent) water, and add (tilsæt) the flours, oats, yogurt, sugar, oil and salt.

Knead (ælt) to a smooth (glat) and supple (smidig) dough (dej). The dough should be soft (blød). Form (form) the dough into a ball (kugle).

Let (lad) the dough rise (hæve), covered (tildækket), for about 45 min. Knock (slå) dough down (ned) and shape 10 buns (boller).

Set (sæt) buns (bollerne) on a baking sheet (bageplade) with baking paper (bagepapir) and let them prove (efterhæve) for about 30 min.

Brush with yogurt or water, then sprinkle (drys) with sesame seeds.

Bake at 200C / fan (varmluft) 180C for 12-15 min.


Came out tasty enough but not very well risen - perhaps the yeast was past it? Perhaps spelt flour was a bad substitution?

Little chocolate-tahini cakes

I got all into the idea of using tahini in baking after I made (and fell in love with) a hot cross marmalade tart a few weeks ago. I came across this other recipe with tahini in it. As well as the tahini, it featured a couple of other ingredients I really like and happened to have in the house: Kahlua and dark chocolate. Sounded like a delicious combination, so I made these as a pudding to follow the mushroom and walnut ravioli, as a nice dinner for S.

(I halved the original recipe to get the quantities below, and it made 9 little, dense cakes in my muffin tin)

3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 cup icing sugar, plus more for dusting
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/6 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder (use a bit more if you don't have D-p)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped (or use chips)
1/4 cup / 60 ml soy milk
1/3 cup / 80 ml Kahlua
1/4 cup / 60 ml tahini
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Heat the oven to 350F / 180C / gas 4. Grease and flour a 12 cup muffin tin (you will likely need only 9 cups). Mix the flour, icing sugar, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl with a fork. Put the chocolate in a separate bowl. Heat the soy milk over medium heat until it begins to steam and almost comes to a boil. Pour the soy milk over the chocolate, then add the Kahlua, tahini, and vanilla. Let stand for 1 minute, then stir until the mixture is smooth and the chocolate is melted. Add the chocolate mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Use a spoon to transfer the mixture to the prepared tin, filling each cup about two-thirds full. Bake for 15-20 min, until the tops are firm but the inside is still slightly soft (test by inserting a skewer). Transfer the tin to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes, then invert and let cool completely, about 15 minutes. Lift off the tin and the cakes should come out easily. Dust with icing sugar if you want to prettify them. Best eaten the day they're made. We ate them with a dollop of soy yoghurt.


Nice: rich, slightly squishy in the middle, chocolatey and slightly nutty. A little dry around the edges. Not amazing, although strangely compelling.

Chocolate-vanilla 'zebrafish' buns

My lab will celebrate its 5th birthday tomorrow. Apparently when S (my boss) started he thought it might all be a joke because his start date was April 1st. A and I decided, last minute on Friday, to have a little birthday celebration tomorrow. I made marbled (ie stripey, like a zebrafish?) chocolate buns, with chocolate ganache and iced decorations.

I found almost exactly the buns I wanted to make in 'Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World' - my stepsister gave me the book for my birthday and so far it seems like the ultimate vegan baking bible - their gluten-free buns were a huge hit, and I identified some yummy vegan cupcakes (almond+apricot) at L's rollerskating birthday party as being from it too!

(makes 12)

For the cakes:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 tsp almond essence
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 cup soy milk
1 tsp cider vinegar
4 tbsp cocoa
3 tbsp boiling water

For the chocolate icing:
1/4 cup fake milk (almond)
4 oz plain chocolate (<70%), chopped
2 tbsp maple syrup

For the decoration:
icing sugar
fake milk

Heat oven to 350F and put liners in a muffin tin. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl with a fork. In a separate bowl, beat the sugar and oil together, then add the vanilla, almond and cornstarch and beat some more. Measure the fake milk into a cup measure and add the cider vinegar, giving it a minute or two to curdle. Alternately add some of the flour mixture and some of the milk mixture to the oil mixture, stirring as you go. In a separate bowl, beat together the cocoa and boiling water, then add a cupful of the cake mixture to the cocoa mix, and stir until well combined.

Put a teaspoon of vanilla mixture and then a teaspoon of chocolate mixture into each paper liner, continuing to alternate between the two batters until the liners are full. Then use a skewer (or thin metal knitting needle) to swirl the batters together. Put in the oven and bake for approx 25 min, until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before decorating.

