Crumpets - you cannot get more English than that. The word itself conjures up ladies with fine bone china cups of fragrant tea balanced delicately on saucers with their ankles demurely crossed. Quiet and polite conversation ensues while Thomas and Edward play croquet on the lawn.

Well .. not in our house. I mentioned quietly, I’m going to make crumpets. A very loud YUM was the response. They were not eaten with tea in china cups, but hot out of the pan at the bench with golden syrup drizzled from the bottle. In fact I think Kit ate his over the sink so he would not have to bother with a plate. Isaac actually contemplated no golden syrup for a moment so he would not have to wash his hands afterwards. Yes, we’re a rather uncouth lot our family.

The origin of crumpets has been dated back as far as the 1300’s, with something called crompid cake, which food historians seem to think was the humble crumpets first appearance. Crumpets are not the same as an English muffin. They are quite different and have a totally different cooking method and texture. Some crumpet recipes have eggs in them, while others do not. The one I’ve given here is a recipe without eggs, and easily made vegan with the use of soy milk.

I had a bit of an interesting time making these. I weighed and measured out my ingredients carefully - but I had a feeling that my batter was too thick. It had been a while since I’d made them and I could not quite remember what the batter was supposed to be like. I went ahead anyway. Once I started to cook them I decided the batter was definitely too thick and added extra liquid. I realised at that point that my kitchen scale had been resting on the lid of the cookie jar and consequently I had measured way too much flour into the mix. Easily rectified though with the extra liquid.

Lesson learned. Your batter needs to be thick, but should spread to the edges of the rings that you use to mould your crumpets in on it’s own and the little bubbles on top should appear within the first minute or so of cooking. If you are not getting many little holes in your crumpets add a little extra water to your crumpet batter. Also as the batter stands while you cook you may need to add additional water since it thickens a little.

If you don’t have special crumpet rings you can still make these. Try using high sided cookie cutters, tuna cans with the bottom and top cut out (be careful on sharp edges), egg poaching rings or food moulds. I used a combination of egg poaching rings and food moulds for these. If you can, choose something that is 2-3 inches across that is roughly the right size for a crumpet. Make sure you grease your pan and your rings after each crumpet. This is important or they will stick to the rings. You can use a little cooking spray or butter.

English Crumpets

(recipe from Bill Granger - Sydney Food)

Makes 16-25 crumpets depending on your mould size)

• 1 1/2 cups of milk
• 1 1/2 tspns sugar
• 7g (1/4 oz)sachet of dried instant yeast
• 375g/12 oz flour
• 1/2 tspn baking soda
• 200ml/6 1/2 fl oz water
• pinch of salt

Pour the milk into a saucepan and heat until just warm. Transfer into a bowl and add the sugar and yeast. Allow to stand for 10 minutes or until the milk starts to bubble.

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the milk/yeast mixture to the flour and beat with an electric beater until completely smooth.

Cover in plastic wrap and stand in a warm place for 1- 1 1/2 hours until doubled in volume and full of air bubbles.

Mix the baking soda with the water and use your electric beater to combine this with the batter.

Heat a heavy based frying pan or griddle over a medium  heat and grease with a little butter.

Grease your crumpet moulds also - keep them greased throughout the cooking. Place your moulds on the hot surface and place 2-3 Tblspns of mixture inside the mould. Your first 2-3 crumpets will be a little trial and error to get your desired thickness. Your mixture will rise in the moulds.

Within a short period of time your crumpets should get small bubbles all over the surface that begin to break. It will look like this.

Once the surface is covered in broken bubbles and a light skin has formed you can remove your crumpet from the mould, turn gently and cook on the other side.

Remove from the pan and snuggle your crumpets in a clean tea towel while you cook the rest.

The crumpets can be eaten fresh or toasted.

Some ideas for topping your crumpets:

Crumpets are great used for either sweet or savoury toppings

• Honey
• Golden syrup
• Jams
• Nutella
• Top with cheese and bacon and grill
• Tomato and fresh mozzarella
• spaghetti and cheese
• meatballs and cheese
• refried beans and salsa
• sloppy Joe toppings.

This is not the kind of thing that I envisage people making regularly unless you have a lot of time at home. But to make now and then on a lazy weekend, they are perfect.

I seem to be making a lot of loaves lately. I guess I am going through a phase. I do that, I have temporary obsessions - I do it with books, crafts, TV shows, computer games, and various other grand ideas but most especially with food. Indulge my loaf obsession just for a little longer.

