Every year I try different hot cross bun recipes or tweak my own versions. So here are links to recipes from the masters Jamie Oliver and Paul Hollywood.
These recipes make great buns or use them to give you inspiration to develop your own.
I have shown photos of each, with a link to my recipes in previous posts.
Making your own hot cross buns is fun, seasonal and very satisfying!
Here’s a Christmas recipe from the vault, a tried and true method to turn Christmas Pudding into something delicious for those post Christmas Day meals.
The recipe is yet another great Jamie Oliver invention. It’s his Christmas Pudding Strudel, a lovely way to reinvent Christmas pudding leftovers and make something really yummy and quite special. It’s basically layers of filo pastry, filled with grated apple, pear or quince, crumbled Christmas pudding and a surprise chocolate centre.
You may have left overs to make the strudel…or you can buy a pudding at the supermarket on special after Christmas!
Ingredients
12 sheets filo pastry – if frozen, thaw. I mention in my original post that perhaps you could use less filo, as 12 layers is a little too much
125 g butter, melted
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
100 g demerara sugar + more for dusting when serving
4 ginger nut biscuits
400 g leftover Christmas pudding
3 apples or pears or 2 quinces or a mixture of the three
50 g good-quality chocolate, roughly chopped
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C or 160 degrees C fan forced. Lay out 6 sheets of filo pastry on a clean tea towel, overlapping each by an inch or so, so they cover the tea towel. The filo should cover the tea towel completely, with just a little overhang at one of the shorter ends.
Work quickly so your pastry doesn’t dry out and brush some melted butter all over it. Sprinkle over the cinnamon and 50 g of the sugar, then crumble over your ginger nut biscuits to add crunch. Carefully layer the rest of the pastry sheets on top and brush again with butter.
Use your hands to crumble the Christmas pudding into a bowl then grate in the fruit, everything except the cores. (Jamie says to use the cores – I don’t think you need them.) You want to have about the same amount of grated fruit as you’ve got pudding. Add about 2 tablespoons of sugar, and mix it all together to break up the pudding a bit more. Sprinkle this all over the pastry so it’s roughly covered, leaving the overhang clear. Place the chocolate in a row on top of the Christmas pudding, down the short side nearest the overhang.
Fold the overhang over the chocolate and pinch it up, then lift up your tea towel, and use it to help you carefully roll up your strudel. Tuck the ends under to seal it and transfer to a large nonstick baking tray. Brush it all over with butter then sprinkle over a little more sugar. If it looks a bit rough, you could wrap an extra layer of filo round it before cooking to make it neater. Bake in the hot oven for about 40 minutes until crisp and golden. You may get a split once cooked – I agree with Jamie that that would add to the rustic effect!
Leave to cool, then use a serrated knife to cut the strudel into 5 cm slices.
Note: This recipe makes quite a large strudel –the photos here are of half the strudel.
When I first acquired Jamie Oliver’s book, 5 Ingredients, I cooked many of the recipes, as they were simple to make up and used only 5 ingredients give or take a staple or two!
This recipe lives up to expectations. The main ingredient, hot smoked salmon, is versatile. You can buy it in the supermarket, and as the salmon is already cooked, you can pop it straight into any number of dishes.
I was recently reminded that we need to buy environmentally responsible salmon. In Australia, Petuna and New Zealand King Salmon are good brands to look for and are available in supermarkets.
Ingredients
350g fresh asparagus
300g dried taglierini or angel-hair pasta (I used the latter)
250g hot-smoked salmon skin off
1 lemon
100ml creme fraiche (Jamie recommends half fat if you can get it. Just use full fat if you can’t get half fat)
Method
Use a speed peeler to strip the top tender half of the asparagus stalks into ribbons. Finely slice the remaining stalks, discarding the woody ends. Cook the pasta in a pan of boiling salted water according to the packet instructions, then drain, reserving a mugful of cooking water. Meanwhile, roughly break the salmon into a large non-stick frying pan on a medium-high heat. Add the sliced asparagus stalks, and toss occasionally until the pasta’s ready.
Finely great half the lemon zest into the salmon pan, squeeze in half the juice, then toss in the drained pasta, a good splash of the reserved cooking water and the crème fraiche. Add the asparagus ribbons, toss again, then season to perfection with sea salt and and black pepper. Serve with lemon wedges, for squeezing over.
Another recipe from the vault. Jamie Oliver is a source of simple but innovative recipesand Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals, which came out a while ago, was the inspiration for this salmon, rice and greens dish.The recipe’s based on his Green Tea Salmon with Coconut Rice, and Jamie’s Killer Kedgeree.
