Sweet and Soft Chelsea Buns

This weekend Mr. Colehill bought me 'Julie and Julia' and I watched it for the first time. I know, I know, I should have watched it months ago but somehow it slipped through my fingers, until two days ago that is. It was such a lovely film, and it reminded me what I love about food and cooking, as well as why I write this blog. I love the escape that cooking provides for me. No matter how crappy your day is, or however heavy your shoulders feel with the weight of all the pressures of life, cooking is a haven. You can hide from the world and hole up in the kitchen for hours, and produce delicious creations. Something that has started off as a few humble ingredients becomes completely different and amazing because of you, and what you have done to them. I don't think I take pride in anything else as much as I do when something I have cooked comes out beautifully, there's nothing quite like the feeling. And as for writing about these moments of pride and satisfaction, well, I don't know how many people read these words that I send out into the blogosphere, but I love the idea that there is a community of people out there who are reading each others' blogs. We share recipes, successes, failures, and support each other and learn from other bloggers' words and pictures.

Anyway, I digress!!

Even better, the DVD came with a recipe book!! How great is that? How many DVDs have you bought that came with a book, let alone a selection of recipes from Julia Child's book Mastering the Art of French Cooking? Hands down the best DVD I have ever received!! And I adored the film. Not only was it a lovely story, but it had plenty of beautiful food to salivate over and scenes of Paris that made me long for a life in France; all set with plenty of butter, baguettes, multiple types of cheese and, of course, pastries!! Which brings me to my choice of baked good here: Chelsea Buns.

Fulham is Colehill Kitchen's home, which is right next door to Chelsea, so these seemed an apt choice of pastry! I've never tried them before, so I was quite nervous and excited for the outcome. The nerves turned out to be deserved since the first batch of dough didn't rise. I had something akin to one Julie's meltdowns in the film, which Mr. Colehill took great pleasure in mocking me for, however everything came good in the end when the second batch worked nicely and produced buns of delight!!!

The recipe is from the River Cottage Handbook No. 3 Bread. As I'm sure you know, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a firm favourite with me and this book by Daniel Stevens, Hugh's bread man, taught me so much about bread making. This little gem of a book not only includes invaluable information about baking loaves of bread, it also has recipes for other bread based treats, like cornbread, tortillas, summer pudding and so on. My next two trials from this particular book are crumpets and croissants. I'll be sure to let you know when I rise to the challenge!!

As for the Chelsea Buns, here is the recipe:

Chelsea Buns

For the dough:

550g strong white bread flour

50g caster sugar

5g powdered dried yeast

10g salt

150ml warm milk

225g melted butter

1 medium egg

For the Filling:

25g melted butter

100g caster sugar

200g currants

For the Glaze:

50ml milk

50g caster sugar

Mix together the flour, sugar, yeast and salt, then add the milk, butter and egg.

Knead until smooth and silky, then leave to rise for about an hour until doubled in size.

Brush the base and sides of a deep 30cm square (mine was rectangular and a little larger, but hey, not the ned of the world!) with a little of the melted butter and dust with a little of the sugar for the filling, shaking out the excess.

Roll out the dough to about 60cm x 40cm, brush with the butter, dust with the sugar and sprinkle over the currants, leaving a margin at the top. Roll the dough up to the margin, and moisten at the top with water to seal it.

Cut into 3cm slices, then flatten slightly on to the tray. Sprinkle a little of the sugar for the glaze on top and leave to prove for about half an hour, then bake at 200 degrees for 20 minutes until golden brown.

Warm the milk and remaining sugar in a pan, and brush the buns with it when you bring them out of the oven while they are still warm.

These. Are. Divine.

Whatever you do, eat one fresh out of the oven. They are completely indulgent, completely naughty and completely moreish!! I had to resort to freezing a load so that I didn't eat them

all in one weekend. Completely delightful and well worth making.

Dense and Sticky Banana Bread

I have just looked at when my last post was written, and I’m horrified to see it was over two months ago!! I have no idea where that time went…actually, I know exactly where it went; straight to the library where a cavern full of books awaited me and several essays to write for the end of term beckoned. And that is why food and cooking has taken a massive back seat, which makes me really, really sad. On the bright side university is now over for the summer, which means I have plenty of time on my hands to dedicate to cooking. I celebrated by getting stuck into lots of time in the kitchen!!

