The Friday List and honey buns

Weekday Carnival from Finland is my find of the week

A great round-up of covetable cookbooks

Chocolate and custard peanut cream from Citrus and Candy…wowsers.

Bali’s food markets by the lovely Fliss of Udder

We are cooking for lots of people this weekend; both at the Farm Kitchen and a 5th birthday party for Alice, so I turn to Hugh for inspiration

A pizza truck like this would be very welcome at our front gate tonight at around 5.30pm

Milk and honey pudding. Yes please

How to make great granola every time 

Take me to this Turkish village for profiteroles please…via a new favourite food blog, Cafe Fernando. 

These tarts look so beautiful, maybe those of us in the middle of winter could make them with a dollop of jam or some frozen berries instead?

My posts elsewhere this week
Baking our own olympic rings at Village Voices
Prosciutto and egg pies over at Justb
Chorizo and haloumi pasta for Village Voices

Honey and spelt buns

These buns are lovely warm from the oven and spread with butter and jam. If you have little people in the kitchen, this is also a great recipe to cook together as the dough is easy to knead and very forgiving. I’ve made these with dark chocolate chips and dried cranberries instead of the sultanas and both options were very popular, the first slightly more so. The recipe is founded on one given by Nikki Duffy in the wonderful River Cottage Baby and Toddler Cookbook.

1/2 cup milk
50g butter
4 tbsp honey
250g wholemeal flour
250g spelt flour
3 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup sultanas
1/2 cup apple juice
2 eggs, beaten

Bring the milk to steaming point in a small saucepan, remove from heat and stir through the butter and honey. Whisk well and then set aside for the butter to melt and then the mixture to cool a little. Combine the flours, yeast and spice in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the warm milk mixture, the apple juice and one of the beaten eggs. Mix into a dough and then turn this out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead for between 5 and 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place in this in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel and sit in a nice warm place for one hour. The dough should have almost doubled in size by this time.
Turn out the dough, divide into about 12 small balls about the size of a golfball. Place these on baking trays lined with paper and return to that warm spot for another hour. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 200C. Brush the buns with your remaining beaten egg and bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.