Baking all over the world gets to... Sweden! Saffranbuller lussekatter

Swedish saffron scented little golden buns, studded with raisins. Yummy! These are apparently a Christmassy treat, the rest of the year is more cinnamon bunny. I'm a complete chelsea bun addict though, so I wanted to try to make something a bit different, as I'm not sure anything in the world could hold a candle to the chelsea bun in the cinnamon bun stakes. Although I've been wrong many times before...

Lussekatter means St Lucia buns. For reasons which escape me the Swedish celebrate St Lucia on 13th December, so these are a treat for then. Saffranbuller means saffron buns. I'm not eveb sure what the proper names for these bad boys are.

So how do they taste? Really good actually, delicately scented with saffron but comfortingly sweet. My hand slipped with the sugar so they ended up probably too sweet for me, but Mr B was a definite fan. The dough is unbelievably silky and wonderous to handle, and the texture of the crumb was probably the softest I've ever managed. Lush with a cup of tea. This recipe makes about 15-20 so I have plenty in the freezer :)

Ingredients
250ml warm milk
12g dried yeast (seems like loads but it actually needs it - all the sugar and butter retards its action)
75g sugar
75g melted butter
big pinch of saffron threads, ground in a pestle and mortar
generous pinch of salt
125g quark (or natural greek yogurt would work I reckon)
approx 3-4 cups strong white bread flour
Some raisins
Egg for egg wash

Method
1. Plop the yeast and sugar into the milk, then whisk in the melted butter. Stir in the saffron.
2. Put the wet ingredients into the bowl of a mixer, then add the quark and a cup or two of the flour. Use the dough hook to mix together and gradually add enough flour to make a soft dough - don't add too much as it will make it too tight, but too little and you'll get a paste. Which nobody wants.
3. Knead it in the mixer for 10 minutes. I know, it seems like ages. But all the recipes I found agreed on this one. If you don't have a mixer, just combine the ingredients with a spoon and knead for (sorry...) 15 minutes.
4. You should get a gently golden, beautifully silky dough. Leave it, covered, to prove for approx an hour or so until doubled in size.
 5. Knock the dough back and knead it gently. Divide the dough into about 20 equal portions (mine were about 50g each). Roll each into a sausage about 25cm long, then curl each end around to make a big 'S' shape and stud with a raisin...

6. Place them, well spaced, onto a baking tray (greased or covered with baking paper) and cover again to prove for another 30 mins or so. I use big polythene bags (pedal bin liners) as I can just put the whole tray in and tuck the edges under instead of trying to cover it with cling film or unpeel any stuck dishcloths...

7. Brush with egg (not essential but I forgot and my raisins fell off!) Bake at a very high temp (220 degrees fan oven) for 8 mins. Be careful as the enriched dough will catch really quickly and you'll end up with a bitter bun. Sad times.

8. Devour... :)

Brioche mark II

Well. I have found happiness. And, unsurprisingly, it contains a mildly alarming amount of butter.

Further to the last brioche post, I was a little disappointed with the results. Step forward Michel Roux Jr (not literally, that would have been far more exciting than me getting a book out of the cupboard. Which is what actually happened).

Anyway, this epic cloud of butter and egg enriched heaven was what emerged a mere 18 hours after the process began...

It was incredible...
Here is the recipe (slightly altered by my own incompetence but it worked beautifully all the same...). We froze half of it and it revived itself really nicely too. Again, I'd always use a machine as I don't have arms of steel (or even anything more solid than a rubber band).

• 15g fresh yeast
• 500g plain flour
• 6 eggs
• 1  tsp salt
• 50g (vanilla) sugar
• 250g unsalted french buttery loveliness (we used President), nice and soft and warm
• some egg wash to glaze

Method:
First, put the flour and yeast into a bowl and rub in the yeast, then add the eggs one at a time to your mixer with the dough hook on a reasonably slow speed. When it's all incorporated, it should become smooth and elasticy after about 5 mins. Then add the butter in a few additions, again with the mixer going, ensuring it's all thoroughly mixed in. Give it another 7 or so minutes at a slightly faster knead. You will create a silken ball of buttery wonder which you may want to stroke. When you can tear yourself away, put it into a clean bowl, cover with cling film and plonk it in the fridge overnight. Evening is ideal to do this bit - knock it back after 4 hours then go to bed, dreaming of Brioche clouds and asking for forgiveness from the Gods of cardiovascular disease.