This is one of Bill Grangers recipes. For those of you that are not familiar with him, he’s a very handsome Australian self taught cook that makes simple but incredibly delicious food. He has a family and he shares the recipes that he likes to make for both his family and his restaurants. No garnished within an inch of it’s life and smothered in thick sauces food here. This recipe has come from his Sydney Food book.

This coconut bread recipe has been cooked countless times in our house. It’s quite substantial, after you’ve eaten a slice you know you’ve eaten it. This is not a light loaf, this is dense and slightly chewy with the shreds of coconut adding texture.

The reason I made this loaf this week is because of this:

It’s a new toaster! My old one finally died and I had to trundle off down to the store and buy this shiny little number. It was a month for appliance deaths in our house. The electric jug also came to an untimely end, as did a bedside light, an electric blanket, and the television.

This toaster can fit extra wide and large pieces of toast. In the recipe for the coconut bread it mentions that the loaf is very good toasted for breakfast. I’ve always wanted to try it toasted but I’ve never had a toaster that would fit a nice thick slice of this loaf. Making this loaf was the first thing on the agenda when this toaster took up residence in our kitchen.

What actually happened of course was that we ate all the loaf while it was warm from the oven and there was none left to toast because I have a very greedy family that appreciates home baking.

If anyone actually manages to get a slice of this into their toaster please let me know what it’s like, I’m pretty sure none of it will ever last long enough to make it into our toaster.

Jamaican Coconut Bread

• 2 eggs
• 300mls milk
• 1 tspn vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tspns baking powder
• 2 tspns cinnamon
• 1 cup of caster (superfine) sugar
• 150 g shredded unsweetened coconut
• 75 g butter melted

Preheat oven to 180c/350F and line a loaf pan with baking paper.

Lightly whisk eggs, milk and vanilla together.

Sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl and add the coconut and sugar. Make a well in the centre and stir in the egg mixture until well combined. Add in your melted butter and stir until just smooth.

Pour into your loaf pan and bake for roughly 1 hour or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Serve in thick slices with a light dusting of icing sugar, with butter and lime marmalade. Or toast it when it’s completely cool if your family have not eaten it all.

Mothers Day caught me by surprise this year, and I found myself with a very sad looking bank balance just before Mothers Day. I love to give and receive home made gifts, so I just needed to be slightly creative to come up with something for my lovely Mum. Salame di Cioccolata was the solution to my problems! Exotic, fudgey, delicious and it gave Isaac an opportunity to tell my mother she had salami for a mother’s day gift- he thought that was hilarious.

Mothers Day for me, means breakfast in bed and home made cards from my children. I remember very clearly when Leah and Ryan were little, two little beaming faces presenting me with a breakfast tray on Mothers Day. A pile of toast that was inevitably cold, with holes torn in the bread, an inch or so of butter in chunks and about the same thickness of jam. A cup of tea that was lukewarm, with a layer of sugar sitting in the bottom of the cup and the other half of the cup filled with large amounts of milk. I’m pretty sure they subscribed to the theory that if something is good, then more must be better.

Home-made cards would be propped on the tray and the look of absolute satisfaction on their faces was priceless. They would crawl into bed and poke their little elbows in my ribs. I still have every mothers day card they’ve made over the years. This year, I look like this apparently, slightly crazed, amazing hair and plenty of teeth! This is Isaac’s rendition.

This year it was Isaac’s turn to make me breakfast in bed, he must have taken lessons off his siblings, there it was.. toast - cold- with lumps of margarine hanging off the edge and about an inch of marmalade on the top. He’d picked some flowers for me and he had ice cold feet from running outside with no slippers on, which he pressed against me to warm up.

He told me with such pride and a huge grin, ” I made it all by myself Mummy!”Check out my card this year .. I just love it!

Those are the best Mothers Day breakfasts!

Of course if you are no longer cute and little - you’d better come up with something that is at least edible! Not that I am suggesting Chocolate Salami for breakfast mind you!

Happy Mothers Day Mum.. love you!

Salame di Cioccolata

Makes one large Chocolate Salami or two smaller ones.

• 100g butter softened
• 100g cocoa
• 250g plain cookies (Nice biscuits, graham crackers, digestives etc)
• 100g sugar
• 1/2 cup of hazelnuts chopped with some texture.
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of dried fruit of your choice.
• 2 egg whites
• 1 Tbspn Rum (optional)

Crush your cookies making sure that you leave some pieces - don’t turn it all into crumbs! Place in a medium sized bowl.

Add in your chopped dried fruit, sugar, cocoa and nuts

Mix through your butter - I used my hands for this - honestly it seemed like the best way to get things well mixed.

