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We’ve prob­a­bly all sang that lit­tle ditty at some time in our lives.  I know we did when we were kids grow­ing up in Aus­tralia.  Bread often plays a major role in hol­i­day and reli­gious obser­vances. The hot cross bun is tra­di­tional Lenton bread, its exact ori­gins unknown. Some say that it has pagan ori­gins, the cross rep­re­sent­ing the moon and its four quar­ters. Anglo-Saxons ate the sacra­men­tal buns in honor of their god­dess Eas­t­ore. When the Romans arrived in Britain, the clergy tried to stop the use of the sacra­men­tal buns, but could not. So they blessed them and gave the cross on the buns a Chris­t­ian mean­ing. Tra­di­tion­ally these buns are dec­o­rated with dough piped across the top before bak­ing, not a sweet icing as is com­monly seen. A thin glaze brushed over the buns pro­vides the added sweetness.

Yield: 30 Rolls

Ingre­di­ents:

Dough
10 ounces Golden raisins
10 ounces Dark raisins
3 ounces Can­died orange peel
2 lb. 4 oz. Bread flour
4 ounces Short­en­ing
3 1/2 ounces Gran­u­lated sugar
10 grams Dough con­di­tioner, optional
2 ounces Dry milk pow­der
2 3/4 ounces Com­pressed yeast
1 Table­spoon Salt
2 Eggs
1 tea­spoon Vanilla extract
1 tea­spoon Car­damom, ground
1 tea­spoon All­spice, ground
2 tea­spoons Gin­ger, ground
1 Table­spoon Cin­na­mon, ground
19 fluid ounces Water

Cross Dough
4 ounces Pas­try flour
3/4 ounce Short­en­ing
3 1/2 fluid ounces Milk

6 fluid ounces Bun Glaze

Method:

1.    Place the raisins and can­died orange peel in a small bowl and cover with hot water. Let soften in the water for 5 min­utes. Drain the water and let the fruit con­di­tion for 2 to 4 hours before using. Set aside.

2.    Place the flour, short­en­ing, sugar, dough con­di­tioner, if using, dry milk pow­der, yeast, salt, eggs, vanilla extract and spices in the bowl of a mixer fit­ted with the dough hook. Add the water and mix the dough on low speed for 3 min­utes until moist­ened. Stop the machine and scrape the bowl. Add addi­tional flour if nec­es­sary to cre­ate a soft dough. Mix the dough on medium speed for 6 to 7 min­utes until it is soft and pliable.

3.    Add the con­di­tioned fruit and mix the dough on low speed until the fruit is well dis­trib­uted in the dough. If nec­es­sary, dust the dough lightly with more flour to help the fruit incorporate.

4.    Scrape the dough onto a flour-dusted work­bench. Cover and fer­ment for 30 min­utes. Deflate the dough and fold it into thirds then let it rest for another 15 minutes.

5.    Divide the dough into 3–1/2-ounce (100-gram) pieces. Round the dough into tight rolls with a smooth top sur­face. Place the formed rolls, seam side down on a paper-lined half sheet pan. Posi­tion them in rows on the tray, 5 rolls by 6 rolls so that the rolls touch when fully proofed.

6.    Proof the rolls with low humid­ity until dou­bled in size, approx­i­mately 50 minutes.

7.    While the rolls proof, pre­pare the cross dough. Com­bine the pas­try flour, short­en­ing and milk in the bowl of a mixer fit­ted with a pad­dle attach­ment. Mix on medium speed until the short­en­ing is well blended and the dough is lump free.

8.    When the rolls have proofed, scoop the cross mix­ture into a pas­try bag fit­ted with a plain tip. Quickly pipe a cross over the sur­face of each roll.

9.    Bake at 375°F (190°C) until the rolls are a rich brown color, approx­i­mately 15 minutes.

10.    Brush the hot rolls gen­er­ously with the chilled Bun Glaze, mak­ing cer­tain they are well coated so that no dry spots appear when the glaze dries.

Source: On Bak­ing — Laben­sky et. al.

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Here’s a thought that crossed my spoiled mind this evening. What if, say, like my fam­ily in Aus­tralia, I can’t just run to the store and grab a box of red vel­vet cake mix off the shelf. I’ve obvi­ously for­got­ten that it wasn’t that many years ago that I didn’t even know what a red vel­vet cake was! Imag­ine that.

This week I received an email from a fel­low cake maker who asked me to share my favourite red vel­vet cake recipe since she wasn’t able to buy a box mix. Fel­low bak­ers give me mixed reac­tions when I openly admit to using (insert scary music here).… red vel­vet cake out of a box!! Well, I do and I’m not afraid to say it. Why not? It’s bad enough get­ting cov­ered in red cake mix, which I usu­ally do, with­out hav­ing to mess with red food colour­ing when mea­sur­ing it out for a “from scratch” recipe.

