Sticky Toffee Maple Sticky Buns for Maine Maple Sunday March 24th

OH MY!!!!! You do need to try these!!

When I first started baking I was leery of trying anything with yeast as it seemed so complicated and I thought you needed a degree in baking to make it work but slowly over the years I have tried more and more yeasted recipes and they have started to work for me - this one is a winner and always works out perfectly - won't you try it even if you too are made a little anxious but the mention of using yeast. I am doing these in honour of Maine Maple Sunday March 24th when many of the sugar houses in Maine are open to the public and you can watch the divine elixir being created from thousands of gallons of sap - or as in my own case from a couple of gallons :)

Yes the sap does get frozen in the tap on these chilly March nights. Each year I tap my one big maple tree and 'sugar down' on our trusty wood stove so we end up with a quart or so of our own lovely Maple Syrup - yum!!!!

For the best Sticky Buns EVER - gleaned from the best magazine EVER, British Country Living - I give you:

 Sticky Toffee Sticky Maple Bunnage Galore

RECIPE: Makes 12 buns – recipe easily cuts in half for 6 (I made a half recipe for this post and it worked perfectly) – you can replace any maple syrup with sugar if you don't have maple syrup on hand.

First make the Sticky Toffee Maple Sauce – this is so good you can put it on anything sweet – ice cream, cakes – anything! This is quite a lot of sticky deliciousness so you can pour more over the buns when they come out of the oven…YUM!!!! If you like your buns very sticky double the recipe - I know you'll always manage to find some way to use any that's leftover!!

10oz weight/ 1 scant cup maple syrup – preferably from Maine for it is Maine Maple Sunday March 24^th!! 

6oz butter/ 12 tablespoons – I prefer salted for that great salted caramel taste 

8 tablespoons of heavy/double cream or half and half 

1. Put all 3 ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a simmering boil until it starts to thicken and the bubbles are dense and lighter in colour.
2. Allow to cool while you make the buns.

3. Using about ½ of the sauce put about 1 tablespoon sauce into each space of 12 muffin pans OR cover the bottom of two 9” cake pans – I show pics of doing it both ways.

STICKY TOFFEE BUNS – oh my SOOOO good – like a really light brioche bread!!!

INGREDIENTS: 

1 tablespoon of active dry yeast

1 teaspoon maple syrup - again you can use sugar

6 fl. ozs/2/3 cup/150ml  warm almost hot to the touch water (the recipe uses milk but I find water is fine)

1. Mix these 3 ingredients together in a bowl/jug and allow to sit in a warm place for about 10 minutes to get all bubbly, creamy and gorgeous: 

Let your yeast mix bubble to this kind of amount - even if takes longer than 10 minutes - I have found this amount of bubble-age is the key to getting yeasted recipes to work well. if your yeast isn't bubbling after say 15 minutes either your yeast is old or your liquid wasn't warm enough - put the bottom of the jug/bowl into a bowl of warm water and see if that activates it.

My ingredients warming on the shelf of the wood stove - purring gently!

Everything should be at room temperature to help better activate the yeast.

1 pound/500g unbleached white flour sifted

Large pinch of salt

2oz weight maple syrup or sugar

2 large eggs beaten

4oz/1 stick softened butter – again I use salted but you can use unsalted if you want.

If you want to use nuts toast 4ozs or even 6ozs if you like a lot of nuts in a 350F oven for a few minutes until fragrant – keep an eye out as they catch and burn very easily – allow to cool – you can use almonds, pecans or walnuts.

1. Sieve flour into a large bowl, stir in the salt and sugar (if using sugar) – for maple syrup make a well in the flour and pour in the maple syrup, eggs, softened butter and yeast mixture and blend until it comes together.

(Remember I only made a half of this recipe so my dough ball looks small)

2. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic.

3. Roll the dough into a ball, return to the bowl and cover with a tea towel, place in a warm spot (mine is on the shelf above the wood stove) and allow to double in size which should take about 1 ½ hours.

