Chelsea Buns - My family recipe journey

Until now I'd never made Chelsea buns before, I'd more than eaten my fair share of them. If you've followed my family recipe journey over the years, you'll know my Grandad was an amazing baker. He used to make these for me (even my own special batch, with no raisins, which as a child I didn't like in my buns)

These were easy to make and made the house smell amazing. They were enjoyed by guests. for morning tea - just as well, as the recipe made tons.

I've searched all of the family recipe books and I simply cannot find the recipe, so I used a recipe from our good friends at Chelsea (reprinted with their permission)

Emily's Chelsea Buns

Ingredients Dough
1kg high grade flour
20g salt
50g softened butter
100g Chelsea White Sugar
25g instant active dried yeast
1 small egg
600ml warm water or milk

Filling
50g melted butter
3 Tbsp Chelsea Soft Brown Sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ cup sultanas

Icing
1 cup Chelsea Icing Sugar
Hot water

Raspberry essence to colour and flavour icing pink (my addition)

Method

To make dough:
Place all the dough ingredients into a large mixing bowl, then using a wooden spoon combine the ingredients together until a dough mass has formed.
Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic in feel. Kneading is the trick here!
Lightly oil a bowl large enough to allow the dough to double in bulk, then put the dough in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave in a warmish place for 20 minutes.
Gently knock back the dough in the bowl by gently folding it back onto its self.
Cover again with plastic wrap and leave for 20 minutes then place into the refrigerator overnight.
To assemble buns:
Roll dough into large rectangle.
Use pastry brush to brush the melted butter on and then sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon over pastry.
Sprinkle sultanas (that have been soaked for 5 minutes in boiling water) over.
Roll up dough and cut into 12 pieces. Bake at 190°C for 20-30 minutes.
Mix together icing sugar and water until a drizzling consistency is reached then drizzle over buns when cool.

Extra tips
As an alternative, you can also glaze with Chelsea Honey Maple Syrup.

Feijoa cake

Feijoas are plentiful at the moment. We've had some great feijoa recipes on the Kiwicakes blog in the past (use the search function at right to find). This recipe comes from our friends at Chelsea.

Ingredients

4 Feijoas

1 cup Chelsea white sugar

125g butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 large egg

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup sultanas

2 Tbsp sliced crystalised ginger

Method

Heat oven to 180°C. Scoop feijoa flesh out in small chunks and mix with sugar in a bowl. In a separate bowl, blend the melted butter and beaten egg together. Add this to the feijoa mixture along with the dry ingredients,a adding the ginger and sultanas last.

Bake in a well greased tin for 50 minutes.

Afghan biscuits - A kiwi kids favourite

My youngest is just starting to get interested in cooking and baking. He's always been keen to jump in to any decorating though. Today we made afghan biscuits together. The recipe comes from our friends at Chelsea.

Ingredients

200g butter, softened
½ cup Chelsea Caster or Organic Sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 ¼ cups plain flour
¼ cup cocoa
1 ½ cups cornflakes, lightly crushed
Icing:
1 ½ cups Chelsea Rich Chocolate Icing
1 Tbsp butter (softened)
1-2 Tbsp boiling water

Method 

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease or line a baking tray with baking paper.

In a large bowl beat butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Sift in flour and cocoa stir thoroughly with the butter mixture until combined before stirring in the cornflakes.

Place heaped teaspoonfuls on a baking tray, squeeze mixture together gently if necessary then press lightly with a fork.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack before icing. 

Icing: Mix chocolate icing sugar, butter and 1 Tbsp boiling water at a time until combined, adding more hot water if necessary until icing is a spreadable consistency. Ice biscuits and top with half a walnut.

Mini treacle loaves a scrumptious childhood memory

Treacle is a much loved flavour from my childhood, it was a favourite both with my father and my grandmother. These scrumptious little loaves were baked in pretty mini loaf cases. I recently made these for a gathering I attended, and they were very well received. 

Ingredients

The recipe is reprinted with permission from our friends at Chelsea.

½ cup (125g) butter

½ cup (100g) Chelsea soft brown sugar, firmly packed

½ cup (185g) Chelsea treacle

1¼ cups (190g) plain flour

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp baking soda

1 egg, lightly beaten

2/3 cup (160ml) milk 

Lemon Icing:

1 Tbsp (20g) butter
2 Tbsps lemon juice
2 Tsps boiling water
2 cups Chelsea icing sugar sifted

Method
Preheat oven to 170ºC conventional (150ºC fan forced). Grease and line bases of 10 x ½ cup (125ml) mini loaf pans or friand pans. 

Place butter soft brown sugar and treacle in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 mins. Remove from heat and cool.

Sift flour, ginger and baking soda into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre of dry ingredients and stir egg, milk and cooled treacle mixture until well combined.

Spoon batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 20-25 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow the loaves to stand for 10 mins before turning out onto a wire rack. Drizzle with Lemon Icing and decorate with Candied Lemon Rind. 

Lemon Icing: 

Combine butter lemon juice and water in a small saucepan and heat until butter is melted or simply microwave in heatproof bowl. Add to sifted icing sugar and mix until well combined.

When I made my treacle cakes, lemon icing didn't appeal on the day, so I used Chelsea's recipe for caramel icing from their Halloween Treacle coffin cakes.

Caramel icing:

60g butter
1/2 cup firmly packed Chelsea soft brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 cup Chelsea icing sugar sifted

Stir butter and soft brown sugar in small saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves; bring to the boil then simmer, stirring, 2 mins. Remove from heat and add milk and icing sugar mix until well combined. Drizzle warm icing over cakes. Use licorice to create coffin shape and pipe dates with writing icing.

Treacle makes this an enchanting rich, moist cake with a subtle liquorice flavour. Decorate for the kids or simply serve warm with vanilla ice-cream for a special ‘treat’.

Caramel Crusted Rhubarb Pudding

Wondering what to do with all the rhubarb, this is a wonderful crunchy dessert option. So good with custard or cream or dusted with icing sugar.

As a child I detested rhubarb yet I’m not really sure if I ever tried it. I think it's likely to my mothers horror, I declared I didn’t like it, without even tasting it. As an adult I discovered it tasted like berries, apple and lemon all rolled in to one and now I love it, in fact I may spend my adult life trying to catch up with all I never ate as a child. This dessert is equally lovely in summer & winter. My rhubarb variety (above) is more green than the the red you might be used to seeing, however the taste is the same.

Recipe is reprinted with permission from our friends at Chelsea Sugar. (Photo above from Chelsea)

Ingredients

3/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup rolled oats

3/4 cup Chelsea white sugar

100g butter melted

4 cups diced rhubarb stalks

3/4 cup Chelsea soft brown sugar

1 Tbsp cornflour

1/4 cup boiling water

Method
Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add rolled oats and White sugar, then mix in melted butter to make crust mixture. Put diced rhubarb into a greased ovenproof dish, such as a small lasagne dish or deep pie plate. Sprinkle crust mixture evenly over rhubarb. In the discarded bowl, combine Brown sugar and cornflour. Spoon over the crust mixture. Carefully pour the boiling water over the top. Do not stir. 

Bake for 30 minutes at 180°C.