Cronuts and Croissants

YUM.

Cronut fever has died down a bit, but I made these at the height of the media frenzy just to see if I could. You know what, they were bloomin' yummy. Super chuffed, you should all try at home. I picked up some great tips from the wonderful Jo Wheatley (Winner of GBB2011) at her blog Jo's Blue Aga, although I will confess hers look far more yummy than mine.

Definition: A cronut is a deep fried donut shaped croissant. BUT BETTER

The reason I have coupled a range of other pastries into this post is that the pastry dough used in all is the same. Make up a batch and have a beautifully butter heavy day with friends and family. I can tell you they did not last long at all in my house.

CRONUTS

• Decide how much of your dough (see recipe here) you want to allocate to Cronuts. I went with 1/3^rd for cronuts, 1/3^rd for pain au chocolat/raisin and 1/3^rd for plain croissants. Cut this amount off the main block of dough with a bread knife, and put the rest back in the fridge.

• Decide on how you want your cronuts- sugar coated? Glazed? Drizzled in chocolate and filled with cream? You can have a real mixture, and have great fun playing around with flavours. I went for cinnamon sugar coated cronuts filled with vanilla cream. The world is your baking oyster- go for flavour combinations you love.

• Roll the dough out to around 3.5 cm thick, and then use a round cutter to cut out your donuts. To create the hole in the middle, find something that is at smaller than half the width of the original cutter you used- Jo suggested the larger end of a piping bag nozzle which worked a treat for my mini circles. Put these in the fridge/freezer for at least an hour so they are super cold.

• If you have a deep fat fryer, great- use it. I do not, however, and so I shallow fried them in a deep frying pan, a ton of oil and some guess work on temperature. Use your worst looking cronut to test- they should turn golden brown after a few minutes on each side, and the pastry inside should be flaky and buttery. Burnt on the outside and raw on the inside? The temperature is too high. Once fried, toss them in your sugar to coat- I mixed caster sugar with cinnamon for a twist. Fill with cream if desired- best eaten warm!
  

  

         

CROISSANTS

This is just a different way of shaping the dough - how you flavour them is up to you. I am going to try some savoury croissants next for Brunch, but for this blog I have just coated them in a touch of apricot jam to get that lovely shiny look.

Roll the dough out to about 1 cm thick, and cut out a large circle - I used a large dinner plate. Divide the circle into 8 ( like you would a pizza) and seperate the slices. Roll each one out a bit wider with your rolling pin, and then proceed to roll them up from the outside (the crust of the pizza) to the inside, tucking in the pointy end.

Leave in a warm place to prove for 30-40 minutes, whilst pre-heating the oven to 200C. Cover with an egg wash and bake on a baking tray for 20-25 minutes. Immediately wash with a small amount of melted apricot jam. BEAUTIFUL.

Rachel x



Big Blueberry Muffins For Breakfast

When most folk buy a new camera what do they do? Oh you know, maybe take a walk and photograph some landscapes, take pictures of their friends, family, maybe even their pets. What did i do? Headed straight for a quick and easy but damn yummy blueberry muffin recipe from my magnolia bakery book to create some little bundles of blueberry joy that would make for the perfect test subjects for my new camera. I was picturing big fluffy white muffins with bright blue spots all over them to make for fantastic foodie bloggy photos.
What i got was even better! Big proud, fluffy, but dense (good dense, buttermilk was involved, however full fat milk works fine) with bursts of burst purple blueberries, specks of white chocolate chips and lovely glazed tops.
Why did i add white chocolate? Er cause. Chocolate.
Oh they also read the manual. I have a certificate somewhere that says i'm pure BA boss at photography, so i left the manual in the box and headed straight for the kitchen. So really i still have no clue how to use my new camera.

