Experiment: Yeast and Wheat Free Hot Cross Buns

So, after the success of my Bakewell tart slices, I decided to get even more experimental in the kitchen and do something completely different. Seeing as it is Good Friday, I thought I'd try my hand at making some yeast and wheat free hot cross buns.

Hot cross buns are a big part of out family's Easter festivities, but for years my mother and I haven't been able to eat them. A few years ago I tried my hand at traditional yeast risen buns, and they turned out really well. But generally speaking I avoid using yeast because the temperatures of my house and the houses of my family members (where I would bake if I'm there for a holiday) are too unreliable for proofing dough.

As such, I though I'd try to make some using my yeast and wheat free quick pizza base recipe, which I successfully converted into bagels. I thought of the theory, and thought it would work, and just made a few little changes: I replaced some of the warm water with a medium egg, and added some dried mixed fruit and spices. I kneaded it for about 5 minutes, allowed it to sit for 20 minutes, then rolled it into 8 balls. I put them together in close proximity on a flat baking sheet and baked them at 200 degrees Celcius for 15 mintes.

And here is what happened:

For some reason, the crusts baked up to hard, and they didn't spread properly in the oven. as you can see, they turned into balls instead of buns, and the crusts split. This suggests to me that the temperature was too high, and the dough was too firm.

The texture of the buns was really convincing and bread-like, and the taste was very good. But the shape was wrong and they were a little too dense. Next time I'll have to make the dough softer, maybe even more like a brack batter.

At least I gave it a go! And I'll know better for next time. Maybe between now and March 25th 2016 I'll have the recipe perfected.

THIS TIME 2014: No blog
THIS TIME 2013: Different Sponge Cake Flavours (no April Fool, it's after 12pm)

How NOT to Make Pistachio Ice-Cream: Another Failure

So a few posts ago I did some experimentation with hazelnut ice-cream and decided to try pistachio ice-cream.

Thinking that my method was sound and that my overwhipped the cream was the thing that caused it to fail, I repeat the exact same method but this time with pistachios. I added 3 ounces (85 grammes) each of ground toasted

pistachios and icing sugar to 8 fluid ounces (230 millilitres) of whipping cream and beat then together until light and fluffy, as is the usual method of making no churn ice-cream.

As it turns out, it wasn't just the overwhipping part that was wrong, the whole recipe itself doesn't work. It leads to a rock hard, crumbly and mostly unpleasant product that is a far cry from anything I have successfully made so far using the cream and condensed milk version.

I supposed I strayed from the condensed milk road thinking that using only nuts and a little sugar would make a really flavourful ice-cream, but I've now come to realise just how integral the condensed milk is to the process in keeping it soft enough to serve. Lesson learnt for real this time.

I think the next time I make a nut ice-cream I'll just add powdered nuts to the cream and condensed milk mixture, even if the flavour isn't as intense.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Ginger Nut Biscuits

How NOT to Make Hazelnut Ice-Cream

First of all, HAPPEEE INDEPENDENCE DAAAEEEEE to all my American readers!

So back to the ice-cream obsession, I couldn't stay away long.

Recently I've been pondering how to make the no-churn ice-cream thing a little more interesting. It works really well when you replace some of the condensed milk with jam (see my raspberry ice-cream and strawberry cheesecake ice-cream recipes) and with lemon curd (see my lemon curd ice-cream), and that is because condensed milk, jam and fruit curd all contain at least 50% sugar and either gelling agent or high fat content.

Why does it work? Well, the no-churn method works because sugar, fat and air don't freeze in home freezers, and the no-churn ice-cream method exploits this through the beating of the cream and the high sugar and fat content of condensed milk, and when we use jam or curd the fat content is replaced with a gelling agent, which also doesn't freeze.

As such I wondered, would this technique work with a nut butter of some kind? Like peanut butter? Peanut butter is extremely high in both sugar (50%) and fat (10%) content, so maybe that would translate well?

Of course, me being me, I couldn't just get a tub of peanut butter and try it out, I decided to go full-out from-scratch on this.

I bought some hazelnuts and decided to work from the Nigella Lawson school of no-churn ice-cream by using icing sugar instead of condensed milk, and I ground the nuts into a powder with the icing sugar and added this to the cream. I began to beat the cream into fluffy peaks, and it was all going well at this point, until I commited a huge massive irreversible sin: I overwhipped the cream
.

This turned the ice-cream into a thick, mashed potato-y like mess. I though if I just popped it into the freezer and froze it as normal it would work, but no, it didn't. Instead I was faced with a rock hard crumbly disaster.

My brother liked it though, but he's a fan of anything sweet and creamy, like me. Lesson learnt. I hope. I'm going to try this again at some stage, and hopefully it won't be an unmitigated disaster!

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Soda Bread with Oats and Sunflower Seeds