May I introduce you to Apple Doodle? Thank you. We had this a lot during my childhood and I never tired of it. It’s a sponge sweetened with golden syrup and punctuated with the sharpness of Bramley apple;  served, of course, with lashings of Bird’s custard. The golden syrup adds a surprisingly significant extra layer of flavour to it – takes it from the standard baked sponge pudding to one with a real character.

First, cream your butter and sugar, then add 2 tbsp golden syrup and beat that in too.

Add 1 tbsp of your measured flour and two beaten eggs

Then fold in the remaining flour, apples and some lemon juice.

Looks a bit like culinary cement.

Into the bottom of your dish, put two tbsps golden syrup and spread it out a bit. Lick the spoon.

Spoon the thick mixture on top of the syrup and level the top off.

Bake for around 45 mins, until golden and smelling gorgeous.

Serve with a drowningly large portion of Birds’ Custard! Enjoy.

—

Golden Syrup Apple Doodle

PRINT THIS RECIPE (opens in a new window)

2 large eggs, (weighed in their shells, weight noted), lightly beaten
same weight in self-raising flour
same weight in unsalted butter
same weight in caster sugar
2 medium cooking apples, peeled and chopped
1 dessertspoon lemon juice
4 heaped tbsp golden syrup

Preheat oven to GM4/180C/350F, also lightly grease an ovenproof dish

Put 2 tbsp golden syrup in the bottom of your dish.

Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the remaining 2 tbsp golden syrup.
Add 1 tbsp of your flour and the beaten eggs.
Fold in the remaining flour, the chopped apples and lemon juice.

Put into dish and level the top.
Bake for around 45 mins, until golden and smelling gorgeous.

Serve with custard. Lots of it.

Now, I know and you know that this is an odd recipe to share in the height of a very warm Summer, but there is method to my madness.
1. We had had a salad week – that is, one piece of protein and lots of salad. I wanted something filling, darn it.
2. I fancied a substantial pudding but couldn’t bear the thought of an oven blasting away.
3. I saw a pot of tres posh ‘made-with-the-eggs-of-a-golden-hen-and-milk-from-the-Queen’s-cow-and-a-pod-of-vanilla-plucked-by-a-tame-cheetah’ custard and it was cheap. If someone else had bought it, they might have poured it over something horrible.
4. I had a dreg of raspberry jam in the bottom of the jar and the jar was annoying me in the fridge. It kept getting in the way. It even fell out of the fridge that morning, so its fate was sealed.

So, actually, this is an extremely sensible recipe for the height of Summer because it takes moments to make, doesn’t require an oven or hob and is jolly nice to eat after endless days of what is essentially the ritual munching of humans on glorified grass otherwise famed as ‘seasonal eating’. Seriously, I am this close to going off beetroot again. Don’t even talk to me about feta.

If you cannot stand the thought of eating a hot pudding in this weather, then be kind to yourself and print it out for Autumn. Having such a quick option for a pudding that usually takes hours to steam is invaluable.
-

Put the butter, caster sugar, eggs, flour and baking powder into the food processor, switch it on and blend to mix

Give it a scrape to get the stuff that always, but always, hides under the blades, then add the zest and juice of a lemon and a drop of milk – around a tablespoon – to get a nice dropping consistency.

Grease a 2 pint pudding basin and put about 3-4 tbsp raspberry jam in the bottom of it

Spoon/pour the mix on top and cover with clingfilm, but be sure to leave one part naked for the steam to escape

I have an 800watt microwave and full power for 4 minutes turned it into this bouncy, golden offering:

Leave it to stand for a good couple of minutes to allow the radiation to disperse (I don’t buy the ‘continuing to cook’ theory – if it ain’t witchcraft, then it’s radiation in my book), then do the ‘plate on top and wahay! flip it over’ trick. In fact, I generally do the ‘wahay! flip it over trick’ into a bowl to catch the scalding jam, but I’m cautious like that.

Cut a wedge, serve with custard and…

enjoy.

—-

Speedy Sponge Pudding

adapted from a Gary Rhodes and a James Martin recipe – I’m thorough.

PRINT THIS RECIPE (opens in a new window)

150g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
125g butter, melted or extremely soft (plus some to grease the pudding bowl)
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
zest and juice of a lemon (very nice ineed, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world if you didn’t have one to hand)
a drop of milk
4+ tbsp raspberry jam or any other jam, or lemon curd, or golden syrup…

Grease a 2 pint/1.2 l pudding (pyrex, in my case) bowl. Spoon 3-4 tbsp raspberry jam into the bottom.

Put the melted/very soft butter, sugar, eggs, flour and baking powder into the food processor and blend to a paste.