In the morning your dough will be pretty solid but risen. Remove it from the fridge, give it a knead to wake it up gently, then place it into a loaf tin (well buttered). Cover with loose clingfilm (or put it in a pedal bin liner) and leave it to warm up and rise ay about 1/3 (about 2 hours or so). Preheat the oven to 180 and, giving it lots of headroom as it will puff up wonderfully) bake for 40 mins, adding a small foil hat after half an hour if it's looking a bit too brun (la Francais pour 'burnt'!). Leave it to cool if you can, then welcome to wheat and dairy heaven.

Vive la France!!

JB x

Bagels. The best bagels this side of NYC*

* I have no evidence for this. But they're bloody good. And easy!!! Do it!! For breakfast (ideally in bed delivered by an equally delicious partner of your choice) they take some beating.

A recent trip to the USA reignited my love of bagels - proper, chewy, soft, malty bagels, not the imitation things supermarkets here sell, which truly aren't bagels in my eyes! So for those if you who want to taste a proper bagel... Here's the recipe!

• 450-500g strong white bread flour
• 1 level teaspoon dried yeast
• 1 tablespoon malt extract (from holland and Barrett. Or use honey)
• 1 teaspoon salt (1 1/2 if using coarse salt)
• About 250ml warm water

Plonk ingredients together and make a dough. It should be quite firm and not at all sticky and after kneading for about 5-10 mins will look like a thing of smooth, satiny, slightly tense beauty.

Now the first bit of magic... Oil a bowl, plop the dough in and cling film it, then stick it in the fridge overnight. Or for however long you like. Then the next day (or whenever you want bagely goodness), remove from the fridge and make bagely shapes; either roll a sausage then loop it together or make a ball and poke a hole. Whichever way, make the hole a lot bigger than you thought you needed to, and put the bagels on an oiled baking sheet (or Teflon sheet). Cover with cling again and leave for an hour or so at room temp to puff up a bit more. This long fermentation time helps to develop flavour.

Now magic part number two... Being a large pan of water to the boil and add another spoon of malt extract and a teaspoon or so if bicarbonate of soda. Plop each bagel in for a minute, flip over, then drain and plop back onto the baking tray. Sprinkle with poppy seeds (or pumpkin, linseed etc if you like) and bake for 15 mins as hot as your oven will go.

Bloody lovely! Apologies for brief posting, trying to blog on the sly on my phone ;)

The chelsea bun appreciation society

I think I might found this organisation if it doesn't already exist. I LOVE CHELSEA BUNS. And please please please try to make them yourself, they are easily better than you can buy from the supermarket, and just as good as you might get in a fancy little bakery. And they aren't difficult, I promise!

This recipe is pretty much the regional from Lord Sir Paul of Hollywood. He can do no wrong in my eyes (except put too much product in his hair) and this recipe was a total revelation to me.

Ingredients:

• 500g strong white flour
• 7g fast action dried yeast (1 little sachet. You could use fresh yeast too - approx double the amount is usually about right.)
• 300ml milk
• 40g unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon salt (I use Maldon flakes and crumble them up after measuring. If you're using fine salt I'd guess that 1 teaspoon would be a bit much. Probably 1/2 would be better, but up to you...!)
• 1 large free range egg from a happy chicken
• 50g more butter, really really soft and squidgy
• 50g brown sugar
• 150g sultanas
• 100g dried cranberries
• 2 teaspoons (generous) cinnamon
• zest of an orange or lemon or whatever citrus fruit is hanging out in your fridge
• Juice of said citrus fruit
• some icing sugar (3 heaped tbs or so)

Method:

1. Warm milk with butter in either the microwave or a saucepan (not a saucepan in the microwave, that would end in disaster) until your milk is warm and your butter is melted.

2. Meanwhile, mix the flour, salt and yeast in a big old bowl.

3. Beat the egg and lob it into the flour, followed by the warm buttery milk.

4. Mix together briefly with a spoon until a soft (very soft) dough forms.

5. At this point you'll possibly be cursing as you may have a messy porridgy bowlful of gunk s opposed to a beautiful, soft, elastic dough, but thrust in the Silver Fox - gently work the dough with VERY LIGHTLY floured hands on a non floured surface for 10 mins OR leave the mixer to do the work with a dough hook on low speed for approx 7 mins.