Lastly mix in your egg whites, the original recipe says fold.. but really there is no way on the planet you can fold these through.

Make sure it’s well mixed and that there are no dry bits in your mixture.

Place a large piece of foil on the countertop and tip the mixture in a line down the centre. Roll up the foil and squeeze and roll the mixture into a salami shape, twisting the ends of the foil. Make sure it’s pressed firmly together. Or you can divide the mixture in half for two smaller logs.

Place in the fridge for 2-3 hours, when completely chilled rub the outside with icing sugar/powdered sugar, cut slices to your desired thickness and eat!

The kids loved the novelty value of this and honestly so did I, it’s surprising how much this actually looks like salami! It’s a lovely one for little children to make with you since there is no cooking involved.

For something so simple it tastes great, when sliced the little flecks of biscuit and fruit make for such an interesting mouthful. It took just a few minutes to put together.

“Mother’s Day
is a thank-you
to every woman who has ever
hugged a baby,
kissed a boo-boo,
taught a lesson,
listened closely,
cared deeply…

and passed on
her love
and wisdom
to someone
in the world
who needed her.”

NB: One of my children was missing for the first time this mother’s day. My third child, Fynn.  Fynn I remember all your mothers day kisses too sweetheart. I’ve posted a photo of Fynn and myself on the About Me page for the first time, perhaps you would like to see the little boy that was the reason I started this blog. Happy Mothers Day to all those mothers that have their children with them and warm thoughts to all the mothers who are missing their children on this day.

Yes I am indeed going to add to the wealth of hot cross bun recipes out there on the internet. Slightly late, but there’s still a couple of days left to make these. I love hot cross buns and it’s simply not Easter time without them. Year after year the hot cross buns available in the supermarkets are getting doughier and less fruit filled. They collapse when you eat them. Bakery hot cross buns are often very good, but a little too expensive for my liking. Two buns for $3.50? I can bake more than a dozen for that price!

I hold my purse strings tight when it comes to buying baked goods. No matter how good they look, I always think I can do it at home so much cheaper, if you ever see me buying something from a bakery, you know I must be really tired or at least 20 miles away from my kitchen.

The smell that hot cross buns fill the kitchen when they bake transports me back to my childhood. It smells just like Easter to me. Cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg - surely some of the most wonderful smelling spices on this earth.

Hot cross buns evoke memories of Middlemarch and getting my horse ready for hunting (no bunnies were killed!). Mum would always have some ready to have with a hot drink along with the inevitable bacon and egg pie when we were done with the horseriding and ready for a break.

I was always envious of our neighbours who had home made buns each year, so this year I finally decided to take the plunge and make some. The result? One dozen buns consumed in roughly 20 minutes. I guess they worked out ok!

Everyone has a particular version they like, chocolate, with peel, without peel, with currants, without currants. It’s impossible to keep everyone happy, but this is the version I like. It’s slightly adapted from Karen’s recipe on Citrus and candy. While you’re there take a look around her blog, she has a beautiful selection of recipes.

Hot Cross Buns with Glacé Citrus Peel

(makes 12)

• 310ml warmed milk
• 60g caster sugar
• 16g instant dried yeast (about 4 teaspoons)
• 600g plain flour, sifted
• 1 tsp salt
• 1.5 tsps ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1 tspn mixed spice
  
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 60g butter, softened
• 1.5 cups of raisins / sultanas
• 1/2 cup of currants
• 1/4 of a cup of glace citrus peel
  
• 2 eggs

To finish

• 60g plain flour
• 60ml water
• 2 Tbl apricot jam, warmed in a pan over low heat and strained

Method

1. In a bowl, whisk together the sugar, milk and yeast together until sugar has dissolved. Cover and set aside for 10 minutes or until it becomes frothy.

2. Mix the flour, salt and ground spices in a large bowl. With your fingers, rub the butter into the flour until mixed and crumbly. Stir in the raisins/sultanas, egg and frothy yeast mixture until combined.

3. On a lightly floured surface, knead the bread dough for about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. Lightly grease another large, clean bowl, place the dough in and turn to coat the surface with grease. Cover in clingwrap and leave in a warm, draught-free place for 45 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

4. When ready, remove the clingwrap and use your fist to punch down the dough  Give it a quick knead until smooth and divide into 12.

5. Place the buns into a greased 20 x 30cm baking tray, cover with clingwrap and leave in warm place to rise for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200°C.

6. Whisk together the plain flour and water to a smooth paste. Pipe crosses on top of the buns and bake at 200°C for 10 minutes.