Hot smoked salmon is readily available here in Australia from supermarkets. I buy it often as it’s a quick fix meal that’s very versatile.
Ingredients
1 cup basmati rice
1 cup light coconut milk
1 cup boiling water
1/2 lemon
Handful of coconut flakes
A large handful of sugar snap peas
A large handful of green beans
3 spring onions
A scattering of shelled pistachios
1 hot smoked salmon fillet
Method
To make rice, combine the rice, coconut milk, boiling water and lemon in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, turn down heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes or so, stirring occasionally, until rice is almost cooked. Turn off heat and leave rice to finish cooking while you prepare the rest of the dish.
Cook the sugar snap peas and beans, separately, in the microwave, until just cooked but still crunchy.
Assemble the dish by placing the cooked rice minus the lemon half in a bowl. Flake the salmon fillet and scatter over the rice. Top with the coconut flakes.
PS The coconut rice is sensational and I’ll be cooking this again!
Arrange the sugar snap peas and beans on a serving platter to accompany the fish and rice, scattering with sliced spring onions and pistachios.
You can serve this salmon and rice dish with any vegetables and garnishes you like, or that takes your fancy.
I really look forward to baking hot cross buns each Easter. And each Easter I try a new recipe or tweak one of my old ones. They’re all delicious – I’ve never met a hot cross bun I didn’t like!
So I’m a bit late this year, but I will be making the 2022 version later this week.
But in the meantime, here are the links to my favourite hot cross buns, from the experts from the Great British Bake-off, to Jamie Oliver and Paul Hollywood, to my own sourdough version.
So long as the buns are beautifully baked a deep golden brown and served with lashings of butter, you can’t go wrong.
I made this shortbread for New Year’s Day yesterday. I think shortbread is one of the best things to come out of Scotland, not forgetting whisky!
It’s based on a Jamie Oliver recipe for chocolate orange shortbread, original recipe here. I left out the chocolate for simplicity’s sake, but by all means add this in. I think the orange is the star of this recipe!
It’s super simple. I made it in the food processor. After baking just leave in the tin before cutting into fingers.
Great for New Year – but don’t wait till then – a very nice tea time or coffee time treat any time of the year!
Ingredients
150g butter at room temperature
200g plain flour
50g golden caster sugar or raw sugar, plus extra to sprinkle
Zest of an orange
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Grease a 20cm square baking tin and line with baking paper.
Put the butter, flour, sugar and the finely grated zest of half the orange into the bowl of a food processor.
Gently pulse the ingredients until they just come together- don’t overmix.
Tip the mixture into the lined baking tin. With your hands pat the dough into the tin, being careful not to knead it. You will end up with a layer about 1cm thick. Don’t worry if it’s looks a bit messy, it will look fine after baking.
Prick the dough all over with a fork.
Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, or until lightly golden brown.
Take out of the oven, and leaving in the tin, mark fingers using a sharp knife. There’s no need to cut through – it’s just to help cut the fingers once the shortbread is cold.
Sprinkle over a little more sugar, and grate over the zest of the other half of the orange.
Leave to cool completely, and then cut the shortbread into fingers along the marked lines.
Remove the fingers from the tin.
The shortbread will keep well in an airtight tin for a few days!
This hot smoked salmon sandwich is Jamie Oliver inspired. The recipe is infinitely variable to make all kinds of different, delicious sandwiches.
Try it with leg ham or roast beef. Make it veggie by using halloumi instead of the salmon. Add a few pickles to the sandwich, or add condiments like chutney, onion or chilli jam, or even try it with pesto or hummus!
Ingredients
4 slices of streaky bacon
4 slices of sourdough bread
1 ripe tomato
1 ripe avocado
2 tablespoons home made or whole egg bought mayonnaise
1 tablespoon of basil or coriander leaves, bashed, stirred through the mayonnaise (optional)
200g hot smoked salmon (available from the deli section of supermarkets)
A handful of lettuce leaves or rocket
A few squeezes of lemon juice
Sea salt and black pepper
Method
Place the bacon in a cold frying pan, turn on the heat to medium and fry the bacon until crispy and cooked through, then remove from the pan. Turn off the heat.
Immediately put the bread slices into the still warm pan in the bacon fat to soak up the bacon flavour.
Cut the tomato into slices. Cut the avocado in half, take out the stone and peel each half. Cut the avocado into slices.
Now assemble the sandwich.
Spread the toasted sourdough slices with the mayonnaise.
Put two slices of toasted bread side by side and layer with the bacon rashers, tomato, avocado, chunks of the salmon and the lettuce or rocket. Squeeze lemon juice over the whole lot and add a grind or two of sea salt and black pepper.
Top each one with the remaining slices of toast. Eat and enjoy!