4. Turn the dough onto refloured surface and knead a little for about a minute.

5. Shape into a rough rectangle – about 14” x 20” I do half the recipe so my rectangle was 7” x 10”ish

6. Spread about 1/3 of the sticky toffee sauce over the centre of the rectangle thus:

7. Sprinkle nuts over if you are using them

8. Roll up the dough from the short side – don’t worry the sauce will ooze as picture below.

9. For full recipe cut into 12 even pieces – it will squush when you are cutting – don’t worry – my half recipe of course I cut into 6 pieces. 

10. Either put them in your cake pan or muffin tins and drizzle more maple syrup/sauce over:

11. Put back to the warm spot uncovered for about ½ until well risen again.

12. Meanwhile warm your oven to 350F and when ready bob in the buns for between 35-40 minutes until well golden brown:

with nuts and....

......without - more maple glaze - or just more plain maple syrup if you prefer - drizzled over the top!!

13. Allow to cool slightly before removing and then devour hot, warm or cold- when still warm drizzle over any remaining sauce –

14. GET THE KETTLE ON!!!!!

Let me know how you do – Happy baking!!! Please feel free to post your baking pictures on my Facebook page.

 

Welcome Spring 2013 and Mr. Bluebird too!

Spring 2013 arrived yesterday at 7:02am and then yesterday afternoon, as if on cue, this lovely spritely male Eastern Bluebird alighted in our old apple trees to suss the spots for nesting, I assume. What a little beauty he was and hopefully we will see more of him as the weeks go by.

Just the day before we were in the midst of our latest snowstorm named Ukko meaning paternal grandfather in Finnish, which graced us with about 10" of light, fluffy beauty - I wonder if this will be the last snow of the season?

The tenacious birch leaves are still clinging to the branches providing a welcome splash of colour in the whitened landscape.

Snow day baking - Irish Date and Walnut Loaf baked as a cake!

It's a beautiful soft snow day here in Maine - the snow is falling quite heavily and consistently but it is not windy or frigid which makes it all that much prettier and more enjoyable to take a walk, snap some pics and come back to a crackling fire in the wood stove and bake a nice homey cake with St. Patrick's Day in mind. The recipe is from my trusty little book 

"Irish Baking book" by Ruth Isabel Ross

This is a lovely, simple and easy cake or loaf to make by the 'melting' method - the dates make it moist and the tea adds that lovely deep flavour and colour. 

Let's get baking shall we?

INGREDIENTS: Avail yourself of the following - this is for one loaf in a one pound tin or a small cake in a 6" diameter cake pan - the recipe can be doubled for a bigger cake or, obviously, two loaves - this cake gets eaten very quickly so you may want to go right ahead and make the double amount. 

ONE LOAF/SMALL CAKE SIZE:

4oz/ 110g/ 1/2 cup mounded chopped dates medjool or deglet noor

4fl oz/125ml/1/2 cup boiling water OR same amount of good strong tea

2oz/1/2 stick salted butter

2oz walnuts - toasted for about 3 minutes in a 325F oven - keep your eye on them - they catch quickly - cooled and broken into small pieces

4oz/125g/1/2 cup sugar

5oz/140g/1 1/4 cups white flour unbleached

1 egg beaten

1/2 teaspoon baking soda/bicarb

1 tablespoon milk

METHOD: Pre heat oven to 200C/350F

1. Soak the chopped dates in the boiling water or tea (the tea adds a lovely complex flavour) in a large pan so the dates are in one layer, for 15 minutes.

2. Add the butter and allow to melt.

3. Allow to cool, then add the chopped walnuts, beaten egg, sugar and flour and stir well.

4. While mix is cooling using either a 1lb loaf tin or a small cake pan - mine is 6" diameter - grease and line with parchment/greaseproof paper:

5. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add to the batter and stir well until all is blended.

6. Pour batter into chosen tin and bake for about 45 minutes - then cover the tin with aluminum foil and bake for a further 15 minutes - until a toothpick/skewer comes out of the cake clean.

7. Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes then take out of the pan and put onto a wire rack to cool completely.

I've already made 2 of these cakes and both times the top cracked - but I am not worried about that - the taste is what I'm concerned about - and that taste is GOOD!!!

 This is one of those cakes/loaf that taste better the next day so if you manage it don't eat the day of baking, hold off until the next day then find yourself some nice softened butter, slather a slice with such, get a good hot strong cup of tea and watch the snow fall gently outside :)

If you happen to be interested the blue design is my Blue Rhapsody pattern available as napkins from CafePress here: NAPKINS

Happy Baking and do enjoy the snow if you're in Maine:)

Here are links to my Saint Patrick's Day designs at CafePress - with and without the Gaelic phrase for "Friends Forever"

You can buy items with my design and the Gaelic phrase HERE

 

You can buy items with my design and no lettering HERE

Thank you!! Happy Baking!

This blogpost is part of the Buttercream Bakehouse Saint Patrick's Day bloghop

Bye Bye Nemo!!

My favourite gnarly old apple tree looking pretty in the beginning of the storm - now available as a print in my ETSY shop.

 The blizzard known as Nemo was quite the challenge here in Maine - a huge snowfall in a short amount of time and wind gusts up to 70mph combined with temperatures down to 0F - I have to say it wasn't much fun for me as I spent most of my time stoking the fire and checking that our pipes weren't freezing because the winds were blowing hard from the North East right at a vulnerable part of our old farmhouse BUT - we made it through with little problem and are glad to be on the other side - yea!!!

 Above: In the height of the storm - look how much of the fence is covered already since the first photo... and James sculpture "Leap,Run,Leaping" is barely visible.

 The snow was blown into huge drifts and dunes - some ground was laid bare despite more than 2 feet of snow falling.

Available as a print in my ETSY shop :)

Bye bye Nemo - we're looking forward now to rain and higher temperatures this week - should be interesting how rain and this amount of fresh snow combine!

The top and bottom images are now available in my Etsy shop HERE :)

Pretty Snow Day in Maine

 Yesterday the snow fell quietly, consistently and very prettily all day long - the wind barely blew and I couldn't resist going for walk in the late afternoon - my favourite time of the day in a snowfall.

 The 'enchanted forest' - a small patch of old locust trees, beside our house is so other worldly in a snowfall - the trees are gnarly and twisted and their branches catch the snow in pretty, elegant  patterns. These woods are full of an eerie presence yet remain somehow comforting and cosy.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost (1923)  Whose woods these are these I think I know His house is in the village though;  He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound’s the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.

I always expect to see the Narnia lamppost here and wonder if the White Witch will swish by bearing Turkish Delight - you know I wouldn't resist - especially the rose flavoured kind.

Peach Lavender Jam Roly Poly Queen of Puddings Pudding in honour of the new Downton Abbey series - yippee!!

 

 Ta dah - my homage to the new series of Downton Abbey - a little baking pun on the Upstairs Downstairs nature of this so dearly beloved series - the downstairs for the servants (of whom I would have been one back in that day) is a dense jam roly poly, hard working and fortifying, made more refined with the addition of peach lavender jam instead of the usual raspberry - peach for the peaches and cream complexions of the Crawley Girls and lavender because it is such a British herb - the upstairs part of the pudding is Queen of Puddings, light and airy, delicate and demure - subtle lemony custard, sublime meringue and I've added some whipped cream to the mix because - honestly - it made the pudding look just that much better - what ugliness we can hide with whipped cream and a piping bag - and it also then ended up having the sense too of an Eton Mess - which makes the upper crust VERY upper crust - say what?

I am using blue type for the blue blood of the aristocracy :)

You may or may not want to have the lavender part in your pudding - it added a very subtle hint in the amount and way I used it but some people think it's a soapy taste and if you are one of their number you should leave this part out - it will not deter from the final deliciousness. 

As ever read through the recipe first as there are a number of methods and multiple steps.

