Perseverance paid off. What I’ve produced yesterday ended up in the bin, buns went hard when completely cooled  and were rubbish. Kitchen Aid will be fixed, Florek promised, while I took a different recipe, bought some fresh yeast in the bakery and having gotten a new haircut- got back to baking.

The recipe I used this time came from GF, the section when the kids are encouraged to bake, so if that didn’t work I’d feel like an idiot, but it did work.

I used 400 g of strong bread flour, 21 g of fresh yeast, crumbled into it ( a nice hint found online regarding dry yeast vs fresh, it’s all multiplied by 3, so if the recipe calls for 7g of dry yeast, fresh yeast should be 21 g), 60 g of sugar, 1 tbsp each of mixed spice and cinnamon, all mixed in the bowl. Then 250 ml of warm milk, 1 beaten egg, 50 g of melted butter and all that was kneaded for about 10 minutes, had to add quite a lot of flour to keep it together.  Within an hour on a sunny windowsill, under the cloth it more than doubled in size, so I knocked it down a little, added the sultanas and chocolate chips and when formed in 10 perfect buns, left to prove for another 20 minutes. I made the paste with plain flour, sugar and vanilla paste and painted the crosses, but they melted in and can’t be seen. The buns baked in 200 degrees for 20 minutes. When slightly cooled I brushed them with apricot jam, warmed up. Very pleased for a change.

In an hour we’re off to Stratford upon Avon to meet Jimbo and Louise for dinner, Izzie seems to be allowing it. I’m craving some good prawn dish  and in  the place we’re going  to they have gamberetti bruschetta on the a la carte menu. Yum .