5:2 DIET - SIMPLE THAI RED CURRY - VEGAN

Oh my! I've just finished eating my first home made Thai curry - which was absolutely delicious!

As is my wont, I searched around online for simple vegan recipes, then put my own slant on them depending on what I have to hand, and what I need to buy.

The only thing I had to buy was the Thai red curry paste.

Notes:
Don't be seduced by low-cal coconut milk - it just doesn't give the same 'hit' as the full fat stuff! 

I've now found coconut milk at Lidl - half the price of Blue Dragon. Will report on how good it is when I've tried it.

Report:
In praise of Lidl's coconut milk!

I opened the can - and it was solid cream over halfway down! Only when I got to the bottom quarter  of the can did I find a clear liquid.

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 large onion
2 leeks
4 sticks celery
1 large carrot
1 each red and green pepper
2 red chillies, finely chopped
1 knob ginger (about as big as a golf ball)
3 large field mushrooms, cut into strips

Chop the veggies and grate the ginger

Sauce:

2 tablespoons lemon juice 

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 can coconut milk

2 dessertspoons Thai red curry paste

1 dessertspoon garlic paste

Method:
I fried the cumin seeds in the olive oil, in a small saucepan, for about a minute, then added the vegetables, plus a little water, and allowed them to simmer for 10 or so minutes to soften.

Whilst this was cooking I prepared the sauce by mixing all the sauce ingredients together and cooking them in the microwave for 3 minutes on full power, then 3 minutes on half power.

Then I combined all the ingredients in the saucepan and simmered for 10-15 minutes.

This is enough for 4 portions with less than 250 calories each. Served with 30g of basmati rice (105 calories), this brings the total to around 350 calories.

48 HOUR FAST - IT'S A DODDLE!

[Link to how I began IF, 14 months ago - and my latest blood results.]

Well, I did it! A complete fast of 48 hours - and, to be honest, I could have kept going.

I've been 24-hour fasting for about 6 months now, followed by a 600 calorie meal, and they've become a way of life for me. I built up to that figure over the previous few months by eating three small meals a day.

I began simply saying to myself one day, "I won't eat until I feel hungry!" so I had no breakfast - and then no lunch - and, in the evening I had dinner. But, much to my surprise, I didn't feel hungry, all day! I've since been wanting to try a longer fast, but, as it would only worry my wife, who thinks I've lost too much weight anyway, I've refrained.

Until this week - when my wife has had to go and look after her mother for a while, leaving me at home. 

During the fast, the closest I came to 'hunger' was a slight feeling of 'something' in my tum on the second evening. A sip of water and it was gone.

I had three choices - I could have just carried on; I could have ended the fast with a 600 calorie meal; or I could have had a normal meal. 
Except that I didn't! Have a normal meal, I mean. I grossly over-ate, I'm afraid. 

I'd taken a pizza out of the freezer, and a corner of that had been tempting me, peeping out from under its cover, all afternoon. So I had a large piece of that along with some curried wedges I'd also defrosted, along with a large serving spoon full of chilli non carne I had tickled up a bit, plus a goodly portion of broccoli.

That was just the starter. I decided I deserved a pudding, so I knocked up a 'cake in a cereal bowl' (a variation on 'Cake in a mug'), which I had with some custard. Then, with my coffee I had a couple of pieces of chilli chocolate. 

I broke my record with this cake - ready in 6 minutes 52 seconds:
3 dessertspoons sugar 
Heaped teaspoon cocoa powder (mix the two together, the sharp edges of the sugar breaks up the lumps of cocoa powder)
3 dessertspoons s/r flour (mix all the dry ingredients to a uniform colour)
3 dessertspoons vegetable oil
6 dessertspoons water

Mix and microwave for two minutes. 

This is supposed to be for two, or more, but I scoffed the lot.

And, within a couple of minutes of finishing all this, I felt terrible. It's the first time I've over-eaten since I began this WOL - and I'll tell you this, it's also the last! 

I tried to lie back in an armchair to take the pressure off my stomach, but this wasn't enough - I had to lie down upstairs. My belt was loosened, of course, but I also had to unbutton my (2" too big) waistband.

Altogether, the feeling of discomfort lasted for couple of hours - and I really think I'll have to do a mini-fast tomorrow to make up for tonight's excesses.