Next time i make them i will 100% use chocolate chunks from an actual bar rather than chips, there wasn't enough chocolate! Are you a crazy woman i hear you all cry. Well when i took them into work Hayley who sits on the desk opposite noticed pretty much straight away. And if a fellow lady notices there isn't enough chocolate about, well, we have a problem!
However when you did get a bite of the dense soft sponge, big soft blueberry and a decadent swirl of the white chocolate all at once then it was the perfect combination i had pictured when fruit, chocolate and breakfast foods join together in holy muffin matrimony.
They made for welcomed thursday breakfast treats in the office and in the saxton household. Apart from my sister who is weirdly allergic to white chocolate. The milky bar kid is tres sad.

The really quick and easy one bowl recipe from the magnolia bakery book is in the link after the pics. Bring that cliche freshly baked muffin smell into your casa pronto!

Tips:
-I made my own DIY cases with squares of baking paper cut 20cm wide, place them over the muffin tin and use a small cup to press them down into the tins. The muffins cooked fine in them and have a real home baked look about them without the lines you normall get from shop bought cases.
(I used normal cases too for the ones to take to work with leftover batter)
-This makes them look great on a plate (poet wheeey) in little nests of scrunchy baking paper. 
-Try and find small blueberries, as in smaller than already quite small blueberries?! (i have officially gone mad) mine were a little too big (?!) and left quite big pockets in the sponge. However win some/lose some cause they also meant for that great purple dye on the sponge and when they burst they left an almost sweet jam like texture. 

-Use big big big chunks of good quality white chocolate for real rich decadence.

-Remember to spinkle with caster sugar before you bake them- this creates the lovely golden brown tops!

If you dont eat these warm with butter i won't ever talk to you again. Cheers.

Holly x

CLICK BELOW FOR RECIPE

Bel Green Cafe

For the second instalment from our efforts at eating our way through Devon for my regional special piece we have Bel Green Cafe. The lovely Bel Green is situated on Magdalen Road, a leafy quiet street just on the edge of the main centre of Exeter.
This is not a hungover builders cafe pit stop. Okay, so you can go there hungover, (we might have bin, just a bit, ok, a lot. I blame Rachel) but try not to be as it will spoil the doughy sourdough and the freshest, richest sausages i have had in such a long time. Who knew pork could be described as rich? Well they were! But it is not for the days when you are feeling the after affects of too many tequilas. Definitely more suited for brunch with the family or the boyfriend or for a chilled coffee and a book session alone. The poached eggs were cooked to perfection and so were we after sitting in the baking autumn sunshine that flooded through the big windows into this little cafe. I could have spent all morning there drinking tea. It also serves as a vintage shop filled with kitschy household goodies like rolling pins and aprons which suit the cafe's rustic, slightly new england feel. The breakfast menu alone left us spoiled for choice and i believe they serve pizzas in the evenings too.

Best for: fresh, local hearty brunches in a calm setting with post brekkie browsing
Best day: saturday mornings before a walk into town
Bel Green Cafe Twitter
Bel Green Cafe

Holly x

The Royal William Bakery Plymouth

Some photographs from one of our first bakery visits for the blog! We spent about 3 hours in here in total when we visited Plymouthg- thats 3 courses of carby goodness. The minute we stepped off the train at Plymouth it was absolutely chucking it down with cold stormy sea weather and as we battled along the sea front on the marina the most enticing smell of freshly baked dough literally drew us in.
We then sampled fresh baked bread with home made jam- you can slice and toast the bread yourself, then help yourself to heaps of butter from big sharing bowls that are placed on the long wooden tables that you share with other customers (not for the germ-a-phobes or eating-with-strangers-a-phobes!) Afterwards we had pastries and fresh, strong coffee then, after checking it was still raining outside, helped ourselves to freshly made squares of thick, warm doughy pizza with the richest goats cheese (we spied them making them during breakfast in the big open plan kitchen) and a warming bowl of chilli with the most divine ciabattas on the side for dipping.
Everything was completely fresh and help yourselves, and all very trust worthy as you just keep track of what you have helped yourself to and then pay at the end. It was the most homely eating out experience i have ever had and i couldn't think of a better way to spend a stormy sunday afternoon by the seaside.

Best for: fresh, fresh, freshly baked
Best day: stormy cold sundays

Royal William Bakery Plymouth

Holly x