Pretend hot cross buns

Long-time readers will know that I'm a traditionalist when it comes to Easter - no hot cross buns before Good Friday; no Easter eggs before Easter Sunday. That's not to say that it doesn't get extremely hard to resist these things sometimes, especially when a packet of hot cross buns turns up in  your kitchen at breakfast time on a Saturday morning.
My resolve to give up chocolate for Lent has wobbled a bit in recent weeks - chocolate icecream doesn't really count, does it? - but I'm staying strong on the HCBs. Mainly that's because I've invented some you can eat at any time, guilt-free. Here's how.

'Pretend' Hot Cross Buns
These lookalike 'buns' - really bliss balls with the flavours of hot cross buns and white chocolate crosses - have many things going for them. My favourite, though, is that you can eat them while you're waiting for the real ones to cook (or toast). What are you waiting for?

1 cup sultanas
1 cup ground almonds
1 1/2 tsp mixed spice
2 Tbsp coconut oil (or olive oil)
1 Tbsp honey
finely grated zest of one orange
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup roughly chopped white chocolate

Put all ingredients except the chocolate into a food processor and whiz until you can pinch together small amounts. Take dessertspoon-sized heaps of the mixture and form into square-ish 'buns' and place on a tray lined with baking paper.
Gently melt the white chocolate - put it in a small bowl, then set this over a bowl of freshly boiled water from the kettle - and put into a small ziplock bag or piping bag. Pipe crosses over the buns and leave to set. Store in the fridge - makes about 18 'buns'.

Good Things: April 2014

T. S Eliot was wrong. April is not the cruellest month - at least not in the southern hemisphere, where it means a slew of public holidays, Easter and settled autumn sunshine. April is all about chocolate and hot cross buns and house guests and 'is it drinks o'clock yet?'. At least, that's how it was at our place.

First, the chocolate. As well as the gorgeous gilded bunnies I made with my pal Agnes (I was allowed to do the gilding, she did everything else), the single best Easter chocolate that passed my lips was a dark chocolate bunny filled with cinnamon-infused salted caramel from my local chocolatier, Bohemien Chocolates. I ate it in about three bites, then lay on the sofa in a state of complete satisfaction.

I made two huge batches of hot cross buns - the ones pictured above are made to the Little & Friday hot cross bun recipe, though I found the recipe in the book itself to be rather counter-intuitive and fiddled with it a bit to be sure it would work. I've found this to be true of several Little & Friday recipes and I think it's more to do with editing than anything else. But it's not very helpful to first-time bakers, is it? Anyway, these were good, but pretty heavy going to eat. I made a mega-batch of the Dan Lepard spiced stout buns the next day and they were much better. A little fiddlier to make, sure, but with better flavours and a much lighter texture.

As for the houseguests - they were of the very best kind. They performed magic tricks, provided high quality childcare, filled the fridge with exciting foodstuffs and good wine and cooked lovely dinners. The house hasn't been quite the same since.

Instead, I've been cheering myself up with this - quite possibly the BEST peanut butter I've ever tasted. I didn't think anything could top Pic's Peanut Butter (the one with a poem written inside the label, if you can ever soak it off in one piece), but Fix and Fogg Peanut Butter is incredible. The super crunchy is so crunchy you need to spread it in a thick, chunky layer. Essentially, it's peanut butter made for eating out of the jar. I am addicted. If this keeps up the only thing keeping me from the debtor's prison will be that I'll be too wide to fit through the doors...

What helped you get through April?

Treat me: Easy Easter Brioche

Do you dream of waking up on Good Friday to a trayful of freshly made hot cross buns? Me too. Over the years I've tried many ways of achieving this, ranging from buying them in the day before, to getting up at the crack of dawn. Neither one is particularly good - especially if you already get up at the crack of dawn and everyone in your household is ravenous at breakfast time. The first hot cross bun of the day is like the first cup of tea; you shouldn't have to wait for it.