Back to the fast: 6 months ago I would never have imagined I could go for 48 hours without solid food. Then I was very nervous about anything beyond 12 hours (which I'd had to do for a fasting blood test earlier).

I felt fine throughout. I did my pretty vigorous exercises on the two days, breaking 2 PBs on the first. I did over three hours of (unaccustomed) digging with no ill-effects - I just felt bloody good! I went to the dentist this afternoon - my muslim dentist was very impressed. I was the first non-muslim she'd ever met with any experience of fasting.

I doubt I'll do it again - I'm glad I did it, but I'm not sure what I got out of it that I don't get from 5:2 or 6:1. I did find it easy - I think if Mike Mosley had built up to his 3 day fast instead of going in blind, I reckon he too would have found it a lot easier than he did.

I just wanted to find out how long it would take before I experienced hunger - and I still don't know the answer! 

I shall make sure I eat nutritiously over the next few days, to take account of of my lack of nutrition this week.

LENTIL AND POTATO PIE (USING A BREAD DOUGH) - VEGAN

This is a cheap dish - with very little finesse. But it is sustaining and filling, and is very comforting on a cold day! Serve with garden peas.

Filling ingredients:
1 large onion chopped 

2 large potatoes, diced small

200g red lentils

1 tsp dried mixed herbs

2 teaspoons stock powder
Black pepper

Cook the onion/potatoes and lentils separately. Place each in a saucepan and cover with water. Boil/simmer for ten minutes each - or until soft. Combine the two and add, and adjust, flavourings. Leave to simmer gently while you shape the pie crust - but stir frequently to prevent sticking. 

While the filling ingredients are cooking, prepare the crust.

Bread dough 
200g strong white bread flour 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
1 teaspoon curry powder 
10g fresh yeast or 5g dried yeast 
125g lukewarm water

Method:

1. Measure the water and stir in the yeast until it is dissolved. Place the flour, stock cube and curry powder into a mixing bowl, mix the dry ingredients and pour in the yeast liquid.

2. Have a little water to hand to add if necessary, remember, it is better for your dough to be wetter (slack) rather than drier (tight). Begin to mix by stirring the ingredients together with a knife, cutting through the dough as it forms. When it gets too stiff for the knife, use your hand to squeeze the mixture together. As it forms into a solid mass, keep turning it over and pressing it down to pick up the flour at the bottom of the bowl – but make sure it stays soft. Don’t be afraid to add more water to keep it soft! When all the flour has been mixed in, wipe the bowl around with the dough, turn it out onto the worktop and begin to knead.

3. Knead by flattening the dough out, folding it over and flattening it again. If the dough is too sticky, instead of putting extra flour on your worktop, place some in the bowl, put the dough back in and turn it round to coat it all over. That way you keep the flour under control and you won’t be tempted to add too much. Knead until the dough becomes smooth – and then stop before you get fed up!

4. Leave to prove for about an hour on your worktop, covered with a dry tea towel. Or place in an oiled plastic bag – all day if necessary - until you are ready for step 5. Or go straight to step 5.

5. When you are ready to proceed, don't knock the dough back, just divide into 2/3rds and 1/3rd.  Roll out the larger piece of dough about 4cm larger than your  pie dish and place it over the dish, carefully pushing into the sides all round. Roll out the smaller piece to the size of the dish, and place on a floured piece of baking parchment. 

6. Cover both with a tea towel and leave to prove on your worktop until the dough is risen and puffy, then fill the pie dish with the lentil and potato filling (using a slotted spoon - you don't want too much liquid). Using the baking parchment, upturn the other piece of dough over the pie dish and filling and trim the edges.

7. Leave a few minutes for the dough to recover, then bake at 220C for about 20 minutes, turning the pie if necessary to ensure an even bake.

Notes:
I like this with a little spice added - 1 teaspoon curry powder (or however much you would usually use. I use 2 heaped teaspoons) stirred into the filling after combining the potatoes and lentils. 

APFEL KUCHEN (GERMAN APPLE CAKE)

Variations on a theme! From my Burnham evening class, Oct 2011 

Ingredients:

200g (or 1 mug) strong white flour

1 dessertspoon sugar

1 teaspoon mixed spice

100g sultanas

125ml (or 1/3^rd mug) lukewarm water

1 teaspoon yeast

2 tbs olive oil (optional)

For the topping:

1 large or two medium Bramley apples (or eating apples for  a change)

1 dessertspoon sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon mixed together

Method:

1. Measure the water and stir in the yeast. Place the flour, sugar and sultanas into a mixing bowl, pour in the yeast liquid, then add the olive oil if using.

