Grand Marnier Spiked Hot Cross Bun and Butter Pudding

So THIS was our dessert on Easter Sunday and it turned out so beautifully I think it will be our Easter dessert every year. I got the idea from BBC Good Food and just thought it was a fab idea - to make bread and butter pudding with hot cross buns = brilliant. To add marzipan to it? Extra brilliant! Me being me and all I had to pour over a good glug of Grand Marnier because, well basically I don't know when to stop :-D

I suppose this is more of a spiced cake with warm boozy custard than how I remember bread and butter pudding being, and for me at least that's a massive improvement! The spice flavours in the cake just went so well with the orange and boozy custard flavours and made a wonderful dessert on Easter. (Our main course was sublime too so watch this space, it's getting blogged next!)

This is also a great way to use up any leftover hot cross buns that are getting a bit dry. If you recall from my last post I made a batch of hot cross buns which turned out too dry, tasted great, but too dry. They then sat on the counter for days as I couldn't bring myself to throw them out, getting even more dry. Well, they were a perfect candidate for this dessert as it all gets soaked in boozy custard then baked. If you are using fresh hot cross buns I would suggest slowly and lightly toasting them just to dry them out slightly.

And yes, my version here does call for Alpro Soy Custard which I know some of you won't be able to buy - sorry about that, but sometimes I just gotta use these ingredients! Also a note on the buns, I used ones that were based on my original hot cross bun recipe, without egg replacer but with apple instead of raisins, brushed with apricot jam and with a maple drizzle like on my newer version hot cross buns. These buns also had cloves instead of nutmeg and that went really well here. So if you were going to make hot cross buns especially for his I would recommend my original recipe with either apple or raisins, or both! :-)

Grand Marnier Spiked Hot Cross Bun and Butter Pudding:

4 large hot cross buns, split in half, preferably a bit dry, homemade are best!
1 x 525ml carton of Alpro Soy Custard
50g or 1/4 cup golden caster sugar
vegan butter, about 20g
50g marzipan
zest of 1 orange
60ml or 1/4 cup Grand Marnier
icing sugar to dust

Heat the oven to 170C and butter a pie or casserole dish, one that you can spread out the 8 hot cross bun halves and has high enough sides for the custard.

Spread vegan butter over the bun halves and place in the dish:

Dice the marzipan up and scatter all over:

In a sauce pan add the carton of custard, sugar and orange zest and just bring to a simmer and make sure the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and whisk in the Grand Marnier. Pour this over the buns and gently press down on the buns to they are immersed in the custard. Leave this for 10 minutes to soak.

Now pop it into the preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes. Remove and let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. 

Ok, it's not the prettiest, but believe me it makes up for it in taste!!

You can either serve it now by simply scooping some out or do like we did and cut wedges out of it, we got 8 servings out of it. Simply dust with icing sugar and serve. I also made mine earlier in the day and simply reheated the serving in the microwave, turned out perfect. Serves 8.

♥

Nutritional Information: based on 1 serving out of 8.

Calories: 235

Protein: 4.7g

Fat: 4.3g

Sat Fat: 0.7g

Carbs: 41.6g

Sugar: 22.6g

Fibre: 1.4g

Sodium: 78.5mg

Calcium: 102.8mg

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Apple and Cinnamon Pull Apart Hot Cross Buns with Maple Icing

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A Happy Easter / Spring Break to you all!  I've been wanting to revisit my Hot Cross Buns for awhile now as I made my first ones there with egg replacer, something I no longer bake with. You may remember I made those with only raisins in them as I can't stand peel in my baked goods. I mean does anyone really like peel? It's like one of those ingredients we have in Christmas cake and hot cross buns more out of tradition than taste.

This time I decided to go a step further and axe the raisins. I do love raisins in baked goods but my son is not too keen and after I saw some Apple and Cinnamon Hot Cross Buns in Marks and Spencer's the other day that was it. I had to make these! So I first went about making my previously posted hot cross buns without the egg replacer and with apple instead.

So Pretty!!!