But this way - using a clever, no-knead, no stress method - is perfect. All you do is make up a batter-like dough the night before and leave it in the fridge overnight. Then all you have to do in the morning is wait for the oven to heat up, then these lovely, light, buttery buns are ready to eat 15 minutes later. If that's not an Easter miracle, I don't know what is.

Easy Easter Brioche
If you've had hot cross bun disasters in the past or are a novice yeast baker, this is the recipe for you. There's no kneading, just a bit of energetic stirring with a wooden spoon. If you don't have a muffin tin you can make a giant loaf in a 23cm cake tin - it will take more like 25-30 minutes to cook.

200g raisins or sultanas
50g mixed peel (or finely chopped crystallised ginger, or other tangy dried fruit)
150ml milk
250g strong or high grade flour
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp dried yeast
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
grated zest of one orange
1/2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs, lightly beaten
140g unsalted butter, softened but NOT melted, and cut into little pieces

Put the dried fruit in a small heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water from the kettle. Leave to steep while you get everything else organised.
Put the milk in a small pan and bring to nearly simmering point, then remove from the heat and let cool to lukewarm.
Put the flour, sugar, yeast, spices and salt in a large bowl and stir well. Drain the dried fruit and set aside.
Pour in the milk, the orange zest, the vanilla, the eggs and the dried fruit. Beat well until you have a smooth batter. Set aside in a warm place until doubled - this will take about an hour.
Beat the risen batter until it deflates, then add half the butter and beat well with a wooden spoon until it is all mixed in and there are no lumps. Repeat with the remaining butter and beat until the batter is smooth.
Grease the holes of a 12-cup muffin pan with a little butter or oil, and divide the mixture between them.
Cover the tin with a plastic bag and put it in the fridge.
In the morning, turn the oven to 170C and take the tin out of the fridge. When the oven has reached temperature and the buns have lost their chill (about 35 minutes, in my house) put them in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, until risen and golden brown.
Leave them in the tin for five minutes, then gently ease out with a spatula. Makes 12.

Have a wonderful Easter, everyone x

Treat me: Homemade Easter eggs

I'm not really that keen on sweets or lollies, but it takes a lot of willpower for me to resist a marshmallow. This has been a lifelong problem - when I was about five I discovered a stash of marshmallows in a high cupboard and secretly scoffed the lot. I still remember the speech I got about how it was bad to take the marshmallows, but even worse to lie and pretend I hadn't. I've been a terrible liar ever since (and still feel guilty about indulging my marshmallow habit.)

Last weekend my friend Agnes came over and made a swag of beautiful Easter eggs while I found whatever kitchen tool she needed and kept our daughters out of the chocolate (one of those tasks was much easier than the other). Agnes and chocolate are like Picasso and paint - it's amazing watching her work. I was too embarrassed to make these eggs - the way I remember doing them with my mother - in front of her, but my taste for nostalgia (and marshmallow) meant I've been dreaming about them all week.

So if you've ever wondered how to make marshmallow Easter eggs at home without any fancy kit, this is how to do it.

Homemade Marshmallow Easter Eggs
Don't be alarmed - the flour and egg are only used in the shaping process. Both can be reused in the normal way. You need electric beaters, or preferably a stand mixer, to make the marshmallow. Don't attempt it with a rotary beater, it will only end in tears. This is a bit of a process but the results, which taste like chocolate-covered clouds, make it all worth it.

