Showing posts with label Traditional. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Traditional. Show all posts
If I was a much better, more dedicated to my craft, you would never see photos like these.
I would take the time to pipe the cream into the buns so that everything looked all nice and pretty, setting the shot up perfectly with teapots and cups and tea clothes, etc.
That's not me. I tend to just show you things as they are.
Simple without too many frills and not overly fancied up. Not that there is anything wrong with fancying things up a bit. That's just not me.
Besides today, by the time I got these done, it was getting late, I was losing the light and to be honest I was beat, beat, beat.
I actually started these about 6:30 this morning. I had three other recipes to do for another site and so I had to fit them all in while I still had the light with me.
But you don't want to know about all of that . . . you want to know about these tasty buns. Cornish Splits.
I am sure you have all heard of Cream Teas, or Cornish Teas/Devon Teas.
A delightful repast of fresh scones served with butter, jam and clotted cream, washed down with cups of hot tea.
Well, before they ever included scones, these lovely light yeasted buns were the original stars of a Cream Tea.
I am not surprised. Light as air, only slightly sweetened, like soft yeasted pillows of deliciousness.
Perfect for spreading with soft butter and jam, and topped with lashings of clotted cream. Just a slight dusting of icing sugar garnishing the tops.
I can well imagine how delightful they would be with hot cups of tea.
We don't drink tea for religious reasons, and somehow, I don't think herbal tea would be quite the same with these.
These are such a simple make/bake. Seriously.
One kneading and rising. Shape into balls, a quick rise and then bake.
The rolls are lovely and light textured and I imagine very nice just on their own, split, toasted and spread with butter . . . and maybe some jam . . .
Yes, I do love jam.
You can eat the while they are still slightly warm if you wish, in which case I think the butter would melt into the beautiful texture of those light airy buns . . .
Mmmm . . . warm bread and melted butter. Lush.
We enjoyed them cold, split and filled to the hilt with the strawberry jam and whipped cream.
We have not been able to get out shopping so there was no clotted cream.
The whipped cream was very nice however.
The jam, Bonne Maman . . . not having any homemade jam, I used the next best thing . . . . which is Bonne Maman . . .
Bonne Maman is a favourite of mine. Next best thing to homemade.
The French make beautiful jams . . . and breads for that matter . . .
Dusted with icing sugar, these were exquisite.
Traditional Cornish Splits
Yield: 8
Classically Cornish teatime treats. Light and airy yeasted buns, served split, spread with butter and topped with lashings of jam and cream. If you fill them with clotted cream and golden syrup, they become Thunder and Lightening, a real favourite with kiddies everywhere!
Ingredients:
For the buns:
- 305g strong bread flour (2 1/4 cups)
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 4 1/2 tsp easy yeast (bread machine yeast)
- 1 TBS white sugar
- 2 TBS butter
- 300ml whole milk (1 1/4 cup)
To serve:
- softened butter to spread
- Softly whipped sweetened cream, or clotted cream
- strawberry jam
- icing sugar to dust
Instructions:
- Fit a stand mixer with a kneading hook. Measure the flour, sugar, salt, yeast and sugar into the bowl of the stand mixer and mix to combine.
- Warm the milk in the microwave with the butter for about 30 seconds. Just long enough to melt the butter. You don't want any of it to be hot, just blood warm.
- Start drizzling the milk/butter mixture into the bowl of the stand mixer, with it turned on low, until it is all added and incorporated. Keep the motor running until you get a soft, slightly tacky dough. You may need to add a bit more flour. (Today I needed to add another 35g/1/4 cup).
- Tip into a greased bowl and cover with plastic cling film. Set aside to prove for an hour or so until it doubles in size. Turn onto a lightly floured board and divide into 8 equal pieces. (I shape it into a circle and cut it into 8 wedges.) Shape each piece into a ball and place onto a large baking sheet you have lined with baking paper. Dust lightly with flour, cover with a tea towel and set aside to rise for 15 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5.