Add the zest and lemon juice and mix, add a drop of milk to achieve a nice dropping consistency.
Spoon/pour the mixture on top of the jam – the jam will try to move around, but just ignore it. Cover it with clingfilm, leaving a gap at one edge for the steam to escape.
Microwave on full power (my microwave is 800 watts) for around 4 mins, until the sponge is bouncy and has pulled away from the sides of the bowl.
Let it stand for a couple of minutes, then turn out.
Add some extra jam on top if you like, then serve in slices with custard, cream or ice cream.

Sticky cinnamon buns. A yeasted dough, curled up around a buttery, sugared, cinnamon filling, sporting a buttery, maple and golden syrup top. Did I mention the pecans too? Far, far less intimidating to make than it might appear, these are wow. Just wow.

Combine bread flour, sugar, salt and easy blend yeast in a large bowl.

Melt unsalted butter into milk and let it cool to blood temperature

Add two beaten eggs to the jug and stir it all into the flour mix

Remove from the bowl and on to a floured surface then knead for 10 minutes

until smoother and elastic

Put into a large, oiled bowl. Cover it and let it rise somewhere warm for around an hour.

Whilst it’s rising, make the filling – put soft unsalted butter into a bowl with light brown and caster sugar – not forgetting 1 tablespoon of cinnamon. Mmmmmmmmmm

and mix together to make the most heavenly scented paste

You’ll need a buttery syrup too – this is soft unsalted butter, light brown sugar and maple and golden syrup

all combined and ready to distribute amongst the muffin tins

So let’s do that. Now, depending on how large you like your buns (so to speak), you will distribute the syrup accordingly. The original recipe calls for 12 buns, therefore you would share the syrup amongst the 12 holes of the muffin tin. We, however, (and you won’t see this statement on my website very often) actually find them to be too big.

I know. Sit down and take a moment. I actually cut them smaller. Not only were they a bit big – that is, it was like having a meal rather than a snack – but in the oven they outgrew the muffin tins to the point of looking, frankly a bit silly and misshapen.

I aim to make the slices about 1″, which generally yields a very precise 17 buns. You have to laugh don’t you?

So, I smear 17 holes of 2 muffin tins with about 1 tsp of butter syrup, then share 100g chopped pecans amongst them. I left a couple devoid of pecans because Alex has taken against nuts.

If you’re not sure how many buns you want to make until you’ve seen their potential size, do this after you’ve sliced the dough.

Here’s the risen dough

Knock it down and on to a lightly floured surface again.

Knead it a few times just to get rid of any big air bubbles and generally smooth it again

Then roll it out into a large rectangle – somewhere in the region of 60 x 30cm – and take your cinnamon butter filling and slather it all over the dough. That sliver of work surface is my only working area and it isn’t 60cm long, so don’t fret over it.

Don’t worry about it not covering – it’s pretty thick

Roll it up into a swirly sausage from the long side and start cutting into slices – either into 12 slices if you want them huge, or into around 1″ slices if you want to get about 17 like I do.

Incidentally, I use a razor sharp knife and a gentle sawing action to avoid squashing the roll.

Sit each slice on top of your butter-syrup-pecan-smeared cup and whilst you’re at it, preheat the oven to GM4.

then cover loosely with some clingfilm and as the oven’s now on, let it sit in the warm kitchen for around 20 mins. It won’t rise tremendously, but it’ll get puffy looking and will fill the cup more fully.

Bake for 20-25 mins and then they’ll look like this…

Oh hello sailor.

That’s not even the business end – just hang on a minute.

Lay a large piece of parchment over the darlings and then cover that with a large roasting tin then flip the whole thing over. You want them upside down, see?

Because when they’re upside down, that means the buttery syrup and chopped pecans that you put in the cups is now on the top.

Golden.

Sticky.

And in this case, nut-free, buns

Licking your fingers afterwards is insufficient. Fainting with pleasure is possible. Giving half of these away was emotionally crippling. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

——

STICKY BUNS – schnecken

PRINT THIS RECIPE (opens in a new window)

(adapted from a recipe by Nigella Lawson)

dough:

500g strong bread flour

50g caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 (7g) sachet easy blend yeast

150ml milk

75g unsalted butter

2 large eggs

syrup:

150g unsalted butter

2 tablespoons soft light brown sugar

4 tablespoons maple syrup

3 tablespoons golden syrup

100g pecan pieces, chopped

filling:

150g unsalted butter, softened

50g caster sugar

100g soft light brown sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

2 x 12-hole muffin tins, buttered

parchment lined roasting tin for turning the buns out onto later – big enough to cover the muffin tin

Method:

Combine the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a large bowl.

Melt the butter in the milk and allow to cool to blood temperature, beat in the eggs and stir into the dry ingredients to make a dough.

Knead for 10 minutes or for 5 in a machine with a dough hook.

When it’s springy and satiny, form into a ball, put in an oiled bowl and cover with clingfilm. Leave in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Using an electric mixer, start the syrup. Beat the butter until soft and smooth and add the sugar, still beating.

