Cakes & Bakes: Tea-soaked sultana buttermilk pancakes

These tea-soaked sultana buttermilk pancakes are a great weekend recipe. It’s when you have the time to hang around waiting for your dried fruit to rehydrate and plump up. It’s a drawn out process; frying off a stack of twelve, one at a time. We have three, identical little frying pans; so I juggle with cooking and flipping three at a time.

The secret to successful buttermilk pancake batter is to not over-mix it; a few lumps of flour here and there is a good thing. It should be thick and clumpy as it falls from your ladle or spout.

Letting the batter rest for half an hour or so before cooking allows for the buttermilk, bicarb and baking powder to interact which produces the light, airy, puffed up pancakes.

My recipe produces a dozen, 10cm/4-inch diameter pancakes – that should be enough for breakfast or brunch for three… or a pair of ravenous people. Serve with a sprinkling of sugar, lemon & sugar or drizzle of maple syrup over the top.

Click here or on the image below to save my tea-soaked sultana buttermilk pancakes recipe to Pinterest

Tea-soaked sultana buttermilk pancakes

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Course Breakfast

Cuisine British

Servings 3

Ingredients

250 ml strong hot tea
75 g/2½oz sultanas
125 g/4½oz plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp baking powder
20 g/¾oz sugar
½ tsp salt
300 g/10½oz buttermilk
1 medium egg lightly beaten
2 tbsp unsalted butter melted (and a little extra for the frying pan)

Instructions

Soak the sultanas in the tea for at least an hour
In a large measuring jug, combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, sugar and salt
Gently mix in the buttermilk, beaten egg and melted butter. Don't overmix
Fold in the soaked sultanas
Allow the mixture to stand for about ½ an hour
Heat a frying pan or skillet on a medium flame, add a little butter and pour/ladle about 115ml /4 fl oz to form each pancake
Allow to cook on one side for about a minute before flipping and cooking the other side
Repeat until all the batter has been used
Sprinkle with a little sugar and serve

Tea-soaked sultana buttermilk pancakes ingredients

Drizzle over a little maple syrup or honey & lemon

Keyword buttermilk, pancakes

Cakes & Bakes: Coconut sultana oat cookies

Justin often cooks porridge with added coconut and sultanas for breakfast. He thought it would be a great idea to use the same ingredients to make coconut sultana oat cookies.

The number of cookies my recipe yields really depends on the size of your dough balls. Mine were somewhere between the size of a large marble and a ping-pong ball.

I made 16, largish cookies; don’t forget to give each ball lots of space away from its neighbours, they spread quite a bit during the cooking process.

They turned out beautifully – they looked delicious, smelled delicious and – you guessed it – tasted delicious!

Just the right amount of sweetness and crunch, the addition of the small amount of medium oats gave a lovely bite to the consistency.

Click here or on the image below to save my coconut sultana oat cookies recipe to Pinterest

Coconut sultana oat cookies

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Cook Time 10

Course Snack

Cuisine British

Servings 16

Ingredients

135 g/4¾oz butter softened
125 g/4½oz sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 medium egg
125 g/4½oz plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
25 g/¾oz medium oats
35 g/1¼oz sultanas
25 g/¾oz desiccated coconut

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 175ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
Grease & line a large baking sheet
In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
Add the vanilla extract and egg to the mixture and combine well
Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda into the mixture, add the medium oats and fold in using a flexible spatula
Add the sultanas and desiccated coconut and fold in until well mixed
Form spoonfuls of the cookie dough into balls in the palms of your hands and place them well apart on the lined baking sheet. Press the tops of them down ever so slightly
Put the tray into the centre of your oven and cook for 10-12 minutes until the cookies are a golden brown
Remove from the oven, leaving the cookies on the tray for a couple of minutes. Transfer the cookies on to a wire rack to cool completely
Follow stages until all the cookie dough has been used

They can be stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days

Keyword coconut, cookies, oats, sultanas

Cakes & Bakes: Sultana loaf cake

I’ve made a fair few tea loaf cakes over the years, but Justin has voted this sultana loaf cake the best. I’d planned to cook a completely different cake, but at the last minute realised I didn’t have all the necessary ingredients. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise!

The sultana cake consists of 8 simple ingredients that you should already have in your fridge and kitchen cupboard.

It’s a doddle to prepare; simply cream the butter & sugar, add everything else except the milk, which you add at the end to thin the batter to just the right consistency. I’d imagine this cake would be equally fantastic if you used glacé cherries instead of sultanas… I just may try that next week.

Click here or on the image below to save this sultana loaf cake recipe

Sultana loaf cake

2020-10-12 17:14:40

Serves 8

Cook Time

1 hr

Cook Time

1 hr

Ingredients

115g/4oz butter, softened
115g/4oz of caster sugar
3 eggs
2 tbsps golden syrup
285g/10oz of self-raising flour
170g/6oz sultanas
Itsp almond essence
140ml/5fl oz/¼pint of milk

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Instructions

Cream butter and sugar
Add eggs and golden syrup and beat
Stir in self-raising flour, sultanas and almond essence
Add the milk and mix to a dropping consistency
Top with a sprinkling of granulated sugar then bake for around 1 hour at 175ºC/350ºF/gas mark 4

Adapted from Remembering the Old Walys

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

Cakes & Bakes: Walnut and sultana loaf

I’ve decided to make a walnut and sultana loaf this week by tweaking a basic white bread recipe that I regularly use. I didn’t have enough white flour in store so I substituted a quarter with wholemeal. It was a good decision as it added to the nuttiness of the finished loaf.

Sliced or torn pieces of this bread will go amazingly well with a mild, creamy blue cheese such as Dolcelatte, Saint Agur or Roquefort.

Another good option would be a couple of dipping bowls of good quality olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Once the loaf’s a couple of days old, have it toasted and spread with butter and honey.

Walnut and sultana loaf

2017-03-10 18:29:46

Ingredients

7g/¼oz fast action yeast
1tsp sugar
300ml/10½fl oz warm water
500g/18oz strong bread flour
1tsp salt
50g/1¾oz chopped walnuts
50g/1¾oz sultanas

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Instructions

In a measuring jug, stir the yeast and sugar into the warm water. Leave for 10 minutes for the yeast to begin working
In a large mixing bowl add the flour. Make a well in the centre
Add the liquid and knead until a smooth ball of dough is formed (I used my Kenwood mixer with dough hook attachment on a low speed for about 10 minutes, but you can do it by hand on a floured work surface for about 20 minutes)
Cover the mixing bowl with cling film or put it into a large, clear plastic bag and leave in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size.
Add the salt, chopped walnuts and sultanas and knead lightly until the fruit & nuts are evenly distributed through the dough
Place in a greased loaf tin (or in a well-floured banneton like I did) and re-cover and allow to prove again until doubled in size
Preheat the oven to 260ºC/500ºF/Gas mark 10, put an empty roasting dish on the bottom shelf of the oven and fill a cup with cold water and set aside
Once the loaf has risen, if using a banneton, grease a baking sheet and gently decant the loaf on to it, trying not to knock any air out of it
Quickly & carefully pour the cup of water into the roasting dish before putting the loaf into the oven
After 10 minutes, turn the oven down to 200ºC/ 400ºF/Gas mark 6
Bake for a further 20-25 minutes before taking it out of the oven
Leave to cool on a wire rack for at least half an hour before use

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