Roasted Strawberry Scones {British Style}

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // July 24, 2015 // 32 Comments

Classic British Scones, short and crumbly, jazzed up with some delicious roasted strawberries! These are so easy and quick to make, you can’t go wrong! Serve with jam, clotted cream and a cup of tea for your very own, homemade Devonshire or Cornish Cream Tea!

British summer time means a lot of different things to different people; it can mean day trips to the park, splashing around in rivers; complaining about the heat as soon as it goes over 25C (That’s 77F in American money); complaining about the lack of heat when it starts to rain; Wimbledon; Wasps; Festivals and so much more! One thing that I think we can all agree that makes the British summer fantastic is Strawberries, we grow amazingly delicious Strawberries – and nothing says British summer like dipping a big, juicy strawberry in some cream as you watch tennis played on grass! I had intended to make and share this recipe to celebrate Wimbledon, but here we are, weeks after it’s finished! Oops! It doesn’t make these Roasted Strawberry Scones any less tasty or any less British though!

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Monkey Bread – GBBO Challenge Week 3 (Bread week)

by Michelle @ A Tipsy Giraffe // September 5, 2014 // 42 Comments

Aka pull apart brown sugar cinnamon bread!

If you’ve never had monkey bread before, it’s gooey sticky balls of sweet, cinnamon bread topped with a sweet vanilla glaze. It’s basically like a mountain of cinnamon buns! And if that doesn’t make you drool, I don’t know what will. The dough is made from scratch and it’s definitely worth doing that way, it doesn’t take all that long and you won’t get fluffy, yummy results as good as this without it!

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Spiced Chocolate & Orange Hot Cross Buns

by giraffescanbake // April 18, 2014 // 1 Comment

The perfect recipe for this Easter weekend!

I’d been thinking about what to bake for Easter for a while and my mind kept going back to hot cross buns, even though I’m not a huge fan of them. So my challenge was to make these traditional Easter buns even more festive and tasty, and so these spiced chocolate & orange hot cross buns were born, I think I did a pretty good job!

These sweet and sticky buns are loaded with chocolate just like the Easter bunny intended and warmed up with lovely spices and hints of orange. They’re finished off with a gooey, sticky orange glaze to give them that extra yum factor!

These do require a little patience to make, but with only two rising times you’re not doing too badly for a hot cross bun recipe! And even though they’re “quick”, you won’t see any decrease in yummyness (a technical baking term), they’re still soft and delicious! It’s a fairly simple recipe too, and a bit of a messy one while you’re rubbing the butter into the flour, cocoa, spices and salt with your fingers. Then it’s spoon city as you stir in the sugar and yeast and then beat in the eggs and milk. Knead. Rise. Knead some more (adding chocolate and orange!) and rise again until finally it’s time for the oven (but not before those all important crosses!), then you just glaze and eat! These are best served warm and with lashings of butter, preferably this cinnamon honey butter because it’s to die for!

Hot cross buns are traditionally served on Good Friday so I am a little late with this post, but let’s be honest you can enjoy these yummy buns all Easter weekend, even all year (I know, I’m just talking crazy now!!). It may be midnight in the UK, but it’s never too late to whip up a batch of yummyness, so get your apron on and get baking, you’re family will thank you!

[recipe title=”Spiced Chocolate & Orange Hot Cross Buns” servings=”12″]
Ingredients

For the buns:

400g strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
25g cocoa powder
1tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp mixed spice
1tsp salt
85g chilled unsalted butter, chopped
100g golden caster sugar
2 sachets dried instant yeast (7g each)
1 large egg, room temperature
190ml lukewarm milk
75g dark chocolate, chopped
Zest of 1 orange
75g chopped candied orange peel

For the crosses:

75g strong white flour
1 tbsp vegetable oil
5tbsp cold water

For the glaze:

Juice of 1 orange
50g golden caster sugar

Method

For the buns:

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, spices and salt into a bowl. Add the chopped butter and, using your gingers, rub the butter into the flour mix until you get a breadcrumb texture. Stir in the sugar and yeast and make a well in the centre
Whisk together the warm milk and egg and pour into the well, quickly beat with a wooden spoon until combined.
Knead on a lightly floured surface for around 10 minutes, until you have a soft, smooth dough. Put in a large, lightly oiled bowl covered with oiled cling film. Leave to rise for an hour in warm place until doubled in size
Place the risen dough on a lightly floured surface and knead in the chocolate, zest and candied peel until it is all distributed evenly.
Divide into 12 equal balls and shape into smooth buns. Place on a lightly oiled baking tray, leaving a small gap between each roll. Cover loosely with oiled cling film and leave to prove in a warm place for about 45 minutes or until doubled in size. The buns should now be getting cozy and touching each other.
Preheat the oven to 200C/390F

For the crosses:

Mix the flour, oil and water together to form a smooth paste. Pop into a piping bag and snip the end off.
With a serrated knife, score the tops of the buns with a cross. Pipe the mixture along the lines, you can use your knife to cut off the flow.
Bake the buns in the oven for 15-20 minutes until firm to the touch

For the glaze:

Put the sugar and orange juice into a small pan and heat on low until all the sugar as dissolved
Bring to the boil and bubble until thickened, around 3 minutes.
Once the buns have been removed from the oven, turn out onto a cooling rack and glaze.