This weekend I baked a couple of loaves of bread with a shiny new loaf tin; one packed full of seeds and one covered in oaty goodness, which were absolutely delightful. There is nothing quite as homely and comforting as the smell of fermenting dough and the subsequent aroma of the loaves baking in the oven, which fills the house. Following in the bready theme I made a loaf of banana bread, using a recipe from Sophie Dahl’s cookbook. It’s a beautiful book and I love to flick through it from time to time, but this is the first time I’ve actually used one of her recipes. This is quite the norm for me: I buy books and books and books, and spend hours perusing the pictures and recipes before I finally settle on one to actually make. There are usually far too many to choose from to make a quick decision!!! Anyway, we had a glut of overripe bananas in the house, so my mission was to use them all up (nine in total - why we had managed to collect nine overripe bananas is beyond me but there you go!) and Banana Bread seemed the obvious first choice.

It’s a wonderfully easy recipe, quick to assemble before waiting patiently for an hour as the bananas caramelise and the batter becomes a soft, sweet and sticky delight! The recipe calls for:

Banana Bread
75g soft unsalted butter
4 overripe bananas, mashed
200 soft brown sugar
1 egg
170g flour (I used self raising flour and forfeited the baking powder she lists as it was all I had in the cupboard)
I also added a sprinkling or cinnamon, just because I like it!!

Combine the butter, mashed bananas, sugar and egg, then add the flour and cinnamon (if you decide to add some) until it’s just combined.
Pour into a lined loaf tin and bake at 180 degrees for an hour.
Leave to cool on a wire rack.

This recipe produces a dense banana loaf…rather more like a heavy cake than a bread-like end result. I impatiently (as is tradition!) tipped it out of the tin and cut a slice as soon as I could, with a little dab of butter smeared over it. The smell of bananas infused with cinnamon saturated the kitchen, and it was all I could do not to eat slice after slice of this deep caramel coloured indulgence!!

This recipe really is best when you use completely black skinned bananas, as the more overripe they are the better the mashed banana will caramelise while it bakes, resulting in a toffee sweet luxury that will have you sneaking slivers every ten minutes!!

Step-by-Step Breadmaking

I made bread again this weekend, it's becoming something of a Sunday afternoon tradition, it's so nice to have fresh home-made bread during the week. And while I was playing with ingredients and watching the dough develop from a sticky mess to something quite amazing, I thought it would be useful to take some pictures to put up here to give you a better guide to baking bread than my previous post. I've always felt that pictures are an invaluable addition to any recipe, as it gives a much clearer indication of what everything is supposed to look like!! I find this particularly useful when baking, because it's such a technical from of cooking, and if one step is wrong, it can spell disaster for your end result!


So here are some photos from my last batch of bread for you to browse through!



When you have combined all your ingredients, you will have a sticky dough. Place it on a large work surface to knead.
It will stick to the surface, but don't panic - this will actually help with the kneading process and do some of the work for you!! It will also become less sticky as you knead, so have patience and wash and flour your hands every few minutes to help.



When you are kneading, if you are right handed, place your left fingers into the nearest part of the dough, and push the rest of the dough with the knuckles of your right hand away from you as far as you can go (or vise versa if you are left handed!). Scrape the dough back towards you, turn 90 degrees clockwise and repeat. Knead for about 15 minutes.
This will get easier with time, and eventually you won't even think about it!!




Shape into a round, oil a bowl and the dough and place upside down in the bowl. Leave to ferment in the bowl with a black bag around it and tucked underneath the bowl (keep it loose though, the dough needs room to rise!!) for about 30 minutes, or until it has doubled in size.




Now is the stage called 'beating back'. However, as Daniel Stevens says in the River Cottage Handbook, this is far too violent a description, and that you have loved your bread up until this point, don't ruin it now! Most recipes suggest giving it a good punch, however a better and more gentle method is to prod it with your fingers until the air is pushed out and the dough rather flat.

Bring the edges into the middle to create a round again. You can leave the dough to rise another 2 or 3 times by repeating this process, which will make the dough softer and more pillowy, and result in an easier bread to digest, and I've found, a lighter bread.