Actu­ally, there is a lit­tle his­tory to my dread of red…  I used to own a small bak­ery in Aus­tralia and had left some dec­o­rat­ing items out on the din­ing table in my brand new din­ing room, in my brand new home.  To cut a long story short, my youngest daugh­ter was a climber and the result was red food colour­ing all over her and the brand new car­pet!  We bleached it out and then had to dye the car­pet back lov­ingly with teabags.  So you might now under­stand my dis­like of red food colour­ing, even if red is my favourite color!

Ok, back to the cake at hand.  I tend to look at box cake mixes as a start­ing point, and usu­ally tweak them by chang­ing out the oil with apple sauce for instance, and adding my own flavour­ings, add-ins etc. I’m sure the good peo­ple at Dun­can Hines, Betty Crocker and Pills­bury didn’t just whip them together in five min­utes. It is my under­stand­ing that they have spent years per­fect­ing their mixes for our con­ve­nience. And very often that is the time I have no com­punc­tion in reach­ing for one.

Sure there is noth­ing quite like a del­i­cately cre­ated sponge or genoise but there are times when I just need to get out two dozen cup­cakes in a hurry and trust me, 5 year olds very rarely call me out on using a box cake mix over a scratch baked cake. Their beam­ing lit­tle faces cov­ered in frost­ing are all the proof I need that some­times, it’s ok.

So let’s get this red vel­vet cake made!

Ingre­di­ents:

• 1/4 cup dutch processed (dark) cocoa powder
• 2 table­spoons red gel food coloring
• 1/4 cup hot water
• 6 table­spoons unsalted but­ter ( softened)
• 2 table­spoons veg­etable shortening
• 1 2/3 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 tea­spoon pure vanilla extract
• 2  1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 tea­spoon salt
• 1 table­spoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 tea­spoon bak­ing soda

Method:

Pre­heat oven to 325°. Line muf­fin pan with paper liners.

Whisk together cocoa pow­der, food col­or­ing, and hot water. Set aside to cool.

In the bowl of your elec­tric mixer fit­ted with a pad­dle attach­ment, cream but­ter and short­en­ing until smooth. Scrape down bowl and add sugar. Beat until mix­ture is light and fluffy, about 5 min­utes. Add eggs, one at a time, beat­ing well after each addition.

Stir but­ter­milk and vanilla into the cooled cocoa mix­ture. Sift cake flour and salt together into another bowl. With the mixer on low, alter­nate adding the flour mix­ture (in 3 parts) and the cocoa mix­ture (in 2 parts) to the egg mix­ture. Beat until incor­po­rated.  Com­bine vine­gar and bak­ing soda and stir until bak­ing soda dis­solves; the mix­ture will fizz. Add to bat­ter and stir until just combined.

Fill cup­cake pans 2/3 full with bat­ter. Bake 20 to 25 min­utes, or until a tooth­pick inserted in the cen­ter comes out clean. Remove from oven, trans­fer to a wire rack, and let cool for 10 min­utes. Remove cup­cakes from pan, and let cool completely.

___________

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As a Food­buzz Fea­tured Pub­lisher I had received a great coupon from Pep­peridge Farms and wanted to make a meal around their pas­try.  Easy!  Chicken Pot Pie.  I used my coupon to buy the frozen sheets of pas­try and lined two pie plates, made my fill­ing and topped with two puff pas­try lids.  Deli­cious, quick and very affordable!

Ingre­di­ents:

1.5 T olive oil
2 cups diced onion
1 cup cel­ery
1 tsp. minced gar­lic
4T all-purpose flour
1 ea. 10 oz bag  frozen peas and car­rots
2 cups chicken stock or strong veg­etable broth
2 cups diced chicken

1 pack­age Pep­peridge Farms puff pas­try
Melted but­ter as needed

Method:

Using a small stock pot, heat oil and sauté onion and cel­ery until translu­cent.
Add the diced chicken and cook until done.
Add gar­lic and sauté two min­utes more.
Add flour and stir with a wooden spoon until well incor­po­rated.
Pour in stock and stir.
Sim­mer until fill­ing has thick­ened.
Sea­son with salt and pep­per to taste.
Add remain­ing veg­eta­bles and stir until all is cooked thru.

Roll out pie crust and cut it about 1/2 an inch larger than the pie plate  you are using.  Add some of the fill­ing.  I usu­ally fill it almost to the edge.  I do brush the edge of the bot­tom pie shell with egg wash and then add the top crust, also rolled out to be a bit larger than the plate.  Secure the top crust to the bot­tom with a fork or by a fold­ing method whichever you are used to.

Bake in pre-heated 400° oven until the crust is nice and golden as you want to make sure the bot­tom crust is cook­ing also.  The fill­ing is already cooked so you just have to ensure that it is warmed through espe­cially if you had pre-made it and it was refrigerated.

When you have a nice dark golden colour on your pas­try you can remove it and serve it up!