Notes:

The buns are best served warm
They will stay fresh in an air tight container for about 3 days, but buns that are going stale will still be great toasted
You can freeze them too, just wait to glaze them. Once defrosted, warm through and glaze before serving.

[/recipe]
Happy Easter Everybody!

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Rolls

by giraffescanbake // February 7, 2014 // 3 Comments

A perfect excuse to have peanut butter and chocolate for breakfast!

After I made the super easy cinnamon rolls I was itching to make them again, they were so good and so quick to bash out they had to be done again. This time I decided to mix things up and fill them with peanut butter and chocolate instead of cinnamon. Sweet and salty perfection!

Now, I’m not the biggest fan of chocolate with peanut butter which is blasphemy to some of you I’m sure. I overdosed on peanut butter m&ms once when I was teenager and I just haven’t enjoyed it the same since. So who knows what made me decide to make these but I’m glad I did. They were super yummy without the peanut butter filling being too overwhelming.

I used the same dough recipe I did on the cinnamon rolls, it’s wonderfully fluffy and rises beautifully with only one proving time needed. What more do you want from a sweet roll dough? I’ll include the recipe for the dough in this post so you don’t have to flip between recipes, I don’t want to delay your sweet roll gratification even a millisecond! Just pop the filled and cut rolls in a warm place (I heat an oven to 150C, turn it off and put the rolls in) for 60 minutes and you’re good to go!

Look at that rise after just 60 minutes!

They’re filled with a yummy mixture of creamy peanut butter and brown sugar, which is a much more satisfying filling that peanut butter fillings made with icing sugar. Then sprinkled with semi-sweet chocolate chips, you can use milk chocolate if you wish but personally I think peanut butter goes best with a more bittersweet chocolate. Roll it up and cut it into even slices and place in your dish! Once you’ve let them rise (see above), they just need baking for 25 minutes.

It’s not quite time to gobble them all up yet, you have to glaze them first. I used a simple chocolate glaze which is lovely and satiny, just chocolate, corn syrup (boo, hiss I know but what you gonna do) and butter made in a double boiler. I’ve seen some people use cream cheese frosting for it, which sounds a bit odd to me but whatever floats your boat. Drizzle it on while the rolls are still hot!

How awesome is this copper double boiler I got for christmas?! Love it!

Now you can dig in and eat as many as you can handle! Feel free to share if you’re feeling nice and if you can’t eat them all at once, just cover them with cling film and stick in the microwave for 30 seconds before eating one!

[recipe title=”Peanut Butter & Chocolate Rolls” time=”2hr 30mins”]
For the rolls:

345g all-purpose flour
3 tbsp white sugar
1 tsp salt
1 package instant yeast (1 packet = 7g)
120ml water
60ml milk
40g unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the filling:

150g brown sugar
250g creamy peanut butter
175g semi-sweet chocolate chips

For the glaze:

80g semi-sweet chocolate ships
1/2 tbsp corn syrup
25g unsalted butter

Make the dough

Set aside 75g of the flour. Then toss the remaining flour, sugar, salt and yeast together in a big bowl. Set aside
Put the water, milk and butter in a bowl and microwave until the butter is melted and mixture is hot, about 45 degrees C. Stir the butter mixture into the flour mixture until combined. Stir in the egg and enough of the reserved flour to make a soft, smooth dough. The dough is ready when it comes away from the side of the bowl and is elastic in consistency.
Lightly flour your worktop and knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Place in a lightly greased bowl and leave it to rest for about 10 minutes.
Roll the dough into a 14 x 8 inch rectangle

Make the filling and bake

Stir together the brown sugar and peanut butter and spread evenly over the dough, going right up to the edges
Sprinkle on the chocolate chips
Roll up length ways and cut into even slices
Place in light greased 9×9 dish, cover loosely with foil and place in a warm, draught free place for 60-90 minutes
Remove risen rolls from the oven (if proving in there) and preheat the oven to 190C/375F and bake for 25 minutes or until they have gone a light golden colour

Make the glaze and eat!

Put the chocolate, corn syrup and butter in double and stir until melted.
Drizzle over the still hot rolls
Serve warm and enjoy!

