My youngest two are at that nursery age where they spend a vast amount of time singing songs, their favourite being, “Miss Polly had a dolly” and OH how apt that song has been in the last 24 hours. I have been very unwell, and at 26 weeks pregnant was getting commands to go into hospital for an anti-sickness injection. Unfortunately hubby can’t drive and our hospital is a half hour drive away so I buried my head in the sand and slept all day instead. I am so rarely ill that I just can’t cope with it but the children bring every bug in the world home. Ah, the joys of parenting.
I promised yesterday that I would maybe post up the wool I dyed last week (tomorrow!) and some baking, and it occured to me that in my entire blogging career I’ve only posted one savoury dish. Unfortunately this is fairly representative of my domestic leanings because I really am not a natural cook. Hubby is responsible for dinner in this house and has been shocked that not once but TWICE in the last week he has come home from work and I’ve had dinner ready. The cheeky sod. Alas, I have not photographed by culinary exploits but suffice to say I made stew and the kids ate it. Hooray! I think it was the novelty element myself 
Baking wise, I’m going to show you some Norwegian Cinnamon Buns I made courtesy of my much-loved Nigella Lawson. These were okay but not really what I was looking for. I love cinnamon buns that have icing smeared on top, gooey and sticky-sweet. This was not that kind of cake. That said, this recipe made 20 buns and they were gone within 24 hours so they couldn’t have been that bad. They got a little burnt due to a communication error with hubby (his fault!) but that didn’t affect the taste.
Recipe
For the dough:
600 g flour
100 g sugar
½ tsp salt
21 g easy blend yeast or 45 g fresh yeast
100 g butter
400 ml milk
2 eggs
For the filling:
150 g soft, unsalted butter
150 g sugar
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
1 egg, beaten, to glaze
Roasting tin approximately 33cm x 22cm or large brownie tin, lined with baking parchment bottom and sides
Preheat the oven to 230°C/ gas mark 8.
Combine the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in a large bowl. Melt the butter and whisk it into milk and eggs, then stir it into the flour mixture. Mix to combine and then knead the dough either by hand or using the dough hook of a food mixer until its smooth and springy Form into a ball, place in an oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave it to rise for about 25 minutes.
Take one-third of the dough and roll it or stretch it to fit your tin; this will form the bottom of each bun when it has cooked. Roll out the rest of the dough on a lightly floured surface, aiming to get a rectangle of roughly 50×25cm. Mix the filling ingredients in a small bowl and then spread the rectangle with the buttery cinnamon texture. Try to get even coverage on the whole of the dough.
Roll it up from the longest side until you have a giant sausage. Cut the roll into 2 cm slices which should make about 20 rounds. Sit in rounds in lines of top of the dough in the tin, swirly cut-side up. Don’t worry if they don’t fit snugly together as they will swell and become puffy when they prove. Brush them with egg and let them rise again for about 15 minutes to let them get duly puffy.
Put in the hot oven and cook for 20-25 minutes, by which time the buns will have risen and will be golden brown in colour. Don’t worry it they catch in places. Remove them from the tin and leave to cool slightly on a rack-it’s easy just to pick up the whole sheet of parchment and transfer them like that-before letting people tear them off, to eat warm.
Makes 20
Posted under baking, family, recipes
This post was written by Vonnie on February 17, 2009