2 kg flour (use gluten-free flour if you have gluten woes)
1 egg - at room temperature (or the flour sticks to it)
1 Tbsp powdered gelatine
1/4 cup cold water
1/2 cup hot water
1 cups sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla
1/2 tsp rosewater
1 tsp lemon juice
Pink food colouring, optional
180g good quality chocolate - I used Whittaker's Fairtrade Creamy Milk
1 Tbsp coconut oil or other plain, flavourless oil

Spread the flour into two or three large, deep baking dishes. The flour needs to be about 5cm deep. Gently press the egg (in the shell) into the flour to make a half-egg shape to make 20 hollows. Carefully set aside.
Put the cold water in a small bowl and sprinkle over the gelatine. Stir well, then let swell for five minutes.
Put the hot water and the sugar in a large saucepan and stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Add the gelatine mixture, stirring all the time, until it has dissolved too.
Bring this mixture to the boil and boil gently for six minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool until lukewarm.
Transfer it to a large mixing bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer) and add the vanilla, rosewater and lemon juice. Beat on high speed until thick and creamy (about five minutes, depending on your mixer). If you like, add a few drops of pink food colouring when the mixture is nearly done.
Carefully spoon the marshmallow mixture into the egg shapes, making sure it comes to the top.
Let set for 15 minutes, then carefully remove the halves from the flour by touching the top of each one with your finger and lifting it out. Join the halves together (the top stays sticky, so they 'glue' together nicely) and dust off the flour. A pastry brush is helpful here.
Cover a tray with plastic wrap and set aside.
Leave the marshmallow eggs in a cool place while you melt the chocolate and coconut oil together in a double boiler over low heat. Let cool until lukewarm, then carefully dip the eggs in, using a fork or a dipping spoon, then put them on the plastic-covered tray. This is a messy job - just resign yourself to the fact that chocolate will go everywhere. When the eggs are covered (or as best as you can get them), put them in the fridge to set. Store them in a covered container in the fridge (wrap them in foil if you're really fancy). Makes 8-10 eggs, depending on how much marshmallow you eat in the process...

Given that this is such a chocolate-filled time of the year (in our house, at least), it makes great sense to add this post to April's We Should Cocoa challenge, where guest host Rachel Cotterill has chosen Easter as the theme.

Have a great weekend everyone x

Little & Friday's famous doughnuts

After a truly hectic month, in which I spent far too much time out of my kitchen (not to mention being slightly out of my mind), I spent most of Easter weekend pottering between stove, sink and vegetable garden. It was great.

I even managed to make a menu plan and I only made one emergency dash to the dairy (in which I bought the last bottle of cream in the eastern suburbs). I managed to use some of my recent cookbook acquisitions AND my fancy new cake tin. The cake I made in it was a disaster, but that's another story. My hot cross buns - Dan Lepard's spiced stout buns - turned out a little heavier than I expected too, but anecdotal evidence tells me that a lot of people struggled to make decent buns this year. Let's blame climate change, shall we?

Buns, blue cheese and rose petal jelly

Anyway, today I achieved a longheld ambition and made the Cream Doughnuts from Treats From Little & Friday. For non-New Zealanders, Little & Friday is an Auckland cafe with a cult following. The cafe's owner/founder Kim Evans published a gorgeous book of some of her best recipes last year and I've been dying to make the famous doughnuts ever since. I won't reproduce the recipe here, but essentially you make brioche dough (about 900g flour, 3 eggs, 140g butter, milk, yeast, sugar, salt etc), which is then deep-fried (!) and filled with jam and creme diplomat (a half-half mixture of creme patissiere and whipped cream) until they are at near-bursting point. Then you roll them in icing sugar and eat them, until you are near bursting point (and covered with icing sugar).

They are seriously, seriously good. I took a basket of them to an annual Easter bun-fest/chocolate frenzy at a friend's place and while the kids ran amok hunting Easter eggs, the adults just ate doughnuts and reclined with beatific expressions. I can't wait to make them again. But perhaps I'll sign up for the Wellington half-marathon first...

What did you make this Easter? Have you made the L&F doughnuts before?

World famous chocolate recipes

OK, everyone, it's time to pull on your legwarmers, leotards and headbands: it's the We Should Cocoa Fame round-up. Since I'm writing this post with the Fame theme going round and round my head, here's the link so you can listen along at the same time. Catchy, isn't it?