LAVENDER SIMPLE SYRUP:

1/2 cup water

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tablespoon of food grade lavender flowers.

1. Heat 3 ingredients to boiling, take off the heat, allow to soak about 5 minutes and then strain out the flowers and allow to cool. You can use this in cocktails, lemonade, other recipes. It will keep quite well stored in a jar in the fridge.

You can also buy Peach Lavender jam from my friend Wendy at Sunchowder  

I use weights for my recipes and here some reasoning why from KING ARTHUR FLOUR 

 Now for the Jam Roly Poly:

Jam Roly Poly is a stodgy glory of a pudding -  'stodgy' being the British word for stick-to-your-ribs, heavy, filling comfort food that is usually very high in the carb department...this one fits the bill big time!! - it is nursery food of the highest order and one of those war time type puddings where the merry wives of England attempted to make something delicious out of almost nothing!!

THE RECIPE:
4 oz unbleached white flour

2oz very cold butter OR shredded suet if you can find it - although of course that makes it non-vegetarian - I used butter because I wanted to see how it came out - Mrs. Patmore would be appalled as she would always use suet which lightens the pudding and would have been a very normal ingredient in so many puddings of her day.

2 tablespoons sugar
 

Good pinch of salt
 

4-6 tablespoons cold water

3 big tablespoons of warmed JAM.....I used Bonne Maman Peach with 3 teaspoons of the lavender syrup added (Bonne Maman is a very clever company who advocates the recycling of their jars in their European advertising - immensely clever concept) - you may use strawberry or raspberry jam which is traditional.

 
A little milk for brushing

METHOD:
 
1. Rub the shredded suet or grated very cold butter into the flour along with the sugar and salt.

2. Add water spoon by spoon until the dough sticks together but is not sticky.

3. Turn dough onto a floured board and roll out to about 4" by 8" rectangle.

4. Spread chosen jam over dough but keep 3/4" clear of all the edges.

5. Fold over long edges and press lightly down...the object is to prevent the jam escaping when you roll the roly poly up...see pic below... 

6. Brush milk on to turned over edges and start to gingerly roll up the poly being careful to seal the edges as you go but not squeeze the jam out either.

7. Here's how your poly should look...like a great big sausage roll...no jam escaping here!

 ...seal well you don't want get that roll soggy!! Sprinkle with sugar and wrap up in a layer of parchment and then a layer of aluminium foil.

8. Now put the wrapped sausagey thing into the top of a steamer and steam the living daylights out of it for about 1 1/2 hours...thus..

9. This is unusual but I took the roly poly out of it's wrapping, sprinkled it with more sugar and then baked it in a 400F oven for about 15 minutes to dry and crisp the exterior...as below. And there you have your Jam Roly Poly...not the most exciting of desserts, sorry puddings, not the most elegant...a humble little pud that is oh so very traditional...I had it for pudding at school!!

Whilst ye olde jam roly poly is steaming  you can make the beginning of the custard and also the wonderful almond meringues - I was going to do plain meringues at first and then veered towards almond as I am a lover of that flavour and I thought it would be a nice foil to the peach.

Mrs. Patmore would be pleased to know I steamed the Roly Poly on my trusty wood burning stove named Cookie - she's a workhorse of a stove - keeps us nice and toasty through the cold winters here in Maine and provides a wonderful opportunity to steam, boil, and slow roast/cook many a recipe. She's hard to bake in as the temperature gauge is way out of whack and the temperature itself is so variable but we do so many other things with her - the copper kettle is always on ready for a nice cuppa - she provides a lovely warm spot for Eleanor underneath, do you think she's comfortable?...but poor Cookie has been working so hard lately what with the well below freezing temps that she is not looking her polished up finest, first warmish day and we'll rectify that but in the meantime she is cranked and purring - thanks Cookie!