To make the chocolate icing, heat the fake milk to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the chopped chocolate and the maple syrup and beat with a wooden spoon until the chocolate is all melted and it makes a thick sauce. Let it cool at room temperature, to room temperature.

Ice the buns with the chocolate icing when they are both at room temperature. Then mix some icing sugar with fake milk until it is a thick, pipe-able consistency. Spoon carefully into the corner of a plastic bag, then snip off a little bit of the tip of the corner and pipe whatever decorations on top you like (I did binary and real style zebrafish, and some #5s).

Raspberry-almond buns (gluten-free)

Seb made me a birthday cake with lemon cake and raspberry icing. He woke me up with cake and candles. He did an awesome job. Not to mention the day of presents and greetings and surprise friend-mob of a house show and whole room of lovely people singing 'Happy Birthday' to me with yet another cake+candles...

There was some icing left over. I wanted to use it up, got a copy of 'Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World' for my birthday (exciting: I look at her blog often but didn't have any of their books), and am having a GF person over for dinner tomorrow night so decided it would be a good idea to test out the GF vanilla cupcake recipe and top it with the leftover raspberry icing. Of course I didn't have the exact right combination of GF flours so didn't exactly follow the recipe, but nevertheless they came out quite well.

(made 11, could have filled a bit less full to make 12)

1 cup soy milk
1/3 cup veg oil
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 tsp almond essence
1/4 cup tapioca flour (used glutinous rice flour)
2 tbsp ground linseed
1/3 cup corn flour or almond flour (used corn masa flour)
1/2 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup quinoa flour (used ragi flour = millet flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt

Heat oven to 350F and line muffin tin. Mix milk, oil, sugar and essences in a large bowl. Add tapioca flour and linseed and mix thoroughly. Add corn flour, rice flour, quinoa flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt and mix thoroughly (don't worry about overmixing). Fill cups and bake for 20-25 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before icing.


Gosh, these look like they should be for a little girl's birthday party or something. The buns rose quite nicely and also taste pretty good: the predominant flavour is almond - it would appear that almond essence is pretty powerful stuff. S assures me the colour of the icing is entirely from raspberry, which is awesome... He doesn't remember what recipe he used but I suspect it may have been this one.

Icing:
1/2 cup coconut oil, softened
1/2 cup margarine, softened
3 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2-3 tbsp raspberry jam
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp cornstarch

Heat 3 tbsp raspberry jam in a pan. Mix cornstarch with a bit of water and add to the raspberry jam. Stir until it become clear and thick. Push the sauce through a sieve to remove the raspberry seeds. Beat the softened coconut oil and margarine together to a fluffy mixture. Add the icing sugar alternated with the raspberry sauce and vanilla. Beat to a smooth and even consistency. (note: S had evidently had trouble softening the coconut oil as it is Winter and so I warmed the icing a little and beat it some more to make it smoother and more evenly coloured, which worked well).


I decorated them with flaked almonds, basil flowers and red sugar crystals.


These taste most strongly of almond.  Quite nice texture.  Alvin liked them.  They froze well (apart from the flowers, obv).

Sweet cinnamon and cardamom rolls

I don't know why I suddenly felt like making these... Oh yes I do, I saw this recipe.  I thought I might try veganising it, but then I discovered we are low on fake butter, so decided to try a different recipe instead. I used this one, which uses oil.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I think I am always dreaming about Fitzbillies' (the bakery in Cambridge, UK) Chelsea buns.  These buns are swirled and gloriously cinnamony like the Chelsea buns, but less sticky, less decadent and more everyday than Fitzbillies' buns.  Which is a good thing if you intend eating more than half of one.

This made nine, and neatly filled my square Pyrex dish.

Dough

1-1/2 tsp dry yeast
1/6 cup sugar + 1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup lukewarm water
3/8 cup fake milk
1/6 cup veg oil
3/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
2 cups flour

Filling
1/8 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup white sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tbsp flour 
~1/8 cup fake butter

Icing (optional)
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tbsp fake milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Mix the yeast with the 1/2 tsp sugar and 1/8 cup lukewarm water and let sit for ~10 min until it starts to bubble.