6. I promise the Hollywood is right - as the mix cools and the flour absorbs moisture you will develop a gorgeous soft dough. Once you're at this stage, plop into an oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave somewhere toasty for an hour or so, until it doubles in size. You should now have this:

7. After proving, you will have a beautiful, pillowy dough. Plop it out onto a fouled surface and gently press the air out.

8. Mix the dried fruit, sugar, cinnamon and zest together.

.

9. Roll the dough out to approx 30 x 20cm and tack the front edge down to the surface - this will prevent it sipping while you roll it later on. Just squidge it all the way onto the top and it should 

stick.

10. Next, cover it with the nice squidgy butter, then sprinkle the filling over, giving it a good press into the dough.

11. Roll it up nice and tightly, and chop into 12 fat slices...

13. Stand them cut side up into a very well buttered roasting tin...

14. Cover with cling film, leave for 30 mins or so to prove again, getting nice and fat so they touch (just). This will mean they have a beautiful soft edge when you tear them apart.

15. When ready for the oven, bake at 190 degrees for 15 mins, check they're not catching (they can have a foil hat for the last 7 mins if they are) and bake for another 7 minutes (22 minutes total. That wa made out to be far more complex than necessary...!)

16. Again, feel smug as you remove the tray of gorgeousness from the oven. Resist as long as possible then dive in... :)

P.S. - they freeze really well too. A batch of 12 means we usually have some in the freer for an after work treat during the week - just defrost for 30s or so in the microwave and they're pretty damned amazing. ENJOY!!!!

JB xx

Bread

I am hugely into baking bread at the moment. For many reasons - I enjoy it, I like to fool myself into thinking it is better for me than shop bought (which in a chemical sense is entirely true; yeast, flour, salt, water are all nice and natural unlike all sorts of weird preservatives etc in shop bought) and it fills the house with a lovely smell. So here are a few of my recipes / tips for happy bread making.

General tips:

1. Don't be afraid to try something new. The birds can always be well fed if your bread goes Pete Tong.
2. Make sure you knead your dough enough to begin with. When stretched between your finders, white dough should go so thin you can see through it like a little magical dough window. Wholemeal or rye dough won't stretch as far but should have a good stretch to it.
3. Leave it somewhere toasty to prove. If it's too chilly, this stage can still be done but will take ages - I like to leave mine in front of the fire in winter or near a radiator. Generally anywhere you would sit if you were a cat.
4. Grease or line your tins or trays. I'm lazy so I hate washing up. Also stuck bread dough can be like trying to chisel weetabix off your bowl when it's been left for days...
5. Freeze bread - in my experience a quick blast in the microwave revives most to my satisfaction. 

Basic bread:

• 500g strong flour - white or 50:50 wholemeal to white. All wholemeal makes kind of solid, mildly cake like bread. Unless that's what you want, in which case go for it.
• 10g fresh yeast - ask at the bakery counter in the supermarket. It's kind of lovely plastic-y play dough-y putty like stuff that smells amazing.
• 5g fine salt - I use sea salt flakes bashed up in a pestle and mortar but only cos that's what I have, not cos I'm posh or 'owt
• 300g warm liquid - water, milk, 50:50 etc. I don't mind. Weigh it instead of measuring jugs - weigh more accurate (sorry, terrible pun. This is why I'm not a comedian.)

Method:

1.  Rub yeast into flour roughly as if you were making crumble or pastry. 
2. Stir in salt. 
3. Add water. 
4. Mix with a spoon. 
5. Knead for 10 mins by hand or 5-6 mins in a mixer with a dough hook. 
6. Leave to double in size (an hour or so) in a big bowl covered with cling film or a shower cap from a hotel. Maybe not a used one.
7. Shape into rolls, loaves, baguettes, whatever you like. Cover with oiled cling film, leave again for 45 mins or so.
8. Bake at as hot as your oven will go for approx 20 mins for small loaves / rolls, 30 mins for big'uns. Tap on the bottom - if it sounds hollow it's done.
9. Leave to cool then dig in!

I felt I had to put lots of steps in to make myself sound clever. I'm not, and bread isn't difficult, I promise.