- Bake the buns in the preheated oven for between 15 and 20 minutes until a pale golden brown. If you tip one over it should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. If not, return to the oven for a few more minutes.
- To serve. split almost all the way through on the diagonal. Spread the bottoms with softened butter, top with plenty of strawberry jam and a nice thick dollop of whipped double cream or clotted cream. Dust the tops with some icing sugar and serve immediately.
- These can be served slightly warm or cold. Best served on the day. Don't fill until you are ready to serve them.
I sent half of these next door to my neighbour. She and her son have been ever so good to us throughout this pandemic, always picking up bread and milk, even if we have not asked for it, and she won't take any compensation for it. I figure the least I can do is to bake them treats every now and then!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan@aol.com
For as long as I can remember and beyond Saturday night suppers back home in Nova Scotia and indeed all down the Eastern part of Canada and the US, Saturday night baked bean suppers have been the tradition.
In January I started writing on another site called Home Chef World. I was hired to provide them with between 4 and 8 recipe posts a month. This is in addition to what I share here.
I have really enjoyed doing it thus far and I hope this lasts a long longer than my other job did. One never knows with the unstable world we are living in at the moment, but one thing is for sure, people will always want and need to eat.
One of the recipes I will be sharing on there over this next month required English Muffins. Do you think I could find any? None to be had anywhere, and I tried.
We are living in precarious times and I have realised that certain things have become very difficult to find. One is flour (we won't talk about toilet paper).
I am rationing my flour out very carefully because I don't know how long it will be before I can get any more. It has become a very precious commodity in this house.
I did a lot of research before I picked a recipe to try. I am not the most experienced bread baker and my results have always tended to be a bit hit and miss.
I found this recipe on a site called Bigger Bolder Baking. It also had a video, and quite a few good reviews, so I felt fairly confident in using this recipe
It differed a bit somewhat in the English Muffins I am used to in that there is no cornmeal or semolina involved. Some recipes use this to keep the dough from sticking to things.
You do need to start it 18 hours prior to when you want to bake/grill them.
You do not need an oven for these. They cook entirely on top of the stove in a large non-stick skillet with a lid.
I found that my dough was a tiny bit drier than what hers looked like, so I was a bit worried that it wouldn't turn out, but my fears were completely unfounded. It was perfect.
They cooked very easily in my largest skillet. I was going to use my griddle pan until I realised I didn't have a lid to cover it. DUH.
Using a lid to cover the muffins while they are first baking is integral to the success of the recipe. This action allows them to rise higher and to cook thoroughly.
You might be interested to know that English Muffins are not really English at all, although they were invented by an English Ex Pat, living in New York City named Samuel Bath Thomas back in 1874.
Invented in America by an Englishman. He owned a bakery known as Chelsea (could there be a more British name?) and were originally called Toaster Crumpets.
They were very quick to catch on and became very popular in Hotels and restaurants, soon taking on the name of "English Muffins."
The best way to open up an English Muffin is to run the tines of a fork into them all around the centre of the circumferance of the warm muffins. Once you have done that. it is very easy to gently pull them apart.
This helps to prevent them from being squashed . . . they are filled with lovely butter catching holes, nooks and crannies and separating them with a fork helps to create even more.
Oh my . . . I have fallen in love. Their texture was beautiful.
Todd enjoyed one later on, toasted on the open side under the hot grill and those little nooks and crannies, toasted up really nicely.
Just beautiful . . . . I enjoyed one warm from the oven with some cold butter thinly sliced over top . . . .
and some Bonne Maman Intense strawberry jam. Oh boy, but this was sooooo good!
They were light and fluffy, beautifully golden brown on the outside and crisp at the edges . . .
I could find no fault with them, no fault at all . . .
In fact the worst thing I have to say about these is that once you have tried one you will never ever be happy again with a ready made one. Never ever.
English Muffins
Yield: makes 8 to 10
These are fabulous. The worst thing you can say about them is that once you eat one of these you will be forever spoilt from ever enjoying a store made muffin again. You will need to start these the day before.
