Traditional Cornish Splits

 

If I was a much better, more dedicated to my craft blogger, you would never see photos like these.  I Would take the time to pipe the cream into the buns so that everything looked all nice and pretty, setting the shot up perfectly with teapots and cups and tea clothes, etc.

 

That's not me.  I tend to just show you things as they are.  Simple without too many frills and not overly fancied up. Not that there is anything wrong with fancying things up a bit. That's just not me.

 

Besides today, by the time I got these done, it was getting late, I was losing the light and to be honest I was beat, beat, beat.  I actually started these about 6:30 this morning.  I had three other recipes to do for another site and so I had to fit them all in while I still had the light with me.

 

But you don't want to know about all of that . . .  you want to know about these tasty buns.  Cornish Splits.  I am sure you have all heard of Cream Teas, or Cornish Teas/Devon Teas.

 

A delightful repast of  fresh scones served with butter, jam and clotted cream, washed down with cups of hot tea.  Well, before they ever included scones,  these lovely light yeasted buns were the original stars of a Cream Tea.

 

I am not surprised.  Light as air, only slightly sweetened, like soft yeasted pillows of deliciousness . . .  perfect for spreading with soft butter and jam, and topped with lashings of clotted cream . . .  a slight dusting of icing sugar garnishing the tops.

 

I can well imagine how delightful they would be with hot cups of tea.  We don't drink tea for religious reasons, and somehow I don't think herbal tea would be quite the same.

 

These are such a simple make/bake. Seriously.  One kneading and rising.  Shape into balls, a quick rise and then bake.

 

The rolls are lovely and light textured and I imagine very nice just on their own, split, toasted and spread with butter  . . . and maybe some jam . . .

 

You can eat the while they are still slightly warm if you wish, in which case I think the butter would melt into the beautiful texture of those light airy buns  . . .

 

We enjoyed them cold, split and filled to the hilt with the strawberry jam and whipped cream.

 

We have not been able to get out shopping so there was no clotted cream.  The whipped cream was very nice however.

 

The jam,  Bonne Maman  . . .  not having any homemade jam, I used the next best thing . . . . which is Bonne Maman . . .

 

The French make beautiful jams . . .  and breads for that matter  . . .

  

Dusted with icing sugar, these were exquisite.

Traditional Cornish Splits

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Yield: 8

Author: Marie Rayner

Classically  Cornish teatime treats. Light and airy yeasted buns, served split, spread with butter and topped with lashings of jam and cream.  If you fill them with clotted cream and golden syrup, they become Thunder and Lightening, a real favourite with kiddies everywhere!

Ingredients:

For the buns:

• 305g strong bread flour (2 1/4 cups)
• 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
• 4 1/2 tsp easy yeast (bread machine yeast)
• 1 TBS white sugar
• 2 TBS butter
• 300ml whole milk (1 1/4 cup)

To serve:

• softened butter to spread
• Softly whipped sweetened cream, or clotted cream
• strawberry jam
• icing sugar to dust

Instructions:

1. Fit a stand mixer with a kneading hook.  Measure the flour, sugar, salt, yeast and sugar into the bowl of the stand mixer and mix to combine.
2. Warm the milk in the microwave with the butter for about 30 seconds. Just long enough to melt the butter. You don't want any of it to be hot, just blood warm.
3. Start drizzling the milk/butter mixture into the bowl of the stand mixer, with it turned on low, until it is all added and incorporated. Keep the motor running until you get a soft, slightly tacky dough. You may need to add a bit more flour. (Today I needed to add another 35g/1/4 cup).
4. Tip into a greased bowl and cover with plastic cling film. Set aside to prove for an hour or so until it doubles in size.  Turn onto a lightly floured  board and divide into 8 equal pieces. (I shape it into a circle and cut it into 8 wedges.)  Shape each piece into a ball and place onto a large baking sheet you have lined with baking paper. Dust lightly with flour, cover with a tea towel and set aside to rise for 15 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5.
6. Bake the buns in the preheated oven for between 15 and 20 minutes until a pale golden brown. If you tip one over it should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. If not, return to the oven for a few more minutes.
7. To serve. split almost all the way through on the diagonal.  Spread the bottoms with softened butter, top with plenty of strawberry jam and a nice thick dollop of whipped double cream or clotted cream. Dust the tops with some icing sugar and serve immediately.
8. These can be served slightly warm or cold. Best served on the day.  Don't fill until you are ready to serve them.