CUSTARD for the pudding - taken from Mary Berry's beautiful recipe for Queen of Puddings:

INGREDIENTS:

 20 fl oz whole milk
 

25g/1oz butter
 

1lemon zested
 

50g/2oz  sugar

4 whole eggs whisked

METHOD:

1. Gently heat the milk.

2. Add butter, sugar and lemon zest and swish until melted.

3. Gently pour the warmed milk mix into the whisked eggs, whisking as you do so so they don't get a chance to cook or curdle and blend well - set aside to cool and use later.

Heat the oven to 325F, have some hot water ready for a bain marie/water bath (and if we were watching Call the Midwife the possibility of a baby being born) and a roasting tin large enough to hold your chosen pudding dish.

Take your jam roly poly out of the steamer after its 1 1/2 hours sauna - unwrap, allow to cool.

When cold slice into 1/2 inch slices and arrange in the bottom of a heat proof, shallow preferably  oval (because that's more elegant and the Lady Violet will appreciate it) dish thus in the background - foreground showing you what the sliced roly poly should look like:

 Now pour your lovely cold custard over the sliced roly poly:

 Pop the little darling into your bain marie - I had a small dish (I did two separate dishes - one for me one for James) and used a cake tin for my water bath:

 Now off into the oven for about 20-25 minutes - allow the centre to be just a tad wiggly and the custard will be just perfectly set thus:

Allow to cool.

Now make some divine meringues with a lovely almond flavour that taste like heavenly amaretti biscuits!!

METHOD:

1. Toast 1 oz of whole almonds with the skin on for about 15 minutes i a 325F oven.

2. Allow to cool completely.

3. Put into a plastic bag and hit with a hard object to break into small pieces THEN grind in a coffee grinder until fine but not oily.

The Meringues:

Try to make on a dry day - humidity and thunderstorms can either effect the consistency of the beaten eggs or make them curdle - so the dryer the day the better.

Set the oven at 250F – nice and low. Cover your baking tray with a sheet of parchment or greaseproof paper – no need to grease the paper.

INGREDIENTS:

2 egg whites at room temperature

4 ozs sugar...fine if don't want your meringues to be gritty - mine were a bit gritty because I use organic sugar from the Belfast Coop and it doesn't come in fine - and I am OK with a little grittiness in my meringues

1/2 teaspoon of vinegar

1/2 teaspoon of almond extract

1oz toasted almonds

 1. Whip the egg whites until stiff

2. Add sugar 2 tablespoons at a time and whip, whip, whip until all the sugar has been added and the result is glossy and dense and divine.

3. Mix vinegar and almond extract and almonds together in a small bowl and then gently fold into the egg white and sugar confection.

4. Pile dollops of meringue or pipe meringue onto parchment.

5. Bake in a 250F oven for about an hour and a half then turn oven off and leave meringues in there to cool - this is for a meringue that still has some softness and chew in the centre - if, like me, you prefer a meringue that is like ceramic (and yes I know that is not fashionable because of French macaron everyone wants a bit of chew) then you can cook for another hour making sure that they do not brown - so check on them occasionally.

BTW Mrs. Patmore would be appalled that the meringues are not pristinely white as that was the aim back then and really until recently - maybe until me - to have them as white as possible - naughty moi!!

Now for the assemblage: Warm a few more tablespoons of chosen jam and spread over the cooled custards - remove meringues carefully from the parchment paper and dot over:

Now decide that you don't like the way this looks and whip up some cream, with a teaspoon of the lavender simple syrup if your heart so desires and some sugar to taste and pipe that over your puddings so they look much prettier:

I do hope you enjoy this seasons Downton Abbey - I have heard wonderful things about it from my sister and friends in England - do let me know if you make this pudding and please feel free to share your pictures on my Facebook page HERE. 

My apologies for the type and spacing being all over the place - blogspot is having one of THOSE evenings where it just won't behave - Lady Violet will have something to say about that won't she!!

Thanks!!!

 

 I thought you might enjoy this picture of our recently adopted kitty Sasha who has decided she prefers the inside of the pillow to the cover and has made herself a nest therein which she seems to delight in daily - go Sasha!!