Sadly, looks are all these had going for them as they were really dry :-( BUT they did have great flavour....So, it was back to the kitchen for me the next day. This time I couldn't stop thinking about my Pull Apart Rolls and how wonderfully moist and light and fluffy they are. This was a no-brainer - combine the flavours of the hot cross bun with the pull-apart rolls. 

Success!! These taste fantastic and have amazing texture - slightly crisp on the outside and moist, light and fluffy inside. See?

Now, just like I mentioned in my first hot cross bun post I much prefer the cross in icing rather than in dough - it's my sweet tooth :-) The apple and cinnamon flavours in this one just calling out for a hint of maple in the glaze. Combining maple syrup with icing sugar may sound like a sugar catastrophe but trust me it works just fine here as you are only getting a little bit of glaze on each bun and it's just the right amount of sweetness.

If I have any complaint it's only that I would like more apple in them but there is only so much apple you can cram into the dough before it rises and this is pretty much the maximum. Once the dough rises there is a lot more room for apple but then it's too late to add more. You still get the odd nice juicy bit of apple though, so it's all good!

♥

Apple and Cinnamon Pull Apart Hot Cross Buns with Maple Icing:

280g extra strong white bread flour (2 cups)

1 sachet quick yeast - 7g

30g vegan butter (2 Tbsp)

50g brown sugar (1/4 cup, lightly packed) I used light muscovado sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

175ml unsweetened soy milk

1 large apple, peeled and diced smallish

~ you may need up to 1/4 cup or 35g more flour as well ~

Bun Wash: 

1 Tbsp water

1 Tbsp golden caster sugar (or regular sugar)

tiny pinch of cinnamon, I used the end tip of a sharp knife to measure.

Maple Icing:

50g icing sugar (1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp)

1/2 Tbsp maple syrup

1 teaspoon unsweetened soy milk

Add the soy milk, vegan butter and brown sugar to a saucepan and bring to a simmer. When the butter and sugar have melted turn off the heat and add the vanilla then transfer to a measuring jug to cool. I used a thermometer here as you want it to get to between 120 - 130F before adding to the yeast. If you don't have a thermometer you should be able to just leave your finger in the mixture comfortably. Quick yeast needs the liquid to be slightly warmer than active dry yeast which gets dissolved in warm water first.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, or in a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. When the liquid is at the right temperature add to the bowl with the flour and with the dough attachment knead for 10 minutes. If doing by hand stir the liquid into the flour then transfer to a floured surface and knead for about 15 minutes. Either way add some more flour, you shouldn't need more than 35g or 1/4 cup if the mixture is too sticky. When there is a few minutes left remove from the mixer and transfer to a floured surface. Start to add the apple, bit by bit and knead it into the dough. This sounds trickier than it actually is, just take your time and all the apple will get in there! Keep gently kneading until all the apple is in and you have a round ball of dough.

Take a large clean bowl, I like to have hot water sitting in mine to get the bowl warm first, I then dump out the water and dry it well then grease the bowl before adding the dough. Cover with cling film and place in a warm place to double in size for 1 hour.

Remove and punch down the dough, give it a couple of kneads then roll out to a log shape and slice into 8 equal segments. Give each of these segments another little knead then shape into a round ball. You may need a bit more flour here as the apple would have released a little liquid. Slice a cross into the top of each ball with a very sharp knife then place in a greased 7" high sided, loose bottom cake pan, or similar.

Cover again with cling film and leave in a warm place to rise again for half an hour. By then they should have gotten quite bigger and be swelling against each other:

Preheat the oven to 220C / 425F remove the cling film and pop in the oven for 15 minutes. They should be golden brown, risen a bit more and sound hollow if you tap them underneath. 

Remove from the pan, mine was loose bottomed so I just place a can of beans underneath and slid the sides down then used a spatula to remove the whole plate of rolls onto a wire rack.

I also wanted to see how this recipe fared making traditional individual rolls and it worked perfectly. After the first rise and you have shaped them into rolls do not cut them at this stage, just lay them out on a lined baking sheet, cover loosely with cling film and again leave to rise for about 1/2 hour. Now cut the crosses on top and bake as per instructions. Let cool and slowly drizzle the thick glaze over the cut cross.