Put the rest of the water in a bowl with the remaining dough ingredients, then add the yeast mixture.  Combine and then knead for ~5 minutes.  Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.  Knock down.  Rest for 10 more minutes.  During the wait period mix together all the filling ingredients except the butter.

Flour a clean surface and then roll the dough out to ~30 cm x 20 cm.  Rub the butter all over the dough with your fingers, making sure to take it right up to the edges.  Sprinkle the sugar mixture evenly on top, again making sure to go right to the edges.  Then roll it up: roll starting from the long side, trying to go as tight as possible.

Oil a ~20 cm square Pyrex oven dish (or similar).  Cut the roll into 9 pieces with a sharp knife - mark and cut into thirds first, then mark and cut each piece into thirds.  Cover with a clean dishcloth and leave in a warm place for 30-45 min.  They will grow to fill the space.

Meanwhile, heat the oven to 375F.  Bake for ~20 min, until pleasantly golden brown on top and not burnt underneath.

If you are using icing, make it while the buns are baking by mixing the ingredients in a small bowl (add vanilla to sugar first, then add the milk slowly to make sure it doesn't end up too runny).  As soon as you remove the buns from the oven, spread the icing on top.


I experimented a little with how thick to cut the roll, and with whether to ice or not (I iced half of them).  I feel like there is a lot of scope for adding / removing ingredients - raisins or flaked almonds might be good, I could try varying the spice combination (that ground cardamom I have is kinda weak, could try using it with a mixture of roughly-ground seeds), adding more or less butter...

They look wonderful, and are really soft and tasty.  The somewhat crappy cardamom means they mainly taste of cinnamon.  They are mostly bready and not too sweet without the icing, which is good.  The icing does add in some goopiness though, which I feel goes quite well.  Does massively up the sweetness though.  Ooooh perhaps using mincemeat in combination with the cinnamon sugar mix would be good, I have lots of mincemeat laying around...  Still warm from the oven they are lovely - will have to see if they're still good when cooled down.  S voted for the iced ones, although I do think are prettier when you can still see the whorl.

Buns for Orwell (and Amy)

Amy and I were discussing our mutual love of George Orwell the other day.  We'd independently both just been reading 'The Road To Wigan Pier'.  His writing is so vital, and still so relevant almost a century later.  Those images of coal miners and that discussion of class will stick with me.  I first fell for Orwell through 'Down and Out in Paris and London' - one of my favourites.  The friendly homeless man who used to sit on the footbridge in Norwich was reading it at some point.  That man was nice, I hope he's moved on to better things.  As well as Orwell's political writings, I've long loved his opinions on food, particularly British food.  The tidbit about Wetherspoons being designed to meet his guidelines for a good boozer; his stickling plan for a nice cup of tea (for the most part I accept his opinions, and revel in its glorious microcosm of Britishness, although I can't agree on the milk - good tea needs no milk).  I just recently (through this article) came across his 'defence of English cooking', which may well be a new favourite - it's making me homesick just skimming it.

In honour of all of these coincidences, and because I had some currants in the cupboard I'd bought ages ago thinking I would need them suddenly one day, here are some saffron buns (recipe from the Guardian article).

Saffron buns

Pinch saffron threads
1 tsp yeast
90g sugar
500g strong white bread flour
Pinch salt
½ tsp nutmeg
120g marg
100g currants
100g sultanas / raisins
1 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 3 tbsp hot water
100ml 'milk'

Place the saffron threads in a small bowl with 4 tablespoons of boiling water and leave to infuse for 10 minutes, before adding the yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar.  Mix together the flour, salt and nutmeg with a fork in a mixing bowl, then rub in the marg . Add the currants, sultanas / raisins and remaining sugar. Beat the milk and egg together, then add to the flour and fruit, together with the saffron mixture.

Knead the dough until good and springy (on and off for 10-15min), adding a little more flour or milk to get a good consistency.  Divide into 12 and shape into buns.  Place the buns on a baking sheet lined with baking paper, cover with lightly oiled clingfilm and leave to rise until doubled in size (about an hour in a warm place).  Bake at 220C / 425F for 15 minutes, until they are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped.


I'd not made saffron buns before.  They're somewhere in between a scone and a hot cross bun (more like the latter, and much better than my attempts at scones).  The spicing was subtle but they are lovely - slightly sweet, with sticky dried fruit bursting out and a pretty yellowish colour.  S liked them lots.  Good with some carrot jam - another (literary) coincidence.