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I sent half of these next door to my neighbour. She and her son have been ever so good to us throughout this pandemic, always picking up bread and milk, even if we have not asked for it, and she won't take any compensation for it.  I figure the least I can do is to bake them treats every now and then! 

 

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Easy Jam Tarts

 

When I was a child, it was a real treat when my mother made us jam tarts!  It didn't happen very often, to say the least.  I don't know why. They are not really very hard to make.  She tended to only make them if she had leftover pastry . . .

 

And usually any leftover pastry went to make Petes de Soeur (um . . . Nun's Farts) or weiner rolls.  Weiner rolls were much more popular with my dad so they got made the most often. My mother would roll the scraps out thinly, spread them with mustard and wrap them around hotdogs before baking.

 

To be honest, we all loved them.  So nobody was complaining.  Not at all.  They were like the ultimate hotdog.  I have tried them with fancy mustards through the years, but really . . . old fashioned French's American mustard is the best.

 

I found myself having quite a few small pots of Bonne Maman jam that needed using up. I had gotten them for Christmas,  and so today I decided to use them to make us some jam tarts.  I didn't make really large ones. Just tiny bite sized ones.

 

I cut them out using the 2 inch flower cutter from my old Tupperware cookie cutter set. (I think I have had that for about 40 years or so!)  I used my brioche bun tins to bake them in.  They worked wonderfully.

 

My jams were Plum, Apricot, Cherry, and Strawberry.  Four tiny pots did all 30 tarts.  Believe it or not.

 

The thing you want to remember about jam and baking is this  . . . hot jam expands! You don't need an awful lot in each tart.  About 1/2 tsp in each of my small tarts was perfectly ample.

  

I have learned the hard way through the years that hot jam on hot tins is no fun to clean up afterwards  . . .  and the tarts end up sticking to your pan.  Better to have less jam and to be able to remove them without them breaking up.

 

These were lovey and to be honest, because they were so tiny, you didn't feel really guilty scarfing down two or three of them . . .

 

Have I ever told you how much I love pastry?  

 

And jam?  Well I love both of those things immensely!

  

So I think you can tell that I really REALLY loved these!

Easy Jam Tarts

Yield: 30 small tarts

Author: Marie Rayner

This is one of Todd's favourite treats.  Crisp buttery pastry filled with dabs of sweet jam.  You can do a rainbow of tarts if you have a few different types. Do NOT overfill the tarts.  A little dab will do you!

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

• 140g all purpose flour (1 cup)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 TBS butter
• 2 1/2 TBS lard
• 3 to 4 tablespoons of ice water

You will also need:

• jam to fill them (I used apricot, cherry, plum and strawberry)

Instructions:

1. First make the pastry. Mix flour with salt, and cut in butter and lard, until you have pieces of fat in the flour about the size of peas. Add ice water, one TBS at a time, tossing it in with a fork until pastry comes together. Form in to a ball, flatten, wrap in cling film and chill in the refrigerator for about half an hour.
2. Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6.  Have ready some tart tins. I sprayed mine with some canola cooking spray to keep anything from sticking.  As I was using individual tins, I placed them onto a baking sheet.
3. Roll your pastry out, using a floured rolling pin, and on a lightly floured surface to 1/8 inch thickness.  Using a 2 inch cutter (I used a flower shaped one) stamp our rounds and use them to line your tart tins.  Gather up any scraps and repeat until all of your pastry is used.
4. Fill each tart with about 1/2 tsp of jam.  Bake in the preheated oven for about 10 to 12 minutes, until crisp, golden and the jam is bubbling.  Let cool in the tins for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. Enjoy with a hot cuppa.  Store any leftovers in an airtight container.

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I cooked us a fantastic roast chicken recipe today, so you might want to get yourself in a roasting chicken this weekend. I promise you won't be sorry. It was the most delicious chicken we have eaten in a while! (And we eat chicken a lot!) Oh, and get a couple lemons and some fresh thyme also.  Just a heads up!  

 

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Old Fashioned Sour Cream Doughnuts

 

One of the places I missed from back home when I moved over here to the UK was Tim Hortons.  I actually used to work at Timmie's before I moved over here.  I understand that it has changed a lot over the past 20 years and not always for the better.