Reduce heat to 180°C bake for a further 15 minutes. Buns are ready when it sounds hollow when you tap the tops.

7. Brush with warmed apricot jam while the buns are still warm.

It’s not Easter until there are hot cross buns in the house.

PS. I took half a dozen of these to my parents today, guess where they were off to? Middlemarch - to see my niece riding her horse.. now I feel old! But hey I’ve got my hot cross buns, so I’m happy!

I looked at my lovely crop of thriving beetroot growing in the garden and I wondered if I could come up with something slightly different for it. My father planted the seeds and gave me the seedlings when they were about an inch high. Now look at them!

There is always something incredibly satisfying about growing something, harvesting it and then making something delicious with it.

We often have pre-conceived ideas about how certain things taste and how they should be prepared and only if they meet our particular set of criteria will we eat them. Although the idea of beetroot bread was not really something that I’d considered before, I could not help myself .. the thought of making bread which had a hot pink dough was just too much for me to resist. I had to make it.

Look at this - there is no food colouring in there, that’s just how it is! The colour of the dough is really amazing - I could not take my eyes off it when I was kneading it. It was like squishing a giant raspberry marshmallow. I had playdough flashbacks and felt the urge to make all kinds of funny things with it.

I’m really glad I was brave enough to try this bread, because we all loved it. As long as you like beetroot you’ll enjoy the bread. The bread has a slight beetroot taste, but certainly nothing overpowering and in fact quite complementary to sandwhich fillings. I made a second loaf very soon after we devoured the first, to use as sandwich bread for the next day. While beetroot is in season this bread will be made regularly in our house.

There was no recipe which really drew me to it that I could find online or in my books, so I came up with something based around this one here at Travel Flower Children. The bread has a soft crust rather than a crisp one.

Beetroot & Sunflower Seed Bread

Please note: The quantities of water and flour are very much approximate in this recipe, because it will depend on the size of your beetroot and just how juicy it is. Don’t be scared to add a little more flour if you need to. This bread is very forgiving. The sunflower seeds are a wonderful addition, they add some texture to a very soft bread.

Tip: Use rubber gloves to cut and grate your beetroot - or you will have stained hands.

• 1 medium beetroot peeled and grated raw
• 2 tspns of sugar
• 1 Tblspn of olive oil
• 1 tspn of salt
• 300 mls of warm water - just slightly warmer than skin temperature
• 1/2 cup of hulled sunflower seeds or green pumpkin seeds.
• one package of instant yeast (8 grams instant yeast- 25g/0.6 oz compressed yeast- 2 1/4 tspns active dry yeast)
• between 500g/16oz and 700g/1 1/2 lbs  of flour plus more for the work surface
• Milk or water to glaze
• Sesame seeds to sprinkle on the top if wished.

Place your warm water, oil, and sugar in a bowl with your yeast and leave until foamy (about 5 mins). Then add your sunflower seeds, grated beetroot, flour and salt

If you are using instant yeast you can just mix it in with your water, oil and sugar and add your other ingredients adding flour and salt last.

Stir together initially with a spoon (this is so you do not get bright red hands) until your dough starts to come together. Tip out on the work surface and knead together to form an elastic dough - about 10 minutes kneading. If your dough is very sticky do not be afraid to add more flour while you are kneading. Your dough should be slightly sticky, but still be able to be kneaded with relative ease. You can use a Kitchen aid for the kneading if you wish, but you will miss out on the playdough experience if you do that!

Set aside in a warm place in a covered bowl to rise until doubled in size - roughly 40 mins to an hour.

Punch down dough and form into the shape of your choice.

Leave to rise at room temperature for about 30 minutes. When well risen brush with a little milk or water and sprinkle black sesame seeds on the top if wished. 

Bake  in a 200C/392F oven.

If you choose to braid your bread into a long loaf it will take roughly 20 minutes cook time. If you place your dough in a loaf tin it will take closer to 40 minutes to cook through to the centre of the loaf. Your cook time will vary depending on the shape. Test for doneness by tapping on the bottom of the loaf it will sound hollow when cooked.

Leave your bread to cool on a rack and slice when cool. This is a soft-ish  loaf, if you try to cut it when it’s too hot it will be doughy. The sunflower seeds add a fantastic texture to the bread, they were a perfect addition.

This was quite an experience making this, the dough was so wonderfully pink, and each person that came into the kitchen uttered some kind of exclamation depending on their age - ranging from “Cool Mummy!” to “Holy *&^%# how did you get the dough that colour?!”

I love this bread!