♥ They also bake up beautifully as individual rolls ♥

Now, I usually brush my hot cross buns just out of the oven with warmed seived apricot jam and that is what I used on the first attempt you see. It does give a nice shiny, glossy finish but can leave them a bit sticky. This time I decided to use the more traditional sugar syrup glaze but with a tiny pinch of cinnamon added. The pull apart rolls may not look very glossy though as I was in a rush and miscalculated the amount of water and essentially just brushed water over and not a syrup! Ooops... As you can see from the individual rolls I made the next day the syrup (done properly) leaves the buns nice and glossy. 

Leave them to cool then make up the maple glaze by simply stirring everything together. It should be runny but at the same time fairly thick. Spoon some of the icing up, let the first blob fall back into the bowl then run the icing over the marked 'X's on the buns. Dont' worry if it gets a bit messy and it is supposed to fall into the gaps between the buns - it all adds to the flavour!

Leave the icing a bit to set then pull out a roll and slice - see the lovely texture?

As with all hot cross buns, these are best toasted and slathered with vegan butter. With the icing on these the best way to do these is in the oven under the grill.

While they are toasting get your tea or coffee ready and enjoy :-)

♥

Nutritional Information: based on 1 bun.

Calories: 208

Protein: 5.3g

Fat: 3.3g

Sat Fat: 0.7g

Fibre: 2.2g

Carbs: 40g

Sugar: 15.5g

Sodium: 112mg

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Easter Egg Cakelets

Happy Easter!!!

Sure! They look cute, and I can assure you they taste fantastic, but mark my words - I will NEVER make these again!!! Sigh....I had such good intentions: making my snowball cake pops into egg shapes, colouring melted vegan white chocolate in pretty pastel colours and coating them, then decorating the cakelets like traditional easter eggs. Sounded like a good idea and a great way for vegan kids to get into the fun of decorating easter eggs.

Well, here's what went wrong - as you can see in the picture they are not smooth at all!! Some came out ok but mostly they are lumpy and stringy looking. That's not the cake - they were nice and smooth but rather the chocolate went on like that. Now this did NOT happen with the snowball cake pops - they were very easy to make. I think it may have been that the cakes were well chilled from the fridge and the chocolate still warm from being melted. So when I tried to dip them the chocolate instantly started to set and I couldn't get a smooth finish. I also think the cake pops were easier to coat as they were on sticks. I had to dip these by hand and the thick sticky chocolate made it very hard to even get them out of the bowl! I started off coating them all in plain white chocolate then set about dipping them in coloured white chocolate.

Problem two. Some of the colours incorporated into the melted white chocolate just fine, others, caused the chocolate to instantly seize up rendering it unusable and had to be dumped. The yellow was the particular problem here - not only did it seize up but it was a 'natural' yellow colouring made from turmeric which made the chocolate taste absolutely disgusting!! You can see some yellow eggs there but they were made by me taking the seized up chocolate and warming it up in my hands then pressing it over the egg, just for the photo. Seriously.

Now those of you who read my blog regularly will guess that I am really a very patient cook. I have no problem taking a couple days to make french fancies or other such fiddly creations but even I had to admit defeat here! So I stopped after colouring them as faffing about decorating them just seemed pointless.

On the plus side, like I said, they tasted fantastic, as did the snowball cake pops and I finally got to try making these non-alcoholic. The recipe in the Canadian Living magazine said to replace the rum with apple juice to make non-alcoholic. I was quite sceptical about this as naturally those two things taste very different. I'm happy to report it works just fine - they tasted wonderful! Personally I did prefer the rum soaked cakes, especially with the coconut, but these were very good too.