2. Have a little water to hand to add if necessary, remember, it is better for your dough to be wetter (slack) rather than drier (tight). Begin to mix by stirring the ingredients together with a knife, cutting through the dough as it forms. When it gets too stiff for the knife, use your hand to squeeze the mixture together. As it forms into a solid mass, keep turning it over and pressing it down to pick up the flour at the bottom of the bowl – but make sure it stays soft. Don’t be afraid to add more water to keep it soft! When all the flour has been mixed in, wipe the bowl around with the dough, turn it out onto the worktop and begin to knead.

3. Knead by flattening the dough out, folding it over and flattening it again. If the dough is too sticky, instead of putting extra flour on your worktop, place some in the bowl, put the dough back in and turn it round to coat it all over. That way you keep the flour under control and you won’t be tempted to add too much. Knead until the dough becomes smooth – and then stop before you get fed up!

4. Form the dough into a round, then, using flour to stop the dough from sticking, roll out the kuchen dough to around 1 cm thick. Place the dough onto a prepared baking sheet.

5. Peel and core the apples, cut them into quarters and each quarter into slices and place them in rows all over the dough. Sprinkle with the sugar and cinnamon.

6. Leave to rise until the kuchen has grown appreciably, then bake for 10 minutes at 220C (425F, gas mark 7) then at 190C (375F, gas mark 6) until the apples are soft and the dough cooked - probably another 10 minutes. Check by lifting the edge of the kuchen with a palette knife - the bottom should be browning.

Variation:

Any hard fruit will work with this bread – pears, nectarines, etc.

Other breads you can make using this dough.

CHELSEA BUNS (UNDERCOVER)

[More pics at the foot of the post]

Chelsea buns are just one of a number of varieties of breads that can be made from a simple fruit dough. Have a look here for several more:

Huddled together, proving

Ingredients:

300g strong white flour

2 dessertspoons sugar

2 teaspoons mixed spice

200g dried fruit (currants, sultanas or raisins plus mixed peel)

1 dessertspoon fresh yeast or 1 teaspoon dried yeast

200ml lukewarm liquid

Good splash of olive oil                        

Filling:

1 dessertspoon olive oil

Sugar to sprinkle

Topping:

Brush with a glaze made with 1 dessertspoon sugar and 2 dessertspoons boiling water.

Method:

1. Place the flour, sugar, spice and dried fruit into a mixing bowl, and mix to distribute the ingredients. Measure the water and stir in the yeast until it dissolves (dried yeast takes longer to dissolve than fresh). Add the yeast liquid to the dry ingredients, and add the olive oil if using.

2. Have a little water to hand to add if necessary, remember, it is better for your dough to be wetter (slack) rather than drier (tight).

3. Mix into a sticky dough - if it's not sticky add another 25g of water to make it so - and knead for 10-20 seconds.

4. Dip your hands in a little flour and rub off as much of the dough sticking to your hands as you can before you wash them. Invert the bowl over your dough and leave for 10-20 minutes.

5. Knead it again for a short period and leave it as before.

6. Knead for a third time - and this time you should notice that the dough is less and less sticky. Once again leave it for a bit.

7. When you're happy with the dough, leave it - covered - for at least an hour if you can.Cover and leave to prove for an hour or so.

8. When you're ready to proceed, roll the dough out into a rectangle, 40cm by 25cm, with the long edges across in front of you. Brush with oil, leaving a centimetre gap along the bottom edge and sprinkle with the sugar. Roll up the dough towards you, along the long side, as you would a Swiss roll. Cut into 10-12 pieces and place, cut side uppermost on a prepared baking sheet.

9. Cover with a dry tea towel and leave to prove on your worktop until the buns have grown appreciably in size.

10. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes at 220C 425F or gas mark 7, checking the colour underneath the buns – they should be browned evenly across the bottom. You may need to remove the buns on the outside, which have browned underneath, and replace the others in the oven, upside down if necessary. Brush them with the glaze when they come out of the oven and place on a cooling rack.

