Cakes & Bakes: Rachel’s easy buns

We’ve just been on one of our short visits back to our old stomping grounds. Well, we’ve been there every month since we moved, so hardly old stomping grounds. There’s an antiques centre space to check on, more stuff to collect from storage… and buns to eat! Do you call them buns, cupcakes or something else? We stay at Justin’s mum’s, where his sister Rachel is also to be found in her role as carer. She’s a great baker and often knocks up batches of these tasty treats.

She has a quick, simple recipe incorporating self-raising flour, sugar and eggs… with the addition of any other suitable ingredients that take your fancy. Sultanas, raisins, cherries, coconut, lemon, cocoa, various essences. The list of Rachel’s easy buns options isn’t quite endless, but could fill a page or two of this post!

I didn’t have any self-raising flour after a mouse got into my dry store, so just added ½ a teaspoon of baking powder to 100 grams of plain flour – a good little tip if you find yourself in the same predicament!

It’s a simple, one bowl mixing job – then spoon the batter into the paper cases and bake. It couldn’t be easier. And another tip that you might like to try; Rachel never cools them on a wire rack. She always puts them straight under a glass dome where they cool slowly and retain their moisture and softness. I made half a dozen with sultanas added to the mix and half a dozen spread (after baking) with damson jam and dipped in toasted coconut. Delicious!

Click here to save Rachel’s easy buns recipe to Pinterest

Rachel's easy buns

2019-11-20 16:48:50

Yields 10

Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

20 min

Total Time

30 min

Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

20 min

Total Time

30 min

Ingredients

100g/3½oz butter, softened
100g/3½oz caster sugar
100g/3½oz self-raising flour
2 eggs

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/Gas mark 4
Cream the butter and the sugar
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating all the time. Add a dessert spoonful of the flour after each egg if the mixture looks like it's going to split
Mix in the flour until fully combined
Spoon the mixture into bun cases, put them in the oven and cook for 20 minutes or until the buns have turned a lovely golden brown
Do not cool on a wire rack. Instead, put the buns under a lidded cake dome or cover with an upturned mixing bowl until cool

Notes

Covering the buns straight out of the oven makes them super-soft

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Panipopo

I’ve been seeing recipes for panipopo sweeping by on my Pinterest feed for quite a while. I’ve never really stopped & clicked because I thought that the sweetened coconut bread would be too wet and sickly sweet.

How wrong I was! I’m glad I read some of the comments remarking on how delicious it is and how ex-pat islanders hanker after it when they’re far away from home.

Panipopo (or pani-popo or pani popo) is a Polynesian bread originating from Samoa or Hawaii – depending on who you believe.

I thought that all that liquid would make for a soggy bread, but most of it is absorbed by the dough in cooking. The liquid that is left turns into a thick, unctuous, syrupy sauce. We weren’t sure what to eat it with – I chose to have it as it comes, dunking it in more of the sauce that I’d reserved. Justin went all adventurous and had his with a little bit of Cambozola… he reckons it’s a winner.

Here’s the recipe – why don’t you have a go? Let us know what you think!

Panipopo

SamoaFood.com

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Cook Time 25

Course Bread

Cuisine Polynesian

Ingredients

For the dough

7 g/¼oz active dry yeast
240 ml/8½ fl oz warm water
450 g/16oz plain or bread flour
50 g/1¾oz caster sugar
½ tsp salt
1 egg
2 tbsp vegetable oil

For the coconut sauce

200 ml/7 fl oz tinned coconut milk check the tin, mine was already diluted to 50% coconut milk, 50% water
200 ml/7 fl oz water omit this if your coconut milk is already diluted
100 g/3½oz caster sugar

Instructions

For the dough

In a measuring jug, stir the yeast into the warm water and leave for 10 minutes
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt
In another measuring jug, lightly mix the egg and vegetable oil
Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the wet ingredients. Combine well, adding a little more flour if the dough is too sticky
Empty out the dough on to a floured surface and knead for 10-20 minutes until smooth and elastic
Put the dough back into the mixing bowl, cover with cling film or put inside a large plastic bag. Leave in a warm place to prove until doubled in size
Grease a large, deep rectangular or round baking tin. Set aside
Punch the dough down and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface
Roll the dough into a long rectangle, roll it up and slice it into 2.5cm/1-inch or any even-sized rounds
Put the rounds into the baking tin, cover with cling film or put into a large plastic bag and allow to prove until doubled in size
Wile the bread is proving, preheat the oven to 180ºC/375°F/Gas mark 4

For the coconut sauce

In a large measuring jug, combine the coconut milk, water (if using) and sugar and stir until all the sugar has dissolved
When the dough has doubled in size, pour the coconut sauce evenly over the dough
Bake for 25-30 minutes until the top of the bread is has turned a golden brown
Allow them to cool in the tin for at least an hour before serving

Keyword bread, coconut, Panipopo

Cakes & Bakes: Express rolls

I’ve nicknamed these dinner rolls ‘express rolls’.

From start to finish they take 60 minutes or less to make.

What other people call them depends on where they are or where they’re from. To me, they’re bread rolls…

To people from ‘up north’ they’re barms, barm cakes or muffins.

If they were a bit wider and flatter they’d be oven bottoms or oven bottom muffins. If they had a crusty top they’d be cobs.

Other people may say nonsense to all those terms and call them baps or buns.

Whatever you chose to call them, they’re soft and delicious straight out of the oven.

They’re perfect little rolls for having with a bowl of soup, making an afternoon sandwich or as mini-burger buns.

It’s a foolproof way of speeding up the proving process that I’ll definitely use again in the future!

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Express rolls

2017-03-10 11:41:35

Yields 15

Prep Time

40 min

Cook Time

15 min

Prep Time

40 min

Cook Time

15 min

Ingredients

525g/18½oz bread flour
50g/1¾oz granulated sugar
1tbsp dry active yeast
1½tsp salt
175ml/6 fl oz water
155ml/5½ fl oz milk
60g/oz butter, diced
1½ tsp lemon juice
20g/oz butter, melted

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 85ºC/180ºF/Gas mark ⅕
In the bowl of an electric food mixer, gently combine the flour, sugar, yeast and salt making a well in the centre
Add the water, milk and butter to a medium-sized mixing bowl and heat in a microwave on high for about 1 minute
Stir to partially melt butter and to make sure it's softened
Pour the milk mixture into the well of the dry mixture and add the lemon juice
Attach the dough hook before setting the mixer on low, gradually increasing to medium-low
Mix for about 3-4 minutes until the dough is smooth & elastic
Cover the bowl with cling film/Saran wrap and allow to rest for 5 minutes
Grease a 30cm x 23cm (13" x 9") baking tin
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, shape into an evenly level square, about 20cm²
Cut into 16 equal(ish) portions and shape into 15 balls, using the excess dough from the 16th piece to add to smaller rounds as needed
Put the dough balls into the prepared baking tin
Using a pastry brush, brush the tops of the dough with water
Put the tin in the oven, close the oven door and turn the oven off
Allow the rolls to rise in the oven for 20 minutes
Remove the rolls from the oven and preheat to 190ºC/375ºF/Gas mark 5
Bake in for 15 minutes until the tops have turned a golden brown
Remove from the oven and brush the tops of the rolls with the melted butter
Serve straight away or allow to cool before storing in a cool place in an airtight container

Adapted from Cooking Classy

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/