Next you need to shape your loaves however you want. My favourite is this short loaf. To do this you need to press out all the air as before, then roll it tightly towards yourself, pressing on the seam to seal. Then flatten out lengthways so that it is three times as long. Fold in the left third, then the remaining right third on top of it. Press down again so that you have a fairly square shaped dough. Then roll tightly towards yourself again and press the join gently to seal. If you want to coat your loaves, now is the time. I love oats, but it's the same method for any coating. Roll your loaf in little milk or water all over, then transfer onto a plate or work surface covered with oats (or whatever yoy are coating your loaf in). Roll in the oats then transfer onto a board to prove for the last time before baking. Wrap loosely in a black bag and leave to prove until it has almost, but not quite, doubled in size, and the dough bounces back lightly when you give it a gentle squueze. I usually leave mine for about 30-40 minutes, but every dough is different, so follow your instincts.



Place a baking tray in your oven while it preheats to the top temperature, and one at the bottom of your oven, deep enough to hold some water. Boil the kettle. When your dough is ready, take the preheated tray out, place the loaves on it and if you want, make some slashes in the dough about a centimetre deep, then place the tray in the oven. Pour some water from the kettle into the bottom tray before closing the oven door. Bake at the top temperature of your oven for about 10 minutes, then if the bread is browning quickly turn to 170 degrees, if it's visibly browning turn to 180 degress, or if it's still quite pale turn to 190 degrees, and bake for a further 30-40 minutes. To check if they are done, tap the bottom with your knuckle, if they sound hollow, they are ready!!
Leave to cool for 20-30 minutes, then slice gently, apply lashings of butter, and devour!!

Mmmmm...bread!

They say bread is the staff of life...so it must be important right? Well, it's important to me. Bread seems to have become my new obsession. I'm fascinated by it, every last detail - from the combining of ingredients, to the magic that happens when the dough is fermenting, to the unrivalled joy and satisfaction when you watch it rise even further in the oven and become a loaf that is a result of your own craftmanship...be it well crafted or not!! Perfection in baking bread is not necessarily what I aim for. Obviously the end result is far more satisfying if the soft inside is light and tasty, and your bread has risen and baked properly (without the dreaded flying crust, or a dense heavy bread), but I think bread tastes better if it looks a little...rustic, shall we say? There's so much more enjoyment in eating home made bread than mass-produced rubbish, and I quite like it when I can tell that it is the product of hands rather than machines. Those imperfections make it all the better for me!

I was given the River Cottage Handbook for Bread a few days ago, and between that and The Wolseley book (Yes!! I now own a real live copy of Mr. Gill's beautiful book!) I've pretty much disappeared into a black hole of food writing over the last week or so. It's fascinating to learn why ingredients do what they do when you mix them together, rather than blindly following a recipe and hoping for the best! The River Cottage Handbook in particular is a really detailed account, it goes into the minutiae of breadmaking, which inevitably leads to the reader's bread being all the better for it!

I have to admit, that although I have baked bread before, plenty of times, I've never known why each step in the process is important. I've never known what makes one loaf wildly different from another, or in fact, one loaf much better than another - so thank you Daniel Stevens for writing such a brilliant and informative book!! The book also has far more steps for making bread than your run-of-the-mill bread recipes from chefs who don't specialise in breadmaking, which make a world of difference, and I thoroughly recommend taking the time to incorporate them when you make bread (which I really really really hope you do, when you taste it you'll wonder why you never made home-made bread earlier, I promise!!).

I decided to start simple, a wholemeal dough enough for two loaves - one plain, and the other coated in oats. And my oh my, putting the extra effort in and taking those extra steps really did make this bread stand apart from loaves I've baked before. Daniel Stevens differentiates between fermenting, rising, and proving, which I had never come across before (most recipes just say 'prove') and recommends letting the dough rise for a further two or three times after the first fermentation, so that your dough becomes more pillowy with a satin-like feel to it, and this really did make for a much lighter and softer bread.

So here is the recipe and method, bear with me, it's rather long, but trust me, it's worth it!!

For two large loaves:

1kg flour

600-650ml tepid water

20g salt

10g yeast

1 tblsp olive oil

1 tblsp runny honey

Mix the flour, water, salt, yeast and honey to a loose dough, then add the oil and squidge together. This will be quite sticky, but don't worry, it will become less so with kneading.

Knead for about 15 minutes until you can stretch it as thin as a pair of tights.

Oil a bowl and the top of the dough and leave to ferment in the bowl wrapped in a bin bag until it has doubled in size.

Take out the dough and press the air out gently with your fingers. You can leave to rise again another 2 or 3 times to make the dough softer and pillowy.

Press with your fingers again to push the air out.

Shape the loaves.

Coat in anything you fancy!!

Preheat your oven to maximum temperature and place your baking tray and a tray that will hold some water at the bottom of the oven.

