St Patricks Day Soda Bread and Pistachio Cupcakes

Happy St Patricks Day! Coming from an Irish family, we celebrate in a wonderful way... with food of course! In this case, bread. 

When I think of Ireland, I think of my Grandad, potatoes, green shamrocks, Mrs Brown's Boys and Leprechauns of course. But when I think of Irish food, my bread brain always thinks of soda bread. However, other countries have there own claim on the soda bread, but its mainly associated with Ireland. 

The Plain Soda Bread I made in pastry class.

My Grandad, (aka Gramps) is your typical, stereotypical Irish man and so he has to share his memories with me constantly. He told me that his granmother (my great-great granmother) would make her soda bread with currents to make it sweet. 

When I told him that I would be publishing a soda bread, which you can add cheese to. 

He looked mortified. 

So in this recipe, you can add currents or cheese and a little paprika (Just don't tell my Gramps!)

Ingredients: (Recipe Inspired by my Gramps and My patisserie tutor Faye)

·       300g Strong Flour

·       4g bicarbonate of soda

·       15g baking powder

·       15g Sugar

·       4g Salt

·       30g Unsalted butter

·       210ml buttermilk

(Add about 75g currents or 80g of a cheese of your choice with a pinch of paprika but this is optional)

Equipment

·       Sieve

·       Bowl

·       Jug

·       Baking sheet covered with silicone paper

Great with cheese or currents baked in it.

    1.    Sieve all the dry ingredients into a bowl.

    2.    Rub the butter into the mix until it resembles breadcrumbs

    3.    Make a well in centre and add most of the buttermilk but not all of it. Only add the last part if it’s too dry.

    4.    Mix all the ingredients together to form a dough. (Add the currents or cheese at this stage)

    5.    Turn out onto the table and knead until the stickiness has gone. Mould into a round and place on a baking sheet.

    6.    Make a cross with a very sharp knife almost cutting all the way through. Dust with a little flour.

    7.    Leave to rest in a proofer for 10 minutes then put into a hot oven 230c/450f/ Gas Mark 8 then turn the oven down and finish cooking for 25 minutes.

   8.    When cooked, it should appear golden brown and sound hollow when tapped when tapped on the bottom. 

    The next recipe is not traditional, in fact when I saw it, I went: “Huh, this is erm.. different? At least it's green.”

     In fact, I didn't think it would work! But the saltiness of the pistachios contrasted with the sweetness of the icing. It is a combination that will make your tastebuds dance a little Irish jig! 

    Recipe: Pistachio Cupcakes Makes About 16 (Adapted from Cupcakes Galore by Gail Wagman)

·       150g plain flour

·       1 teaspoon baking powder

·       1 teaspoon salt

·       190g unsalted butter, softened

·       150g dark brown sugar

·       3 eggs

·       1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

·       125ml natural yogurt

·       150g salted pistachios, roughly chopped

       Recipe: Green Icing

·       20g unsalted butter, softened

·       4 tablespoons hot milk

·       220g icing sugar

·       2 drops of Peppermint flavouring

·       Green food colouring paste (I used Gooseberry Green)

·       Green sugar

·       Gold and green glitter or other decorations.

       Equipment:

·       Knife

·       Chopping board

·       Bowl x3

·       12 hole muffin tray filled with cupcake cases x2

·       Electric whisk/handheld whisk

·       Scales

·       Spoons

·       Small palette knife

1.    Preheat oven to 180c/350f/Gas Mark 4

2.    Mix the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.

3.    Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition and add vanilla. Alternately beat in the flour mixture and the yoghurt. Fold in the pistachios.

4.    Spoon batter into cupcake cases, filling about 2/3 full. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

Green icing was used to top the cupcakes

5.    For the icing: Mix the butter and milk together in a large bowl. Slowly beat in the icing sugar until the icing is of a good spreading consistency. (You may need to add a little more milk depending on how runny you want your icing, but it should but thick but spreading).

6.    Add the food colouring and the peppermint flavouring, mix well and spread on cooled cupcakes. Decorate as desired. (Glitter and tried to do some shamrocks.)

Have a Happy St Patricks Day and Bake On!

Devonshire Splits, Bath Buns and Fruit Buns. With One Dough!

Another pastry class and a week closer to another crazy assessment!
Next week I'm making a flavoured loaf which was featured in a past blog post. 
However this week I've been making a plain sweet dough. Which sounds a little boring, but the whole class made a variety of different buns. 

In the class we made Devonshire Splits. When I think of Devon, I think of my friends Leanne and Ben and secondly of traditional cream tea. Now, no matter which country in the world tries. The BEST cream tea is from the UK!

Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Devonshire_tea.jpg

Traditionally clotted cream, jam are served with scones and hot tea. However Devonshire Splits aka Cornwall Splits, (there isn't a difference in the bun, but the name varies on if you put the jam or cream on first) can also be served with instead of scones.  Just would like to point out that we also made some Devonshire Splits with fondant icing on top, which look very similar to éclairs. 

Devonshire Splits made by me in pastry class

Bath buns are sweet dough buns which can be filled with fruits such as raisins and can be served with jam or cream or even both! They are always topped with crushed sugar. 

Bath buns(far left) with different shaped Devonshire Splits.(Made by me) 

Recipe: Basic Bun Dough 

·       600g Strong Flour

·       15g Milk powder

·       75g Sugar

·       7g Salt

·       60g Unsalted butter

·       30g Liquid egg

·       37g Yeast

·       300g Warm Water

Devonshire Splits with icing:

·       500g Fondant Icing

·       Whipped Cream

Devonshire Splits:

·       Whole Egg for glazing

·       Whipped Cream

·       Raspberry Jam

Bath Buns

·       Whole Egg for glazing

·       Crushed sugar 
        
Fruit Buns
· 75g Sultanas

Equipment

·       Sieve

·       Bowl

·       Jug

·       Large baking sheet covered with silicone paper

·       2x Piping bags, one fitted with a star nozzle

·       Spoons

·       Pastry brush for the egg glaze

·       Whisk for the whipping cream

1.    Sieve the flour into a bowl, add the milk powder. Rub the butter into the flour until mix resembles breadcrumbs. Mix in the salt and sugar.

2.    Disperse yeast in some but not all of the water.

3.    Make a well in the flour mix, add the yeast water and also the egg. Add most of the yeasty water but not all. Knead the dough until the dough loses it’s stickiness. Add the rest of the water if the dough feels dry. 

4.    Cut into thirds. Mix 75g sultanas into one third of the dough, cut into 4’s and shape into round buns.

5.    Cut the two doughs into 4’s and shape four into oblongs and four into round buns.

6.    Place all the buns on the large tray covered with silicone paper and leave to proof for 30-45 minutes.

7.    Glaze the tops of the buns with a little egg wash and top the fruit buns with a little nibbed sugar.

8.    Bake at 180c/350f/Gas Mark 4/  for 15-20 minutes.

9. Place on a wire rack to cool.
10. Cut the plain buns slightly diagonally fill with cream and jam.

11. Cut the oblong buns across and top with melted fondant and fill with cream. Serve with tea!

Bake On!
Penny