We Should Cocoa usually asks participants to match chocolate with a special guest star ingredient, but this month I thought it might be fun to try something different. Instead, I asked everyone to come up with a 'famous' chocolate recipe - whether it was from a famous person, world-famous in their street, or just deserved wider recognition. Here's what they came up with...

We Should Cocoa newbie Nicole Bremner dived in at the deep end and managed to reinvented the world-famous Oreo cookie not once, but twice. She's made a vegan and a fructose-free version - and both look amazing. Nicole's blog is new to me and it's full of lovely things. You should check it out.

The always-inspiring Karen of Lavender and Lovage is famous enough in her own right (did you know she was a World Baking Day ambassador?) and she whipped up a treat with her usual joie de vivre. Her Famous Drinking Chocolate Cake took me back to the days of eating drinking chocolate out of the packet... come on, I know I'm not the only one to have done that!

And the similarly famous Dom of Belleau Kitchen, a legend in Lincolnshire, acquitted himself nicely with this Gluten-Free Chocolate Fudge Cake. Put this on your must-make list if you a) need something kosher for Passover next year and b) need to eat more vegetables (because it's got potato flour in it. Cool, huh?)

Meanwhile, Craig of The Usual Saucepans chose a sachertorte by the lesser-known Delia Smith. And he made it for his Mum. Isn't that cute?

Some guy called Nigel Slater, who apparently keeps some sort of kitchen diary (like Bridget Jones, do you think? Or Adrian Mole?) inspired Camilla of Fab Food 4 All to make this Pear, Ginger and Chocolate Crumble. Well played, Nigel old chap.

Mr Slater also inspired Kate of Turquoise Lemons - check out his (and her) Hot Chocolate Puddings. The man himself even tweeted her about them!

We Should Cocoa co-founder Choclette of Chocolate Log Blog was also inspired by a famous figure - and her post about Garibaldi Biscuits is a must for anyone who ever thought the Italian revolutionary had time to stop and bake along the way.

Phil of As Strong As Soup was inspired by some folks from a bit closer to home - the mysterious Debdens who apparently created this luscious Chocolate Pudding. Rumour has it the Debdens now own a weight-loss empire. Or they invented Photoshop.

Elizabeth at The Law Students Cookbook chose Nigella's Chocolate Muffins - a recipe that certainly deserves wider fame. If you haven't made these yet, add them to your repertoire, quick.

Caroline at Caroline Makes certainly deserves wider fame and fortune - she gets the prize for the cutest entry this month with her fabulous Pigs In Mississipi Mud Pie. Isn't it brilliant? Check out her blog for close-ups of those pigs, which she made with her own fair hands.

Johanna at Green Gourmet Giraffe also slaved over a fabulously decorated cake - a Pirate Treasure Chest - for her daughter's fourth birthday. Johanna is famous among her friends (and blog followers) for her incredible novelty cakes (last year she made THREE cakes for her daughter's third birthday!) and this one deserves its place in her hall of fame. Read her post first if you're considering making a cake of this nature in a heatwave as it may make you reconsider.

I wonder what Johanna, who hails from Melbourne, would make of the next entry - Caroline of Cake, Crumbs and Cooking took on Dan Lepard's Double Chocolate Lamingtons. A version of his recipe drew a bit of flack when it was published on Australian website Good Food (some readers sniffed that these fancy pants variations weren't real lamingtons) and Caroline did have a few issues with it. I wouldn't say no to one though.

Suelle at Mainly Baking approached the task in a clever way - she chose a famous ingredient as the starting inspiration and poured a cup of Guinness into this Chocolate Guinness Cake. Just look at that icing!

Ness at Jibber Jabber UK had a similar idea - she also made Nigella's Chocolate Guinness Cake, but adapted it to suit a thrifty budget. We all need one of those, don't we?

Claire of Under The Blue Gum Tree was among those who cursed me for my choice of theme, but after a few false starts she rose to the challenge brilliantly by making this Layered Cappuccino Mousse, apparently the dessert served at this year's Golden Globe Awards.