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After many emails and requests on how to do this I am going to do a quick post.  I have used coloured sug­ars on many cook­ies and cup­cakes and it’s really sim­ple to make your own.  I’ve even made it with a pearl­ized sheen.  It all depends on the food colour­ing you choose.  The main thing to keep in mind is that you must use a POWDERED form of food colour­ing.  Any liq­uids or gels will just melt the sugar and you’ll have a colour­ful but sticky mess.

I try to buy a coarsely ground sugar for my dec­o­rat­ing sug­ars just so it gives a lit­tle more impact, or you can always use reg­u­lar white sugar if that’s all you can buy or have on hand.

To be on the safe side you should prob­a­bly start off with just a lit­tle of the food col­or­ing and see what shade you get after you shake it (with the lid on tightly of course!).  You can then adjust it and make it darker by adding a lit­tle more col­or­ing until you get the desired shade you are after.

Store your sug­ars in a dry space so they don’t clump up from moisture.

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Hubby has a work Hol­i­day party tomor­row so I decided to make cook­ies instead of cup­cakes for a change.  Plus, who can resist some of the great cookie recipes syn­ony­mous with this time of year.  I went with a tried and true favourite — the peanut but­ter cookie with a choco­late kiss pushed into the top.  While at the store buy­ing kisses I saw the white and red striped pep­per­mint vari­ety and thought how fun they would look in a choco­late cookie, so I made those also.

Here are the two quickie recipes which will have you rolling in cook­ies in very short order:

Like I said, after see­ing how cute the pep­per­mint kisses were I just had to make a choco­late cookie to put them on.  I had some red dec­o­ra­tor sugar in the pantry and rolled just the tops of the cookie balls into that before bak­ing for some extra hol­i­day sparkle.

Choco­late Pep­per­mint Kiss Cook­ies

Ingre­di­ents: 2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 cup unsweet­ened cocoa 1 tea­spoon bak­ing powder 1/4 tea­spoon salt 8 ounces unsalted but­ter (2 sticks), softened 1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed 2/3 cup gran­u­lated sugar 2 large eggs 1 tea­spoon vanilla extract 1 choco­late kiss for each cookie

Method:

1.  Sift together the flour, cocoa, bak­ing pow­der, and salt and place aside.

2.  Cream together the but­ter and sug­ars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beat­ing after each addi­tion. Beat in vanilla.

3.  On low speed, beat in flour mix­ture a lit­tle at a time, until well blended and smooth.

4.  Drop choco­late cookie dough onto greased bak­ing sheets or sil­i­cone mat by rounded tea­spoons, about 2 inches apart.   I rolled mine in coloured dec­o­ra­tor sugar before plac­ing them on the tray.

5.  Bake at 350° for 12 to 15 min­utes, or until set.

Gen­tly push a kiss into each cookie as soon as they come out of the oven.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

***TIP***  If you don’t have the coloured dec­o­ra­tor sugar avail­able you can make your own but you will still need pow­dered food colour­ing to add to reg­u­lar white sugar.  Place 1 cup of white sugar into a con­tainer with a tight fit­ting lid and to that add about 1/4 tea­spoon of pow­dered food colour­ing.  Shake the con­tainer until the white sugar turns coloured.  Of course you can adjust the amount of food colour­ing to make stronger or paler colours.

Peanut But­ter Choco­late Kiss Cookie 

Ingre­di­ents:

• 1/2 cup of unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup peanut but­ter (I like to use crunchy but we only had smooth on hand)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tea­spoon bak­ing soda
• 1 tea­spoon salt
• Her­sheys Kisses — 1 for each cookie

Method:

1.   Pre­heat the oven to 375°F.
2.  Cream together but­ter, both sug­ars and peanut but­ter.
3.  Add the egg and vanilla.
4.  Add flour, bak­ing soda and salt.
5.  Form into small wal­nut sized balls.
6.  Roll in white sugar and place them on a cookie sheet.
7.  Bake for 8 to 10 min­utes.
8.  Press Her­shey Kiss into each cookie when fresh out of the oven.Makes about 2 1/2 dozen.

***TIP*** It really helps to have removed the foil wrap­pers from the kisses BEFORE the cook­ies come out of the oven.  I did it for the first batch but was scram­bling to get them unwrapped for the sec­ond batch before the  cook­ies cooled too much as they break up more when push­ing in the kisses if too cool.

Also, some recipes say to return the cook­ies to the oven for a minute once the kisses are on the cookie but I really don’t pre­fer this as the kisses lost their point and looked more like the teats off a baby bot­tle… um no.  You can see the dif­fer­ence in the two pho­tos since I didn’t do it on the choco­late pep­per­mint cookies.

Have a won­der­ful time mak­ing these cook­ies for your fam­ily and friends!  I know I did.  As always, your email ques­tions are most welcome.

~Colleen

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How delighted I am to have had my Super Strawberry-licious Cake included in Chackos Kitchen’s 30 best recipe dis­cov­er­ies of 2009!  Be sure to visit Abraham’s blog and view his selec­tion of top recipes and his own great recipes and nutri­tion information.

Thank you Abraham!