Leave to prove until almost doubled in size and when you give the loaves a gentle squeeze they bounce back.

Slash the tops and spray with water.

Place on the baking tray and pour some some water from the kettle into the tray at the bottom of the oven then place the loaves in the oven on the top temperature for 10 minutes.

If the loaves have browned quickly, turn the oven down to 170 degrees and bake for a further 40 minutes. If they are a pale brown, turn the oven to 190 degrees and bake for 40 minutes.

Tap the bottom of the loaves with your knuckles, if they sound hollow, they're done. For a harder crust, you can leave them in the oven a little longer.

After all that time and effort, I wanted a quick and easy dessert...which just so happened to involve more bread...I'm a woman obsessed!! Summer pudding is such an easy pudding, and really, it's not summer until you've made one! I hate to waste food, so this is a great pudding as it prefers slightly stale bread, and you can chuck in any summer fruits you happen to have.

Summer Pudding

600g mixed berries

100g caster sugar

100ml water

8-10 slices white bread

Line a bowl (this recipe makes enough for about an 800ml bowl) with cling film - have two sheets crossing each other so you have the cling film in a sort of X shape.

Put the berries, sugar and water in a pan, and cook for a few minutes until the fruit is tender.

Remove the fruit, and reserve all the juice.

Cut your bread into rectangles, and dip into the juice before lining the bowl with them.

Put the berries into the lined bowl and then fold over the bread to create a lid, or if your bread isn't long enough, just place more soaked slices on top.

Fold over the cling film sheets fairly tightly so that the pudding firms up in a good shape in the fridge.

Ideally leave it in the fridge overnight...but we're too impatient so a few hours in the fridge will do!!

Enjoy your summer in a bowl!!

Pitta nachos and cupcakes

As I was in the baking mood over the weekend, I decided to try my hand at making pitta bread for some 'healthy (ish) nachos'. I can't tell you how exciting it is to see your pittas puff in the oven in matter of minutes!! I've never made pitta bread before and I found the recipe on http://www.thefreshloaf.com/ and it came out beautifully!!



Pitta Bread
260g white bread flour
130g wholewheat bread flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tblsp honey
1 packet dried yeast
300-350ml tepid water
2 tblsp olive oil

Very similar to my previous post on white bread, the method goes like this:
Combine yeast, flour, salt, honey.
Make a well and stir in water and oil slowly, mixing with a fork until you are able to get your hands stuck in and then knead for 10-15 minutes.
Leave to prove in a floured bowl and covered with a warm damp cloth for 90 minutes, or until doubled in size.
Beat back, and divide into 8 balls, then prove for a further 20-30 minutes.

Roll out into 1/2 cm thickness and bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees on a hot baking tray.

The first couple I tried didn't puff up as impressively as I was hoping for, until I realised I wasn't rolling them thin enough. This seems to be the trick to puffing pitta bread!! The other important factor is that the baking tray you put them on be very hot too, I put mine in while the oven was preheating and then left it for another 5 or 10 minutes to really heat up.

When they had cooled a little I cut them into sixths, and then opened each trangle up and cut it in two, so each pitta produced 12 nachos. Then I put them on a baking tray, drizzled some olive oil on them and a couple of pinches of salt sprinkled over, then back in a hot oven for 3-5 minutes to crisp up a bit more.

I made them with some minced beef, yoghurt dressing and fresh vegetable salad for a mountain of yummy goodness!!

500g beef mince, fried with:
1 red onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp hot chilli powder

For the dressing: yoghurt, feta, lemon juice, fresh mint and seasoning (all to taste).

And a salad of chopped cucumber, tomatoes and sugarsnap peas.

I could have eaten and eaten and eaten!! The freshness of the dressing complimented the fried beef well, with the sharpness of the lemon juice cutting through the fat from the meat.

I did eventually did stop eating though, because I had made some pretty exciting cupcakes for dessert. This is a recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, and these cupcakes, as the author says, really do pack a punch. They are a dark, dense chocolate sponge with cheesecake baked into them and cream cheese frosting on top. Indulgent you say?...maybe a little!!

The sponge is egg and butter-less, and uses cocoa powder rather than chocolate, so quite good for those who are non-dairy, however, the cheesecake obviously involves dairy (the clue is in the title I guess!) as does the frosting (which although extravagant, I think the cupcakes need, as the sponge is really not that sweet...and you know, who doesn't like a little extra frosting on their cupcake?!?!). I would say that the cheesecake mix is a little thin in this recipe, as it sort of baked around the cupcake rather than into it, and I suspect that if the mix was heavier and less liquid, it would fall into the cupcake rather than let the rising sponge push it up. Nevertheless, they were a delightful treat, a dense moist sponge with the creaminess of the cheesecake and frosting setting it off.