Recipe is the exact same from my Snowball Cake Pops but made into egg shapes and not put on a stick. I also didn't coat them in coconut or anything and used apple juice instead of rum. Which, by the way, I accidentally had the rum listed at 180ml, it's supposed to be 80ml!!! Good god, I hope none of you tried to make them with that figure, those would be some very rummy cakes indeed!! (Or some of you had a good Christmas ;)

♥

Nutritional Analysis: per 1 cakelet if you get 23 out of the recipe (approximate as I'm unsure exactly how much white chocolate I ended up using, having to dump so much)

Calories: 92

Carbs: 11.9g

Fat: 4.5g

Sat Fat: 1.7g

Protein: 0.9g

Fibre: 0.6g

Sugar: 3.8

Sodium: 48.2mg

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Easter Cookies

♥ aka - keeping the boy busy during half term! ♥

So as I have the boy home for 2 weeks decided to make some Easter cookies. Nothing new here, it's the same recipe as my Christmas Cookies but cut out using Easter/Spring shapes and colours. We spent the day before making paper easter eggs (as we never have real eggs in the house!) which he really enjoyed and loved this even more, possibly as he got to eat treats whilst decorating :) I loved his idea of using sliced strawberry lances for buttons - clever boy he is!

♥

Hot Cross Buns

** 2012 - Edit: Easter is fast approaching and I will be trying these again soon without the egg replacer as I no longer bake with it and I'm sure these will work just fine without :-) Stay tuned!

Success! For a new variation without egg replacer I've now made Apple and Cinnamon Pull Apart Hot Cross Buns with Maple Icing!

Now I know you can buy what appear to be vegan hot cross buns in the grocery stores but I'm very picky about mine. I hate peel. Can't stand the stuff in my baked goods, and I much prefer icing piped into the cross over dough strips. So, after being tempted by all the hot cross buns in the shops decided to make my own. I used, as my mom does, the recipe from the brilliant Purity Foods Cookbook, a 1960's Canadian cookbook with fantastic bread and baking recipes in it. It did call for 1 egg which I used egg replacer but I really don't think it would be missed in this. The recipe was supposed to make 18 but I made 12 underestimating how much bigger they would get during the second rise and baking. So I made rather huge hot cross buns, but worse things have happened! They are delicious too, only have raisins and spiced with cinnamon and cloves with just a hint of sweet icing on top. I further borrowed an idea elsewhere to get the nice shiny glaze on them by brushing them with warmed, sieved apricot jam - worked brilliantly as they did come out much duller than what you see.

Makes 18 (normal sized buns)
3/4 cup (180ml) dairy free milk, I used rice
1 Tbsp and 1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup vegan margarine (55g)
1/2 cup sugar (118g)
20g egg replacer (this is probably omitable)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 cup raisins (80g)
2 - 2 1/4 cups more flour
apricot jam
3/4 cup icing sugar
1 - 2 Tbsp oat cream or soy
1/4 tsp vanilla

Heat the milk until just about simmering, pour into a large bowl and add 1 Tbsp sugar, stir till dissolved and set aside to cool to lukewarm. Meanwhile dissolve 1 tsp sugar in 1/2 cup warm water and sprinkle over the yeast. Let stand for 10 minutes, it should get nice and bubbly. Add this to the milk mixture and stir. Add 1 1/2 cups of flour and whisk until very smooth (also add the egg replacer at this stage if using). Cover and let rise until light and bubbly in a warm place, about 45 minutes.

Cream together the margarine and sugar and add to the mixture with the salt, cinnamon, cloves, raisins and if using egg replacer about 50ml water. Then add another 2 - 2 1/4 cups flour working the last of it in with your hands. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes or until nice and elastic, adding more flour if needed. Shape into a smooth ball and place into a greased bowl. Cover with cling film and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour in a warm place.

Punch down the dough and turn onto a lightly floured surface, cut into 2 equal pieces and shape into smooth balls. Cover and let rest 10 minutes. Divide each ball of dough into 9 equal pieces and shape each into a slightly flattened bun. Arrange on lined baking sheets 2" apart. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes. These last 2 risings do not have to be somewhere warm. Preheat the oven to 200C / 400F. Brush each bun with diary free milk then slash the tops with a cross. Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden and sound hollow when tapped.

Let cool on wire racks then whisk together the icing sugar, oat cream and vanilla. Place into piping bag and pipe over the crevices. Leave to set, although you can still ice and eat these when they are warm, the icing doesn't melt too much!