Ingredients:
- 350g strong bread flour (2 1/2 cups)
- 1/4 tsp bread machine yeast
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 160ml milk (2/3 cup)
- 120ml water (1/2 cup)
- 1 TBS salted butter
Instructions:
How to cook English Muffins
- Sift the flour into a large bowl. Add the yeast on one side of the bowl and the salt on the other. Don't let them touch as salt kills yeast. Mix lightly together.
- Measure the milk and water into a microwave safe jug. Add the butter. Cook for about 30 seconds in the microwave to melt the butter and slightly warm the milk mixture. The temperature should be only blood warm. Take care not to over heat.
- Holding some of the liquid mixture back, stir it into the dry mixture, adding only enough to give you a soft dough. It may be a bit sticky, and you may not need it all. Cover bowl with a sheet of plastic cling film and then cover with a clean tea towel. Set aside in a warm, draft free place for 12 to 18 hours. (You can refrigerate the dough after 18 hours if you are not quite ready to griddle them.)
- When you are ready to bake, dust a surface lightly with flour. Scrape the dough out onto the surface. Recover with the cling film and kitchen towel. Let rest for 10 minutes.
- Line a baking tray with baking parchment.
- At the end of the rest time, gently pat out to a thickness of about 1 inch. Using a sharp 3 inch round metal cutter dusted in flour, stamp out rounds, removing and placing them onto the baking sheet as you cut them out, leaving plenty of space in between. Continue until you have cut all the rounds out. Any scraps leftover can be rerolled and cut into rounds, although they won't be quite as perfect in appearance as the others.
- Cover the muffins with cling film and the kitchen towel and set aside to rest for 45 minutes.
- At the end of that time heat a large non-stick skillet over medium low heat. It should feel quite warm when you hold your hand just above the surface. Working in batches, carefully remove the muffins from the baking sheet, about 4 at a time, and transfer them into the heated pan. Do not crowd them. Leave at least 2 inches between each muffin. Cover with a lid and cook for about 6 to 7 minutes until golden brown on the underside. Having the lid on will create steam which will help the muffins to rise and cook thoroughly.
- Once the underside is golden brown, carefully flip over and toast on the other side.
- Set aside to let them cool slightly before eating. I like to split them in half using a fork, sticking it carefully into the centre of the muffins all the way around and gently pulling them apart. This gives you lots of craggy bits. Serve warm with butter and jam.
- Any leftovers can be stored in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Split and toast in a toaster or under the grill. You make also freeze the in an airtight container for up to 2 months.
In fact these are so good thatI think that I may have to make some again really soon. I highly recommend!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
I have a real fondness for the traditional recipes of this country I have come to love and adopt as my homeland. As a child in Canada I often repeated the rhyme taught to me from my nursery rhyme book about riding a horse to Banbury Cross and seeing a lady on a white horse, with bells on her fingers and rings on her toes.
Banbury is a real place here in the UK, and the home of these delicious cakes I am sharing with you today.
The recipe is one I have adapted from one of my favourite little baking books, Meg Rivers Home Baking. Published in 2012 it is filled with lovely recipes.
Every one I have ever baked has turned out wonderfully perfect and she does give measurements in both linear and metric. I trust it and recommend this book highly.
Banbury cakes are like a round flakey puff pastry turnover, filled with dried fruits, butter spices and sugar. Very similar I think to Eccles Cakes.
So they are not cakes in the "Cake" sense of the word, but rather small flaky sweet pies.
The recipe is said to date back to the thirteenth century when crusaders brought dried fruit and exotic spices back with them from their travels in the Crusades.
Banbury Cakes are thought to be one of the oldest cake recipes in Britain. They are sweet, spicy, flakey and incredibly moreish when enjoyed straight from the oven. (Although I would let them cool a bit as the sugar is quite hot.)
They are also very easy to make. You simply make a filling of dried currants, raisins, chopped peel, butter, demerera sugar, butter, nutmeg and mixed spice.
This gets place in the centre of squares of puff pastry and then folded and pressed above as explained in the recipe below.
If you read the recipe and then look at the photograph it will make perfect sense.