 

When I worked there they had bakers right in shop and they would work basically all night making the doughnuts, cakes, etc.  From what I understand everything is made in a central place now, bought in frozen and then thawed.  Not quite the same I don't think.

 

One of the doughnuts that they had which was my favourite was their Sour Cream Doughnuts.  A type of cake doughnut as opposed to a yeast raised doughnut.  I have always preferred cake doughnuts to yeast raised.

 

A favourite treat when I was a child was when my mom would bring a bag of cake doughnuts home for us from the bakery.  She would reheat them in a low oven in a paper bag.  They were quite simply lovely.  I always enjoyed them with a slice of good cheese.

 

Seriously, if you have never tried it, you really need to do  . . .  unbeatable.  There is something about the nutmeg in a plain cake doughnut that goes very well with cheese.  You can find my recipe for Grandma's Doughnuts, here.

 

Of course if you are frying doughnuts, you have to fry the holes also.  Our grandmother's would have used a thimble to cut the hole out from the centre.  Today I used a metal lid from a bottle of vinegar.  It had a lovely sharp edge.

 

One way which sour cream doughnuts differ from other cake doughnuts is, first of all the tang, but secondly and most importantly they have a quality which lends themselves to splitting slightly when they hit the hot oil . . .  creating cracks, nooks and crannies that are perfect for hanging onto their sweet sugar glaze . . .

  

I love craggy things, don't you?  Just look at those little nooks and crannies  . . .

 

Perfectly cupping and creating little puddles of sweet and stick glaze . . .

 

Mmmm . . . so good.  Doughnuts are not something I make very frequently actually.

 

They are a once in a bluemoon treat.  My mother used to tell the story of my Aunt Orabelle frying the tips of her fingers in the hot oil when she made doughnuts. Orabelle was my maternal grandmother's youngest sister.  She and her husband Robie McGill lived on a farm up on the South Mountain.  They had an old blind white horse that lived in the field next to their house.

 

When we were children my mother would take us with her to go and visit Aunt Orabelle and my great Aunt would give us apples and carrots to feed the horse.  Good times.  I don't even know if that house is still standing  . . .  things change.

  

And what does any of that have to do with doughnuts?  Not a lot really, but I do love thinking back on the memories I have associated with the foods that I love.  You will want to try these doughnuts.  They are quick and easy and oh so delicious!

Old Fashioned Sour Cream Doughnuts

Yield: Makes 6 to 10 doughnuts

Author: Marie Rayner

Apparenty the difference between these and a regular cake donut is that as these fry the sides split open a bit and form interesting crags and crannies, which help to hug onto and hold the glaze.

Ingredients:

For the dougnuts

• 175g plain flour (1 1/4 cups)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of salt
• 75g fine sugar (1/3 cup)
• 30g sour cream (1/4 cup)
• 1 large free range egg
• 1 TBS butter melted
• oil for frying

Basic sugar glaze:

• 150g icing sugar, sifted (1 1/2 cups)
• 3 to 4 TBS milk or water
• few drops vanilla

Instructions:

1. Sift together the flour, soda and cinnamon.  Stir in the salt and set aside.
2. Whisk the sour cream, sugar, egg and melted butter together in a medium sized bowl until smooth.  Add the flour mixture a little bit at a time until you get a smooth dough.  Wrap and chill in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes.
3. Roll out on a lightly floured surface until 1/2 inch thick.  Using a 2 1/2 inch round cutter cut into rounds. Cut the centres out with a thimble.  Reroll any scraps and cut as required.
4. Heat 2 inches of oil in a heavy bottomed pan until a thermometer registers 180*C/350*F.  Carefully place the doughnuts in the hot oil, taking care not to overcrowd the pan and lower the temperature of oil.  Fry for 1 to 2 minutes per side until golden brown.  Remove to a rack lined with paper towels and drain. Repeat until all of the doughnuts and holes have been cooked.
5. Allow to cool.
6. When you are ready to glaze, whisk all of the glaze ingredients together in a bowl until smooth and you have a thick drizzle icing. (you may not need all the liquid)  Dip the doughnuts in the glaze on one side and return to the wire rack to allow to set.

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Apparently they have Tim Hortons here in the UK now.  I have not been to one as there isn't one in Chester and to be honest nobody is going anywhere at the present time.  I can't help thinking however that something would have been lost in translation however, but I do hope to check them out one day and find out for sure!  

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