[/recipe]

Easy Cinnamon Rolls

by giraffescanbake // January 27, 2014 // 1 Comment

Yummy cinnamon rolls from scratch with only one rise needed. Perfect!

I woke up this morning and thought “I could really go for a cinnamon roll right now” and instead of popping down the local bakery and buying myself one like a normal person, I decided to make some. But let’s be honest, nothing beats a homemade cinnamon roll fresh out of the oven. Besides, I had everything I needed in the house already.

These are the easiest and quickest cinnamon rolls I’ve ever made. I got the recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction, it’s a really great recipe and I barely changed it all. You should definitely check out her blog, I have so many posts bookmarked to try later! If making sweet rolls makes you a bit nervous because of all the complicated steps and a thousand different proving times, this is the recipe for you. You’ll have a hard time getting it wrong and you only need to prove it once.

You have your basic dough with instant yeast and scalded milk. It’s important that if you’re using dairy milk that you scald it, otherwise the proteins in the dairy will kill the yeast and then you’ll get a sucky rise. Or at least that’s the reason I’ve always heard, I’m still learning the science side of baking! This dough only needs one short proving (rising) time which is perfect for me because I want my cinnamon rolls NOW! They rise beautifully too, look at this:

Before

After!

Once you have the dough all together, you just knead it for a few mins (a perfect time to get out your frustrations) and then roll it out into an oblong shape. Get all that filling in there and roll it up then slice it into even pieces, stick then in your dish and let the yeast and warmth do the work. I don’t have a fancy proving draw (one of my biggest disappointments in life), I just turn the oven to 150C while I’m making up the dough, when I’m ready to leave them to prove I loosely cover them with foil, stick them in the oven and turn it off.

Once they’re nicely risen you need to preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5, wait patiently for it to heat up and then bake them for about 25 – 30 minutes. About 15 minutes after you’ve put them in the oven, just cover them loosely with foil to stop the sugar browning too much. You can see from mine where the foil wasn’t covering the back and the sugar got a bit burned.

Leave them to cool for a few minutes. I know you want to dig in straight away but you need to be patient and glaze them first! The glaze is a nice simple one and you can change up the flavours however you like. The original recipe had a coffee glaze but I don’t like coffee so I made mine with cream cheese, yum! It’s just a basic mix of icing sugar, milk and vanilla extract plus whatever flavouring you want. I used some cream cheese I had left over from my red velvet cupcakes and it worked out at about 3 tbsp, you can add more if you like of course!

Now just drizzle that glaze all over your rolls. Don’t be shy with it, bathe them in it! Actually, I tend to be a bit conservative with it and then leave the left overs next to the rolls for people to add more to if they like as I know not everyone has as big of a sweet tooth as I do. Now dig into that warm gooey goodness and enjoy!

[recipe title=”Easy Cinnamon Rolls” servings=”10″ time=”2hrs 30 mins” ]

For the rolls:

345g all-purpose flour
3 tbsp white sugar
1 tsp salt
1 package instant yeast (1 packet = 7g)
120ml water
60ml milk
40g unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the filling:

45g unsalted butter, softened
1 and 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
25g white sugar
25g brown sugar

For the glaze:

120g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk
3 tbsp cream cheese, softened

Make the dough

Set aside 75g of the flour. Then toss the remaining flour, sugar, salt and yeast together in a big bowl. Set aside
Put the water, milk and butter in a bowl and microwave until the butter is melted and mixture is hot, about 45 degrees C. Stir the butter mixture into the flour mixture until combined. Stir in the egg and enough of the reserved flour to make a soft, smooth dough. The dough is ready when it comes away from the side of the bowl and is elastic in consistency.
Lightly flour your worktop and knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Place in a lightly greased bowl and leave it to rest for about 10 minutes. I use this time to clean up the mess I’ve made!

Make the filling

Roll the dough out into a 14×8 inch rectangle. Spread the softened butter on top. Mix together the cinnamon and sugars and sprinkle it over the dough, right up to the edges. If, like me, you’re a big lover of cinnamon you can sprinkle a little extra cinnamon on top for good measure!
Tightly roll the dough so you have a big long sausage. Cut into even slices and place in a lightly greased 8-inch round pan, I used a sandwich tin with cake release. Loosely cover with foil and leave to prove in a warm place for about 90 minutes.
When the rolls are done proving, when they’ve about doubled in size, remove from oven and preheat it to 190C and bake for 25-30 minutes until they go a light brown. About 15 minutes into the cooking time, cover the rolls loosely with foil to stop the sugar burning. Place dish on a wire rack to cool slightly.

Make the glaze

Mix the icing sugar with milk until smooth, then stir in the cream cheese until smooth. Adjust the sugar and milk quantities to suit how thick you want your glaze. Drizzle all over the rolls and serve immediately.

[/recipe]