I like to use all butter puff pastry, which I rolled out to a 15 inch square. You don't want it to be much more than 1/8 of an inch thick as it would puff up too much in baking.
The pastry then gets cut into 9 squares.
I like to cut my own peel for this. I buy it online, usually around Christmas time when I am making my Christmas Cake. Usually it will arrive with an assortment of whole preserved and dried citrus peels.
Lemon, orange, grapefruit, pomelo . . . I used one each of three different peels which I chopped into small bits.
I used sultana raisins, which are also known as golden raisins, and dried black Zante currants. I would suggest if you cannot get dried currants, then you use dark raisins in their place, but do use currants if you can.
For years the growth and importation of black currants was banned in many places in the United States, but they are now making a comeback and are now grown in a few areas.
I was able to find a source where you can buy them HERE.
You can also get them on Amazon, but I thought they were a bit pricier than my other source. Of course here in the UK, they are readily available.
In Canada you can get them at Bulk Barn, Walmart and I found another source here.
So now you have no excuse not to make these deliciously historic cakes/bakes with black currants! You will find that they come in handy for all sorts.
Lovely in cakes and bakes and cookies, salads, etc. and they are filled with goodness.
They actually contain more vitamin C than oranges, which I was surprised to learn. I always thought that oranges were the best source! It seems I was wrong.
In any case you are going to love these beautiful pastry/cakes. They are delicious!
Best eaten warm on the day, but meh . . . nothing has ever stopped me from eating and enjoying a bake again on the second or the third day. I am a pastry lover through and through.
Yield: 9
Banbury Cakes
Crispy, buttery and flaky with a beautiful sweet sticky fruit filling.
ingredients:
- 500g all butter puff pastry (1 pound) chilled
- 120g demerara sugar (3/4 cup, turbinado sugar)
- 60g butter (1/4 cup)
- 120g sultana raisins (scant cup)
- 120g Zante dried currants (scant cup)
- 60g mixed candied peel, finely chopped (1/2 cup)
- 1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 tsp mixed spice (see note)
- 75g granulated sugar (1/3 cup)
instructions:
How to cook Banbury Cakes
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/gas mark 6. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment. Set aside.
- Measure all of the fruit, spices, peel and butter into a bowl along with the demerara sugar. Mix well together, using your hands, until the mixture begins to clump and you can shape it into balls. Shape into 9 evenly sized balls.
- Roll the chilled puff pastry out on a lightly floured surface to a 15 inch square, no more than 1/8 inch thick. Cut into nine 5-inch squares. Place a ball of fruit filling into the centre of each square. Bring four corners up over the filling to meet in the middle and pinch shut. Pinch all of the 4 sides shut as well. Flip over and lightly flatten into a circle in the palm of your hand. Using a rolling pin, with the folds on the bottom, gently roll into circles which are 4 inches in diameter, and about 1/2 inch thick.
- Brush the tops lightly with some water. Measure the granulated sugar into a bowl and lightly press the wet tops of the cakes into the sugar.
- Place onto the baking sheets, leaving plenty of space in between. Using a sharp knife, make three slashes into the top of each.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Allow to cool on the baking sheets. Best eaten on the day.
NOTES:
MAKE YOUR OWN MIXED SPICE:
You can easily make your own mixed spice: Combine 1 TBS ground cinnamon, 1 tsp each of ground coriander and nutmeg, 1/2 tsp of ground ginger, 1/4 tsp each of ground cloves and all spice. Mix well and store in an airtight container out of the light for up to 6 months.
You can easily make your own mixed spice: Combine 1 TBS ground cinnamon, 1 tsp each of ground coriander and nutmeg, 1/2 tsp of ground ginger, 1/4 tsp each of ground cloves and all spice. Mix well and store in an airtight container out of the light for up to 6 months.
Delicious warm, delicious cold, delicious even three days old. I'm a poet! LOL Seriously though, I really love these old, traditional and historic recipes.
This
content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English
Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading
this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report
it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting.
Do come again!
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