Undercover method:

9. Place the buns on a piece of baking parchment so that they are just touching. Place the paper on a baking tray and cover with a roasting dish. Leave until the rolls are roughly doubled in size then bake at 220C for 20 minutes before removing the roasting dish. Continue baking until the top of the rolls are browned sufficiently - say 5-10 minutes. Brush them with the glaze when they come out of the oven and place on a cooling rack.

Brushed with a sugar glaze and sprinkled with sugar

This next batch was made with 400g of flour - the other ingredients were increased accordingly:

Placed 1cm apart

Now risen and huddled together

Finished off with sugar glaze and a sprinkle of sugar

24 HOUR FAST (walking is no longer enough!)

(I've been Intermittent Fasting [IF] for over 12 months...read more)

(And here's a transcript of a talk on the subject I gave to my local humanism society recently - it contains pretty well all I've learned over the past year.)

Thursday 28th March I don't need to lose any more weight, so I'm practicing a form of 6:1 and a half. By which I mean one day a week I will fast for 24 hours then eat a normal meal, and on another day I'll fast for 24 hours then eat only 600 cals until the following morning.

I've just completed a 24 (nearly 25 hour) fast with only water and coffee - and, until I ate, I was absolutely buzzing.

I ran a 2 and a half hour teaching session this afternoon, then spent an hour and a half shopping - visiting 4 shops. As I went from shop to shop I found myself giving a little skip, then breaking into a jog - I had so much energy, that walking was no longer enough. Even with two heavy shopping bags, on the way back to the car, I gave a little skip, then jogged back to the car - about 300 yards away. I ran for 50 or so yards, walked a few paces, then broke into a jog again. I just couldn't contain myself. 

Another thing - I've now eaten my dinner (which consisted of a small glass of stout, 4 curried wedges, 3 large serving spoons of chilli, with a glass of wine, followed by mango and ice cream) and I'm absolutely stuffed. YET, with 95 calories left of my 600 calorie allocation, I'm casting around for something else to eat.

I'm coming round to the conclusion that it would be better to carry on the complete fast until the following morning, because I wasn't in the slightest bit hungry when I ate. I already know that not eating breakfast and lunch is the best way for me to go for 24 hours - eating 3 small meals just causes me to feel hungry all the time. I'm certain I could go the whole day without the 600 calories and then just eat normally on the next day.

Friday 5th April

I'm planning a new routine for fasting this coming week. My normal routine is a 24 hour fast on one day and eating my 600 calories for dinner - followed a couple of days later by a 24 hour fast and a normal dinner.

But this week I intend to combine the two - so that I'll start fasting on Sunday evening at 6.00pm, say, then I'll fast all day Monday and go straight into a mini-fast on Tuesday. So I'll be going 48 hours with just 600 cals.

This should make it a bit easier on the organisational front - I'll only have to make sure I have the one early dinner in the week, rather than two.

Wednesday 11th April
I found doing my 6:1 and a mini-fast on consecutive days very doable, and I'll probably continue like this for a while.

The only downside was that, after a 24 hour fast on the Monday I could only manage about 22 hours on the Tuesday. But that's no big deal in the great scheme of things. 

I must admit I'm enjoying having 5 continuous days of eating normally - haven't done that since I began over a year ago!

Went a bit mad with my lentil and potato curry (the ultimate comfort food!) with some wine late yesterday evening - but, to make up for it, I fasted all day up until 7.30, so no harm done.

And I have to admit, I was feeling pretty 'high' whilst fasting - it's a great feeling!

Thursday 12th April

Reflecting over my attack of evening munchies the other day, it really was a win-win situation. I thoroughly enjoyed my late night snack - and then I thoroughly enjoyed fasting the next day! 

LENTIL AND POTATO CURRY - THE ULTIMATE COMFORT FOOD!

Ease of making: On a scale of one to ten, with one being dead easy, and 10 being horrendously difficult, this is definitely no more than a two!

When I became a vegetarian, back in 2000, I thought I'd given up on corned beef hash, one of my favourite meals. But then I discovered lentil and potato hash, which gave me the same flavour hit - and realised that it was the potatoes that were the star and not the meat! This is just a curried version of the hash.