Hannah of Corner Cottage Bakery was also inspired by the screen - she made this incredible Twin Peaks Tart after a bout of illness saw her confined to the sofa with Agent Cooper and his pals. Worth getting sick for, I'd say!

I also went for something inspired by the small screen - adapting English actor Martin Clunes' recipe for Cold Dog Biscuits. I got so addicted to this I had to take it to work to stop myself eating it slice by tiny slice.

Meanwhile, Katharine of Leeks and Limoni delved into the fascinating history of the humble chocolate chip cookie, coming up with these gorgeous Chocolate Chip and Pecan Oat Cookies.

But if cookies seem too wholesome and you have a taste for the dark and rich, you'll love this Mississipi Mud Pie, chosen by Cookbooks Galore...

... Not to mention this incredible Better Than Nutella Cheesecake from The Taste Space - believe it or not this is made from raw ingredients (so hot - but not too hot - right now). I want some.

I also want a big slice of Susan of The Spice Garden's Peanut Butter And Chocolate Mud Pie. No, scratch that, I want two. Susan pays homage to Debbi Fields (of Mrs Fields' Cookies fame) in her post, but one look at this pie and you'll want to pay homage to Susan. Or at least find out her address.

I don't know about you but I need a lie down and a cup of chamomile tea after all that lot. Oh, go on then, maybe I'll have a hot cross bun too.

Have a great Easter weekend, everyone x

The holy grail of hot cross buns

This time next week I hope to be getting ready to make my first batch of hot cross buns. As a child we never had them until Good Friday and there's something nice about sticking to that - as long as you can resist the lure of cinnamon-scented butter wafting out of every shop door.

For ages I made Nigella's hot cross buns from Feast - her own photo of them makes them look less than perfect and mine were more or less the same, as exhibited by this batch...

(In my defence, I did make these in France, where I only had a very vague handle on the sort of yeast I was using and a very temperamental oven. They did taste good!)

Last year I made Dan Lepard's Spiced Stout Buns, which were very, very good - and obviously I've become a lot more adept....

But what am I going to make this year? In the past I've also made Delia Smith's recipe and dabbled with a few Alison Holst versions. I'm tempted to go back to Dan's buns, especially as we have a bottle of stout in the cupboard, but I can't help but wonder if there's another one out there that might be better.

What's your favourite hot cross bun recipe? If you've got some Easter inspiration on your blog - be it buns, bread, bagels, muffins, whatever - add it in the linky list below. Otherwise, if you've got any traditional HCB advice, let me know in the comments.

Pancakes, 1970s style

Given that it's Shrove Tuesday tomorrow, I thought it was about time I showed you a pancake-related relic from my childhood....

No, that's not me, though I did think the woman in the foreground was very glamorous. It's a shot from the box of the Monier Crepe Maker, straight out of the 1970s.

I don't recall my parents hosting huge crepe-related soirees, though I do remember Mum using it occasionally (and letting me use it, when I was deemed responsible enough. I definitely remember reading the accompanying recipe booklet and wishing we could have Crepes Suzette. I was less keen on some of the other suggestions, such as 'moistening a little corned beef with milk, then wrapping it in a crepe'.
It might seem a ridiculous, mono-use tool, but after trying it out yesterday I can confirm that it really does work just as easily as the box claims it will. Not bad for something that must be at least 35 years old (according to this Sydney Morning Herald advertisement). I've never been particularly good at making light, lacy crepes, but switching on the Monier yesterday gave me new confidence. Maybe it was the recipe on the box.

Monier Crepes
All batters are better after a resting period, but this one was good to go after 10 minutes. I've yet to try it out in a normal pan, but I'm sure it would still be fine, you just won't look as cool as I do when you make them.

3 eggs
1 cup flour
pinch of salt
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1 cup milk

Whisk the eggs and flour together, then slowly add the milk and melted butter until you have a smooth batter. Rest in the fridge for at least 10 minutes before using. Makes about a dozen crepes.

