Friday, January 06, 2006

Baking

The big girls are working, so Blaise and I took the opportunity to do some baking bonding.

We made cinnamon buns


and chocolate cherry buns

Basic bun dough recipe:

1 C hot water

1 C cold milk

4 C bread flour

1t salt

1/4 C white sugar

3 T plain oil (I use grapeseed)

2 1/2 T dried yeast

place all ingredients in breadmaker pan (remember to put the liquids first, then dry ingredients, then yeast) and put on the dough cycle, remove from pan when ready, roll out into a rectangle 2 cm thick - fill with fillings as below.

(if you do not have a breadmaker - check cookbooks or online and make the dough by hand)

Fillings:

cinnamon: mix 1 c brown sugar with 2 t ground cinnamon, spread 2 T melted butter over dough, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, then sprinkle with currants (to your taste)

cherry chocolate: make almond paste - 1/2 C ground almonds, 1/4 t almond extract,1/2 t vanilla extract, 1 T soft butter, 1/4 C sugar, mix well, adjust if necessary. Spread dough with almond paste, sprinkle with dried cherries and chopped dark chocolate (to your taste)

roll up, slice into 12 peices, place in a greased pan (I use a roasting pan) turn oven to 180 degrees (360) and leave to rise while oven heats, bake until light brown, place on a cooling rack, drizzle with simple water icing.

I have one more cinnamon bun type recipe, the Samoan version, I think we will make them tomorrow - will post the recipe.

the kitchen smells heavenly, and Blaise's friend from down the hall dropped in to see her (lured no doubt by the delicious scent filling the corridor) I'm off to do some test knitting.