Hot Cross Buns

When mentioned Easter, two things always come to mind - Chocolates and Hot Cross Buns. Not sure why is that, but over here in Australia, we only get to see hot cross buns during the Easter period. So if you like hot cross buns so much, try make it yourself :p

Ingredients:

4 cups plain flour (you can opt for wholemeal flour, which I did)

2 x 7g sachets dried yeast

1/4 cup caster sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons mixed spice

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups currants

40g butter

2 eggs, lightly beaten

300ml milk (if you use wholemeal flour, you might need to add more milk)

* Add accordingly to get the right consistency of the dough, it should be quite sticky and gooey

Flour paste:

1/2 cup plain flour

4 to 5 tablespoons water

Glaze:

1/3 cup water

2 tablespoons caster sugar

Method:

Combine flour, yeast, sugar, mixed spice, salt and currants in a large bowl. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add milk. Heat for 1 minute, or until lukewarm. Add warm milk mixture and eggs to currant mixture. Use a flat-bladed knife to mix until dough almost comes together. Use clean hands to finish mixing to form a soft dough.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead for 10 minutes, or until dough is smooth. Place into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm, draught-free place for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until dough doubles in size.

Line a large baking tray with non-stick baking paper. Punch dough down to its original size. Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Divide into 12 even portions. Shape each portion into a ball. Place balls onto lined tray, about 1cm apart. Cover with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm, draught-free place for 30 minutes, or until buns double in size. Preheat oven to 190°C.

Make flour paste:

Mix flour and water together in a small bowl until smooth, adding a little more water if paste is too thick. Spoon into a small snap-lock bag. Snip off 1 corner of bag. Pipe flour paste over tops of buns to form crosses. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until buns are cooked through.

Make glaze:

Place water and sugar into a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil. Boil for 5 minutes. Brush warm glaze over warm hot cross buns. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Meatloaf Scotch Egg

Everybody loves a good meatloaf. Me too, but I also love scotch egg. So then I thought to myself, why not combine them in one dish ? This way, I can enjoy both at once :) As I am not a beef eater, I have chose to use pork here. And you know what, serve this pork meatloaf with some hot apple sauce..... Mmmmm.... it simply is the perfect match from heaven.

I cannot remember the recipe exactly, cause when I cook, I cook based on my instinct and experience most of the time. So this recipe is written after that, therefore please adjust the measurement according to suit your own taste.


Meatloaf Scotch Egg

For a 23cm x 12cm loaf pan

Ingredients:

500g of mince meat (preferably a mix of some fat and lean)

- can mix it up by adding two or more types of meat (e.g. 250g pork mince, 250 beef mince)

3 – 4 eggs, hardboiled and de-shelled

1 onion, finely diced

2 – 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

Handful of thyme and oregano (can substitute with any other herbs; can be dried herb flakes or fresh)

1 sprig of rosemary

¾ - 1 cup Breadcrumbs (approx. 2 - 3 slices of bread)

Olive oil

½ cup of Parmesan cheese, grated

Salt and black pepper, for seasoning

Method:

1. Combine mince meat with salt, ground black pepper, herbs and garlic in a large bowl/basin. Cover it with cling wrap and put in the fridge to marinate for at least 30 minutes.

2. In the mean time, boil the eggs in a saucepan. While waiting for the eggs to boil, prepare the breadcrumbs (if you are making your own).

3. When the eggs are done, wash them under cold running water. This will prevent the shell from sticking to the surface of the egg.

4. Remove mince meat from the fridge. Mix in the onion, parmesan cheese, 3/4 of the breadcrumbs and drizzle a little olive oil. Mix well until combine. Do not over mix.

5. Grease the pan and start putting 1/3 of the meatloaf mixture into the pan. Form it to create slight dent for the positioning of the eggs.

6. Lay the hard boiled eggs nicely on the meatloaf mixture, at equal distance. Then top up with the remaining meatloaf mixture. Filling up the gaps between the eggs first. Make sure all the eggs are fully covered.

7. Top the remaining breadcrumbs on top of the meatloaf and finally lay the sprig of rosemary on top.

8. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree Celsius, for about 20 - 30 minutes or until cook.

Note: You can also add in vegetables in this recipe, if preferred. Finely chopped or grate vegetables and add into the mince mixture together with the onion and cheese.

Chocolate Banana Cake

I haven't been blogging for ages now :p but today I have a good reason to write again. My friends on facebook were asking me for recipes on some of the things I made. One of them is this chocolate banana cake. So I thought I might as well post it here on my blog.

So to you guys out there, hope you like it :)



Ingredients:

4 bananas, sliced


Cakes:

170g butter, softened

225g granulated sugar

3 eggs

1 ½ tsp vanilla essence

120ml sour cream

330g all purpose flour

1 ½ tsp baking soda

100g cocoa powder

2 - 3 mashed bananas

Chocolate Cream:

750ml whipping cream

300g semisweet chocolate, chopped

Chocolate Ganache:

125ml whipping cream

125g dark chocolate, chopped

Method:

Cake:

Cream butter with sugar in a bowl, until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then vanilla essence. Beat in sour cream. Combine flour, baking soda and cocoa powder in another bowl. Then add in to the creamed mixture in 3 additions alternately with 2 additions of the mashed bananas. Mixing just until flour is incorporated. Spoon into 2 greased 8.5 inch spring form pans.

Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 35 – 40 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Let cool on rack for 20 minutes. Remove from the pans and let cool completely.


Chocolate Cream:

In a saucepan, bring half of the cream to boil. Remove from heat immediately and pour over the chopped chocolate in bowl, whisking until chocolate melted. Set aside for it to cool or alternately refrigerate until chilled, whisking it every now and then.

Remove from the fridge and using an electric mixer, beat chocolate mixture on medium speed just until ridges hold shape. Beat in remaining cream just until soft peaks form.


Dark Chocolate Ganache:

Bring cream to boil. Pour over chocolate in a bowl. Whisking until chocolate melted. Let cool for 20 minutes or until room temperature. Do not over whisked, or it will become whipped cream.



Cake Assembly:

Slice the cakes in half horizontally. Place a top layer, cut side up, on plate. Spread top with a layer of chocolate cream, cover with single layer of sliced bananas, leaving 1 cm border around. Cover with a bottom cake layer, cut side down. Repeat with cream and bananas.

Repeat with remaining cake, cream and bananas.

Using palette knife, cover cake smoothly with remaining chocolate cream (if there’s any leftover). Refrigerate until firm, about 1 – 2 hours.

Remove cake from the fridge and pour the ganache over the centre of the cake, spreading it to edge with clean palette knife. Gently cover the whole cake with ganache and refrigerate it until firm.