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon curry powder* - or however much you would usually use. I use 2 heaped teaspoons
1 large onion chopped 
Clove of garlic, chopped fine

2 large potatoes, diced small

200g red lentils
1 tsp dried mixed herbs

Passata

1 dessertspoon vegan pesto (optional)

Flavouring:
1 dessertspoon soy sauce
1 dessertspoon mushroom ketchup
(Or you could use 2 teaspoons stock powder)
Black pepper

Method:

Place the lentils in a small saucepan with enough water to cover and bring to a boil. Simmer for about ten minutes, or until they are completely soft.

While the lentils are cooking, in a separate pan, gently fry the curry powder in a little oil, then add the onions. Keep stirring, and, when the onions are translucent, add the garlic and fry for another minute.

Add the potatoes and enough water to cover. Simmer the potatoes until they are cooked - I like to leave them until they are almost falling apart.

When the lentils are soft, add the passata, pesto, flavourings and curry paste (if using).

Now combine the lentils and potatoes and leave to simmer, stirring frequently to stop any sticking while you pour yourself a glass of wine and cut the bread into chunks! 

Terrific with home-made crusty bread

Gorgeous fried up the next day!

Notes:

This is my basic recipe. For a curried version in a hurry, I omit the frying stage and include 2 dsps hot curry paste (I use Ferns’ hot curry paste - imported from India, it beats Patak's into a cocked hat, IMO! - from my local wholefood shop).

*Curry powder. I make up my own version - 3 parts chilli powder to 1 part each coriander, turmeric and cumin.

HOME-MADE RED TABLE WINE

[The full recipe is further down this post]



9th April 2013
I'm just about to start another batch of this wine - I've still got loads of cherries in the freezer I need to use up to make room for this year's crop. Hard to believe that'll be in about 3 months!

2nd October 2011
I started the wine on Saturday - 6 months since I made my last batch,  this should last me until Christmas at least! - and I put together 25ltrs of stout last night. The wine is pretty much to the recipe, except that I've included 1kg of Morello cherries. I picked 4kg back in July, so I've got plenty left back in the freezer.


4th April 2011 - my latest batch.


The recipe is as below, with 500g mixed frozen morello cherries and blackberries plus a jar of morello cherries. The must had an SG of about 83.

Here's the fermentation after only 12 hours. I used to tie a knot in the bag, but now I just drape it over loosely.

On the 8th of April, 4 days later, I made it up to 5 gallons. I took the bag out, squeezed as much juice out of it as I could, then poured the must into a large bowl. I washed out the fermentation bucket then added a couple of kettles of boiling water to 4kg of sugar and added cold water up to 4 gallons. At this point I washed the nylon bag of fruit in the sugar water, to get as much colour as possible in the wine, squeezed the bag out again and topped it up to 5 gallons. Halfway through adding the water I also added 5 teaspoons of yeast nutrient.


I left it in the bucket for 24 hours, in case the wine fobbed up. Before racking into a cubitainer - sealed with cling film - I took this pic of the fermentation, which I found quite unusual. Half of the surface was covered with bubbles, whilst the other half was a churning - well, maelstrom's perhaps too strong a word, but it was certainly seething with activity.

Now the wine is safe in its cubitainer - I'll check it in about two weeks.

Checked the SG today - and it was 988! Result! The best I have done in several years. It has cleared nicely and tastes great - hard to believe it's only 23 days old!

If I didn't have about 6 litres of my last batch left, I'd happily drink this with a meal.

Equipment:
Large (25L) fermentation bucket
Nylon straining bag
2 metres siphon tube
4 or 5 demijohns
5 solid bungs
25 Litre Fermenter with Large Cap, Bung & Airlock

Basic red table wine

I've been using this recipe for over 30 years. All I ever set out to do was make a drinkable red table wine of about 12%, and this is it.

Ingredients:
250g of dried elderberries
1 kilo tin of red grape concentrate – you can get various types. The one I’m using now is a Rich Red Italian concentrate
500g of one other red(dish) fruit. Morello cherries, blackcurrants, blackberries or whatever you like. If I’ve no fresh fruit I’ll use a large jar of morellos or bilberries.
4kg granulated sugar
Wine yeast

Method:
Place cherries or blackberries in a nylon straining bag and add elderberries. Put the bag in a 5gal fermentation bucket (with lid) and pour a kettle of boiling water over the fruit. Add grape concentrate and sufficient cold or hot water to make a lukewarm liquid up to the one gallon mark. (Rinsing out the concentrate tin as you do so.) This should bring the specific gravity (SG) to around 1080 (80 for short), which is the optimum SG for starting a wine off.