Blackbottom Cupcakes

Chocolate Sponge Base

190g plain flour

120g caster sugar

40g cocoa powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

40ml sunflower oil

1 1/2 tsp white vinegar (I only had white wine vinegar but it seemed to do the trick!)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

125ml water (I needed a little extra splash)

Cheesecake filling

140g cream cheese

60g caster sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

100g milk chocolate chips

Cream cheese frosting

300g icing sugar, sifted

50g unsalted butter

125g cream cheese

For the sponge, put the flour, sugar, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl and whisk to combine.

Put the oil, vinegar, vanilla extract and water in a jug and whisk to combine. Add gradually to the flour mix, whisking as you pour. I needed a splash more water to create a smooth mix.

Spoon into paper cases until two-thirds full.

For the cheesecake filling, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, egg, vanilla extract and salt until smooth and fluffy.

Fold in the chocolate chips. Don't overmix or the cream cheese may start to split.
Scoop about 1 tblsp of the mix on top of the sponge mix, and bake in a preheated oven at 170 degrees for 18-20 minutes, or until the sponge bounces back and the cheesecake has a golden colour.

Don't overcook or the cheesecake will become crumbly.

Leave to cool on a wire rack.


For the frosting, beat the icing sugar and butter together until well combined.

Then add the cream cheese and beat till smooth and fluffy.

When the cupcakes have cooled, spread a generous dollop of frosting on top and enjoy!!!

Heavenly Benediction

Oh my.


People, I have experienced the holy grail of breakfast. I'm not joking.


I had a birthday treat last weekend, and quite a treat it was. We went to the Wolseley for breakfast on Saturday morning and basked in the glory of it while we drank copious amounts of tea (honestly, the best tea I've ever tasted, hands down), and had a selection of mini pastries to share followed by Eggs Benedict.


Whoever Benedict is, I want to thank him.


I've never experienced a breakfast quite like it. Now, I've had eggs benedict before, but nothing compares to the tower of deliciousness that sat before me on Saturday morning. The doughy muffin lightly toasted topped with a generously sized and beautifully salty slice of ham which married so well with the creaminess of the hollandaise sauce, and the most perfect poached egg I've ever seen. Good thing we'd had the pastries really, otherwise when my tower arrived I probably would have scoffed it down in an instant. As it was, my appetite had been curbed slightly by the support act, and I took my time over the headliner.


AA Gill has written a book on The Wolseley which I am in the process of tracking down now that I have experienced the place. Before we went there were copies of it everywhere, now that I want to find the thing and buy it so that I can pour over it and dream of more perfect breakfasts, it's nowhere to be found!! It's a beautiful book that is filled with the history of the restaurant as well as recipes, and as soon as I happen across it, I'm grabbing it and running to the till!!


I left wanting to recreate the magic, but decided that it would take many many many attempts before I even came close to producing something as exceptional as what we'd eaten there, so I restrained, and decided to bake bread instead, an eternally rewarding and satisfying experience.


I love to bake bread, I love the long process which requires patience from the baker, which makes the ultimate loaf so much more rewarding - you've been waiting for hours from when you started baking to when you can break into the hard crust and reveal the soft interior, then spread on some butter which melts on the fresh, warm dough. It's the ultimate in comfort food for me. Fresh bread with butter and jam and a cup of tea, it doesn't get much better than that.


Here's the simple white bread recipe I use:

500g bread flour
300-350ml tepid water
1 packet yeast (dried)
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 tblsp olive oil
flour for dusting


Mix the flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a bowl.
Make a well in the flour mix and add the water and oil gradually.
Stir with a fork until it comes together enough to be able to knead.
Knead for 10-15 minutes.
Leave to rest in a floured bowl with a warm damp cloth over the top for 90 minutes, or until it has doubled in size.
Beat back (give it a good couple of punches to knock the air out) then knead into a ball and leave to rest for a further 30 minutes.
Shape into a loaf tin, or if you don't have one, into a ball on a baking tray, and spray with a little water (this helps give the bread a crispier crust).
Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

To check if it's done, tap the bottom with your knuckles, if it sounds hollow, it's done.