Is there a Monier Crepe Maker in your past? What's the secret to your best pancakes?

An Easter of Eating

This was my Easter, or at least the bits I photographed.
Most of the time I was too busy - eating, standing at the kitchen sink, having a cup of tea, drinking a glass of wine, laughing - to take photos.
So you'll just have to imagine the baked flounder with caper butter, the creme caramel, the Piedmontese peppers, the passionfruit cream biscuits and the Lebanese doughnuts with citrus syrup - or at least take my word for it that it was a great holiday. When's the next one?

The Easter Table

Dan Lepard's Spiced Stout Hot Cross Buns

Beetroot Gravadlax with Dill Creme Fraiche

The kitchen whizzes

Tamasin Day-Lewis' Chocolate Espresso Cake

What did the Easter Bunny bring?

I think we will be eating a lot of green vegetables and very little chocolate this week.

How was your Easter?

Hot cross bunny

Many moons ago, a suitor of mine once arrived on the doorstep bearing a charmingly vacuum-packed rabbit. It was an unexpected and unconventional gift, but it certainly tasted better than a bunch of roses. I wasn't sure what to do with it but he produced a few notes written on the back of a restaurant menu. Using them as a basis, this is how we cooked it.

Braised rabbit with tomatoes and olives
Rest assured that you don't have to sacrifice the family pet or go hunting for this Easter dinner. Farmed rabbits are available from good butchers, farmers markets and some supermarkets - and they are usually sold already 'dressed' (decapitated, skinned and cleaned) . If you flinch at the idea of eating one of the Flopsy Bunnies, substitute free-range organic chicken pieces for the rabbit.

1 rabbit (around 1.5kg), cut into pieces (ask the butcher to do this for you)
1/2-3/4 cup plain flour
salt and pepper
3-4 tbsp olive oil
2 red onions, finely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
2 ribs of celery, tough strings removed and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
150ml red wine
500g vine-ripened tomatoes (about five medium-sized ones)
Herbs: 1/2 a small bunch of fresh parsley (use the other half of the bunch for garnishing), several sprigs of thyme, a sprig of rosemary, a bay leaf
1 cup good quality black olives


Begin by putting the flour, a good pinch of salt and several grinds of black pepper in a plastic bag with the rabbit pieces. Close the top of the bag and shake well, ensuring the rabbit pieces are all covered with a nice dusting of flour. Remove from the bag and set aside (throw the unused flour away).

Blanch and peel the tomatoes - put them in a bowl, cover with boiling water and let sit for about 30-40 seconds. Lift out and nick the skins - they will lift off easily. Chop into chunks and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large, heavy pan and add the onions, carrots, celery and garlic. Saute over medium heat until starting to soften, then add the rabbit pieces, browning them on both sides. Pour in the wine and let it bubble away for a minute or two, then add the tomatoes and herbs. Cover and simmer very gently for 45 minutes to one hour, until the rabbit is cooked through and tender.

Stir in the olives and season with salt and pepper to taste. Scatter over some freshly chopped parsley before serving with steamed greens and hunks of chewy sourdough bread or crusty baguette. Feeds four.

Guilt-free Easter loaf

When I was growing up there were rules about Easter. We only started eating hot cross buns on Good Friday and Easter eggs were verboten until after church on Sunday. It was a bit of a surprise to realise that other people didn't live this way - didn't they get told off, or go to hell? - but I now think my mother had a point. If you eat hot cross buns or Easter eggs from the moment they arrive in the shops, which is now in late January, there's nothing to look forward to when Easter actually arrives.

Even so, I found my resolve wobbling enormously last week when I masterminded a hot cross bun taste-off for work. That's why I developed this loaf, which has all the flavour and aroma of a hot cross bun, but none of the guilt.