We’re in lockdown in Sydney, so it’s back to isolation cooking!
The weather is chilly, so perfect for some hearty fare. I found 4 dishes that fit that description, all cheerful and easy to make. Chilli beef, Yorkshire pudding, treacle glazed steak and chicken risotto.
Granola Dust is a recipe from Jamie Oliver’s healthy take on food Everyday Super Food. It’s basically a granola mix blitzed in the food processor until the mix becomes pulverized. Great for serving with fresh fruit, or just sprinkling over muesli to add another texture.
Breakfast Trifle is a heathy and easy brekkie idea, using Granola Dust that you’ve already made up and have in the store cupboard.
To make a Breakfast Trifle, start of with a layer of Greek yoghurt, then add any mixed mixed berries you like, scatter some Granola Dust on top and finish with a drizzle of honey. You can make this in a jar or in a bowl. You don’t have to limit yourself to berries – stone fruit in summer, or poached apples or pears in winter would be great!
You can adjust the quantities depending on whether you’re making breakfast trifle for one or a large one for the family! The idea is to have fairly equal layers of Granola Dust, fruit and yoghurt.
The quantities for Granola Dust in the recipe are what Jamie Oliver specifies in his book. I thought that sounded rather a lot, so I made a quarter of the mix – this gave me half a large jar’s worth of Granola Dust.
Ingredients
1kg porridge oats
250g unsalted mixed nuts such as walnuts, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, pecans, pistachios, cashews
100g mixed seeds such as chia, poppy,sunflower, sesame, linseed, pumpkin
250g mixed dried fruit such as blueberries, cranberries, sour cherries mango, apricots, figs, sultanas
3 tablespoons quality cocoa powder
1 tablespoon freshly ground coffee
1 orange
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Place the oats, nuts and seeds in a large baking tray. Toss together and roast for 15 minutes, stirring halfway.
Stir the dried fruit, cocoa and coffee into the mix, finely grate over the orange zest, then in batches, blitz in the food processor till the mixture forms a rough powder or dust.
Making your own pasta is so satisfying! Here is a recipe for a couple of different kinds of ravioli. You can use my fillings or create some of your own.
Whether you use a pasta machine to roll your pasta, or roll by hand, it doesn’t take too much effort to create a lovely lunch or simple supper!
The basic recipe for the pasta is based on a Jamie Oliver recipe. It’s pretty easy to do and the pasta dough is rich and silky. The quantity makes enough for 12 ravioli.
Ingredients
3 large free-range eggs
300g Tipo 00 flour
Method
Put the flour into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the eggs into the bowl. Break up the eggs with a fork in the well.
Gradually incorporate the eggs into the flour, mixing with your fingertips. Mix until you have combined all the eggs into the flour and you have a rough dough.
To make the Taleggio and Walnut Ravioli, I mixed in a small handful of fresh thyme leaves to half of the dough quantity before the kneading stage.
Now knead both kinds of rough dough until each comes together into a smooth ball, and continue kneading until the dough has been really worked well, and is smooth, soft and silky.
Wrap the doughs in cling wrap. Leave in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes to 1 hour, in order to make it easier to roll and shape.
For each kind of ravioli, use the pasta machine to roll the dough so you have 2 thin sheets. It’s important to roll the pasta sheets so they are very thin; I didn’t quite get the sheets thin enough so the pasta was a little thick.
If unsure about how to roll the dough using a pasta machine, there are plenty of “how-to” videos on YouTube.
You can also roll your dough by hand using a rolling pin. Jamie Oliver’s advice is to roll small pieces of dough, one at a time. Try to get them as thin as you can.
Thyme, Taleggio and Walnuts Ravioli
Combine 100 gms or so of taleggio cheese (any soft rind cheese will do) and a dozen or so walnuts chopped.
Ravioli with Pecorino and Sundried Tomato
Combine 100 gms or so of pecorino cheese (parmesan will work too) and a small handful of chopped sundried tomatoes.
For each kind of ravioli, place 6 small spoonfuls of each mixture on one pasta sheet, allowing for a border when you come to cut the ravioli. Moisten the exposed pasta and put the other pasta sheet on top. Press down to divide the sheets into 6 and, making sure you don’t trap any air with the filling, seal the ravioli edges.
Cut pasta into shapes using a pastry cutter or a sharp knife. I dusted the ravioli with a little flour to help them keep their shape as I wasn’t cooking them for an hour or so.
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and put the ravioli in. Cook for 5 minutes until al dente.
For a quick sauce, heat a little butter in a frying pan until the butter foams; pour over both kinds of ravioli and serve with additional shaved pecorino.
The Quirk and the Cool 