Beat in the syrups and then divide the mixture between the muffin cups – about 1 tsp per cup. Smear the butter syrup across the bottom of each cup and half-way up the sides.

Top the butter syrup with the nuts in each cup.

Preheat the oven to 180C/ gas mark 4.

Blend the filling ingredients together in a small bowl.

When the dough’s risen, knock it back, knead once or twice to smooth and roll out into a large rectangle, somewhere in the region of 60 x 30cm. Keep at it – it will stretch eventually.

Spread the butter filling over the dough.

Roll up the rectangle from the long side, maintaining a firm, but not overly tight sausage shape.

You have options here. The original recipe suggests cutting the roll into 12 pieces, but we find that too large. So I cut them into approx 1” slices and pretty reliably get 17 buns. Odd.

Lay each slice swirly cut side up, on top of the nuts and butter-syrup in the muffin cups.

Leave to prove for about 20 minutes and when they’re slightly risen and puffy, then put into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, by which time they should be deliciously golden and cooked.

Lay a large piece of parchment paper the muffin tin to completely cover all the buns and place the roasting tin on top. Turn the whole thing the other way up and let it sit for a minute. Remove the muffin tin and reattach any stray nuts.

Serve whilst still warm. Any leftovers are best reheated in a low oven (or a quick blast in the microwave for the odd one or two).

]]> http://www.creamuntilfluffy.co.uk/sticky-buns/feed/ 4 http://www.creamuntilfluffy.co.uk/honeycomb-cinder-toffee/ http://www.creamuntilfluffy.co.uk/honeycomb-cinder-toffee/#comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:35:53 +0000 Anna http://www.creamuntilfluffy.co.uk/?p=1089

I’m sure there are lots of names for it. This is one of Nigella’s recipes and she calls it ‘hokey pokey’, so there you are. Make up a name and this is it.

We always called it honeycomb. Of course it has nothing to do with honey, but rather a lot to do with sugar and golden syrup. Fat free though – yes, really! Fat free! Unless you dip it in chocolate, but that’s a different matter.

Sweet, crunchy but chewy. And easy? Easy?! If you have 10 mins to spare and want to give someone a present that isn’t a box of dusty chocolates from the shop, then this is a choice to consider.

First, do yourself a favour and measure out 1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda).  Also, get an 8″ square tin out and butter it well.

Put 200g caster sugar and 4 tablespoons of golden syrup in a saucepan.

Stir it around to vaguely incorporate it,

then put the pan on a low-medium heat to melt. Don’t stir it from now on. Swirl if you must, but no stirring.

See? It’s just melting in the bottom right…

Melting well now (this is a matter of a couple of minutes, incidentally)

So now you let it simmer for 3-4 minutes, until it’s darker – about the colour of maple sugar – don’t let it get too dark though. ‘Twill burn.

You can’t see the true colour very well in this pic, because the bubbles are lighter, but allow me to assure you, it was darker.

Now whip it off the heat and thrust the tblsp of biacrb in and whisk it in rapidly, but calmly. This is hot sugar – over enthusiastic stirring results in scars.

Poooooooof! Swell! Flump! *insert other words that indicate the chemical reaction*

Pour/scrape the sugary lava into the greased tin

and allow it to set.

It will firm up as it cools, but that might take a couple..a few hours. Mine firmed up pretty quickly, but I declared it ‘done’ after the most intensive pestering from Alex. Is it done yet is it done yet is it done yet. You get the picture.

Fiddle around with it by easing the sides of the tin apart slightly, sticking a palette knife down the side then turning it over and thrusting it out of the tin on to a cutting board. There’s nothing to stop you cutting it in the tin, but I like this tin dude, so I’m not cutting anything in it!

Sweeeeeeeeeeeet. (Man, it’s sweet)

Crunchy (Crunchie) …sweeeeeeeeeet

Chop it, splinter it, lick it off the board, I don’t mind one bit. Nigella suggests sprinkling it on to, or spooning through, ice cream. Whatever – as long as you don’t sprinkle it on roast chicken, I don’t think you can go wrong.

If you’re in a homemade sweetie mood, have a look at the Brown sugar fudge…

———————

Honeycomb

PRINT THIS RECIPE (opens in a new window)

200g caster sugar
4 tblsp golden syrup
1 tblsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

8″ square tin, well buttered

Combine the sugar and syrup in a saucepan.
Put the saucepan on a low-medium heat and allow it to melt. Do not stir at all. Evermore.
Allow it to simmer for 3-4 mins until it darkens a little – no darker than maple syrup though.

Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the bicarb.
Pour it into the well greased tin and leave to cool and set. Something in the region of 3 hours.
Chop, splinter and cut with a knife. Store in an airtight tin. (ha! store it! right! )