Add the yeast as per instructions on the tub. Mine says to sprinkle 2 teaspoons onto the liquid and stir. Put the lid (tight-fitting) on the bucket and leave it for around 4-5 days in a warm place. (I use a corner in my kitchen year-round.)

When you’re ready to make up to 5 gals, take out the bag of fruit, squeezing some juice out as you do so. Place on a dinner plate or similar. Pour the liquid (must) into another container (I use a 4litre mixing bowl). Rinse out the 5gal bucket and place 2 kg sugar in the bottom. Pour over a jug of boiling water and stir to dissolve. Add two more kg of sugar and another kettle of boiling water. Stir to dissolve then add cold water up to the 4 gallon mark.

If you want to get a bit more colour in your wine, dip the bag of fruit in the sugar water and squeeze it a few times. Take out the fruit and pour the must into the bucket then make up to 5 gallons. Add 5 tsps of yeast nutrient and stir. Replace the lid and leave for 24 hours. (I do this because I’ve found if I put it into straight into the fermentation vessel it sometimes fobs up and makes a right mess!)

Now you need to transfer it (rack it) into the fermentation vessel (which must be airtight). I use an old sherry container which I’ve had for thirty years. I don’t use a ‘bubbler’, instead I cover the hole with cling film held by a rubber band.
It stays in this container for 30 days – in somewhere warm if you’ve got a place – I just leave it in my kitchen under the breakfast bar. After 30 days it should have bottomed out at somewhere between SG990 and 994 and be clearing nicely. At this stage I rack the wine into demijohns – once again sealed with cling film – and 2ltr lemonade bottles. It’s drinkable after about 28 days from the start, with a meal, and it just gets better and better. Just when it reaches its peak, unfortunately, you run out!

I haven’t talked about sterilisation yet:
All equipment used must be sterilised. You need to make a solution of MetaBiSulphite (MBS) and use this to clean everything that comes into contact with your wine. I keep a bottle made up in a cupboard and I make sure that all my empty demijohns, bucket, bottles, etc, are stored with a little of this in the bottom. I also suck a bit through my siphon tube before I use it.

MUSHROOM TEAR AND SHARE LOAF

The veg shop didn't have any field mushrooms which I needed for Sunday dinner - I was planning to make stuffed mushrooms en croute.

Instead I decided to experiment with some smaller mushrooms in a loaf.

First of all I made a bread dough - 200g strong brown flour - with tomato puree, dessertspoon soy sauce, teaspoon mixed herbs, teaspoon curry powder , 4 s-d-tomatoes chopped small plus 30g sunflower oil from the s-d-tomatoes. Then I de-stalked 8 mushrooms and cut out a little of the insides, to enable me to include more stuffing.

I divided the dough into 8 pieces, and rolled them out into circles, nicking three triangles out of the dough to help me shape them better:

The dough is then 'cupped' around the underneath of each mushroom

The largest mushroom was placed in the middle, with the others around it:

The parcel at the top was made from the triangles cut from each circle of dough and contains the trimmings scraped from the inside of the mushrooms, with a little mushroom pate and a teaspoon of nutritional yeast 

Then each mushroom was stuffed with a mixture of mushroom pate (Pateole yeast spread - highly recommended!), vegan pesto and tomato puree with a little cayenne pepper mixed in:

The dough is already rising. You can tell I began with the centre one, followed by the one at nine o'clock and so on

The bread was then put to prove for a little while and baked for 20 minutes at 200C:

And served

As you've probably gathered by now, this was in the way of an experiment.

Conclusions:
This was very tasty, indeed, BUT - I have to say the bread was very doughy and undercooked. There was too much bread and not enough filling. Next time I'll use bigger mushrooms and make the dough a lot thinner. Possibly reducing the amount of flour to 150g. And i'll bake it at 180C.

HOT CROSS BUNS (Spicy fruit buns)

Ingredients:
400g (or 2 mugs) strong white flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tsp each mixed spice, cinnamon and nutmeg

200g (or 1 mug) dried fruit (currants, sultanas or raisins)

1 dessertspoon fresh yeast (or 1 teaspoon dried yeast and 1/2 tsp sugar)

250ml (or 2/3rds mug) lukewarm water

2 tablespoons olive oil (optional)

Topping:

When they come out of the oven, brush with a glaze made with 1 teaspoon sugar and 2 teaspoons boiling water.