Easter Loaf
One of the best things about the aforementioned hot cross bun test was getting a few tips from Sean Armstrong (who New Zealand readers might have seen on Masterchef recently) about what fruit and spice do to yeast doughs. I tweaked my normal bread recipe accordingly and it worked a treat. I know the instructions look long but this isn't at all hard. You don't have to make a cross on top, but it does stop it looking like ordinary fruit toast.
This is also, handily, my entry for April's Teatime Treats, hosted this month by the lovely Kate, and for April's Fresh From The Oven, hosted this month by The Little Loaf.

150g dried fruit (a mixture of mixed peel, sultanas and currants is good)
1Tbsp mixed spice
1 1/2 tsp dried yeast
150ml milk
150ml boiling water
500g strong white flour
40g butter
2Tbsp brown sugar
1Tbsp cocoa
1/2tsp ground cloves
1 1/2tsp salt

For the cross:
1 egg yolk
4Tbsp flour
milk to mix

For the glaze:
2Tbsp brown sugar
2Tbsp hot water

Put the mixed fruit and mixed spice in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Stir and let soak for at least four hours - overnight is best. Drain and set aside.
Put the milk and boiling water into a bowl. When it's at blood heat, add the yeast and leave for five minutes to start working.
While that's happening, put the flour and butter into a freestanding mixer fitted with the paddle beater, and put on low speed until the butter is mixed through. Alternatively, rub the butter through the flour with your fingers.
Add the sugar, cocoa, cloves and salt and stir well. Pour in the yeast and liquid and stir to combine, then use the dough hook on low speed until a dough forms. Tip in the drained fruit and knead with your hands or the dough hook until you have an elastic dough that springs back when touched. It will be quite sticky - this is good.
Form into a ball, put in a greased bowl and cover with a plastic bag. Leave in a warm place until the dough has doubled, about an hour.
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Turn dough out of the bowl and knock back gently. Press into a rectangular shape with your fingers, then roll up tightly. Put into a large, greased loaf tin and let rise again for about 30 minutes, until risen by half.
While you're waiting, mix the egg yolk and flour together for the cross. Add a little milk if needed. Scrape it into a snaplock bag - there will be lots left over, but you can put it in the fridge for a day and use it for your hot cross buns. Snip a tiny corner of the bag off when you're ready to use it.
When the loaf is ready to go in the oven, slash a cross in it, then pipe in the gaps.
Bake for 25-35 minutes, until the bottom sounds hollow when tapped.
As soon as it comes out of the oven, brush it with the glaze, which you have made by heating the sugar and water together until dissolved. Let cool completely before slicing.

Did you have these sorts of rules when you were growing up, or was my family completely abnormal?

Guilty pleasures: The Macaroon

Since today is Shrove Tuesday - the day in which you are supposed to have one (or many) last feasts to use up all the decadent foods you've sworn to give up for Lent - I thought I should offer you some food porn.

This is the guilty pleasure I mentioned in my list of food resolutions - a coconut macaroon from the supermarket. Looks benign enough, doesn't it? Then take a look at this...

In case you can't quite read the small print, there are more numbers here than in a maths textbook. Even the coconut is not quite coconut, but something called 'Kokomix' - which has lots of other goodies in it like milk fat, stabiliser, preservative, colour (colour? it's white!) and modified starch. The most depressing thing is that the 'chocolate' is a mixture of cocoa powder and various fats - but it DOES have coconut oil, which I guess boosts the overall coconut factor a bit.

What this label doesn't tell you though is that these toxic treats really are delicious. I first discovered them at an Italian cafe in town, where they cost three times as much despite being identical. Learning that they were on sale at the supermarket just a few minutes' walk from work was my downfall towards the end of last year. Not now though. I am strong. I have willpower. And I am going to go one further and give up chocolate  for Lent. After all, my chocolate dependent friend Ann once gave it up for a year - surely I can manage six weeks, right? Especially since the chocolate on the macaroons doesn't count...

Are you giving anything up for Lent? Or is retox, not detox, your motto?