Method:

1. Measure the water and stir in the fresh yeast. Place the flour, sugar, spice and dried fruit into a mixing bowl, pour in the yeast liquid, then add the olive oil.

(If using dried yeast, add to the liquid with the sugar, stir and leave for about five minutes. The liquid should foam up, when it's ready to be used. If it doesn't fob up, check the date on your yeast - it may be out of date.) 

2. Have a little water to hand to add if necessary. Remember, it is better for your dough to be wetter (slack) rather than drier (tight). Begin to mix by stirring the ingredients together with a knife, cutting through the dough as it forms. When it gets too stiff for the knife, use your hand to squeeze the mixture together. As it forms into a solid mass, keep turning it over and pressing it down to pick up the flour at the bottom of the bowl – but make sure it stays soft. Don’t be afraid to add more water to keep it soft! When all the flour has been mixed in, wipe the bowl around with the dough, turn it out onto the worktop and begin to knead.

3. Knead by flattening the dough out, folding it over and flattening it again. Knead until the dough becomes smooth – and then stop before you get fed up!

4. Divide the dough into 12 pieces and give yourself plenty of room on your worktop. Take one of the pieces in each hand and flatten them down with the palms of your hand. Keeping them pressed down, gently move them round in a circle. After a couple of circles, start to ease the pressure off. Still moving in circles, let your hands form a hollow shape. Gradually cup your hands and relax the pressure, whilst still making the circular movement. Your little finger and thumb should make contact in turn with the side of the roll as it tightens up. Ease off the pressure altogether, and you should have a couple of bun shapes! Place the buns either on greased bun trays or on oven trays lined with baking parchment.

5. If these are to be hot cross buns, press down on each one to flatten it slightly, then press a cross into it with the back of a knife. Cover with a teatowel.

6. When the buns have risen appreciably, bake at 220C, 425F or gas mark 7, for about 15 minutes. Check after about 10.

7. Whilst the buns are baking, mix 2 teaspoons of boiling water with a rounded teaspoon of sugar for a glaze (warm the jug and spoon first). When the buns are done brush them with the glaze straightaway. Place on a cooling rack.

Notes:

This is the basic, no-nonsense recipe. Play around with it as you will. Both the type and amounts of the fruit, spice, and sugar are just my suggestions. Increase or decrease - or change - them as you will.

To make a deluxe version of this recipe I would:
Double the amount of fruit and use a mixture of different fruits, such as chopped apricots, cranberries, etc. I would place all the fruit - including the mixed peel - in a jam jar, cover with red wine and leave in the fridge overnight - or for a couple of days. When I come to use the fruit I would drain off the wine - which is now a dessert wine - and drink it later.
Double the amount of spice.
Add some grated orange or lemon (or both).

(Having said all that, if my daughter's around, I have to make them with chocolate chips and leave out the spice! Kids, eh?)

I would also use the undercover (cloche) method to bake these buns. 5 minutes under the cover, then about 10-12 minutes with the cover removed.


When I used to make bread and buns for the Taunton WI shop (now called Country Shops) and friends, the buns I was able to make in the baker's ovens I used to borrow were absolutely superb. I was reminded of this when I met Pat and Colin in town this afternoon (20/1/11) - they used to be among my customers. 


These days, I can't make them as good using a domestic oven. However, you can get close to it by putting them undercover for the first few minutes of baking.

Listening to Women's Hour about 30 years ago I was intrigued to hear that the crosses on sweet buns pre-dated Christianity in Britain. Not being a Christian I was quite pleased to hear that!

You'll notice there's no pastry cross on my buns. They are a total waste of time IMO! When my (baker) dad made HCBs, it was my job, every hot cross bun day (the day before Good Friday), to stamp a cross in the top of each bun with a metal cutter. 24 to a tray, several trays to the batch.

When the buns came out of the oven, I had to give each one a sugar glaze.

For my labours I was allowed to eat one bun from each batch - and one year my dad made 13 batches!

Finally, a hot cross bun recipe is the basis for half a dozen or more other fruit breads, using different techniques. Check out this post - Now you've made Hot Cross Buns.