Thursday 26 January 2012

COFFEE BUNS


Hello everyone!

This is not Sarah-Jane blogging, but ME - I'm her mum, Helen. I hope you don't mind the intrusion, but I'm 'helping' out today.
It's many years since Sarah-Jane baked her first fairy cakes and made chocolate rice crispies and smartie marshmallows with me and she's come a long way since then. Now it is me who very much follows HER baking and asks HER advice!

I have been thinking recently of an old family recipe we all enjoyed, so I 'dug it out'.
Coffee Buns.
They are more of a sort of soft biscuit, and if, like me, you love coffee - you should love Coffee Buns!
BUT - horror of horror, this old recipe was all in imperial - even the oven temperature!

The 'secret ingredient' is 'Camp Coffee' which is a liquid coffee with chicory, which you can buy in any supermarket. If you don't have any, you can always make some strong liquid coffee to add instead.

Ingredients
1/2 lb marg  (I used 250g)
2 cups of demerara sugar
2 eggs
1 tablesp Camp Coffee   (the recipe said 2, but was changed to 1 - or maybe it was a 1 changed to 2....
1 lb (500g) self raising flour                                                                             so I just used 1.1/2 tblsp)
1/2 lb currants (250g)

First, I washed and soaked the currents for a little while, so they wouldn't turn out like bits of grit.
Cream the marg and sugar
Whisk the egg  (save a little for glazing), and add with the coffee to the mixture
Stir in the sifted flour and the currants

Roll into balls the size of a large walnut (I got 30) and space them out on your baking trays (prob.2).
I lined my trays (the grill pans, actually - nice and big) with my wonderful plain black silicone mats from www.siliconemoulds.com, and very lightly oiled them. Just overlap them to cover the trays. (They worked a treat, as usual, so I only had the mats to wipe and no trays to wash up.)



Slightly flatten, and brush the tops with egg before putting into the pre-heated oven.
This old recipe said 375deg (old money) or 190deg C, and I thought that looked rather on the hot side, which probably explains how my mum often burned them.

Here's a handy conversion chart

FahrenheitCelciusGas Mark
250°F120°CGas Mark ½
275°F135°CGas Mark 1
300°F149°CGas Mark 2
325°F162°CGas Mark 3
350°F176°CGas Mark 4
375°F190°CGas Mark 5
400°F204°CGas Mark 6
425°F218°CGas Mark 7
450°F232°CGas Mark 8
475°F246°CGas Mark 9
500°F260°CGas Mark 10


I decided that 160/170deg would be better, but as my oven control panel is decidedly difficult to read (even with my specs on and standing on a chair!), I confess I guessed where to turn the dial and set the timer for the required 30 mins.

They turned out just as good as I remembered them! Delicious!


Sarah-Jane


I seem to remember Sarah-Jane enjoyed Coffee Buns too!  
.........and something tells me now that I'm in for BIG trouble!!!

4 comments:

  1. Awwwwwwww ..... she's adorable!!!! Coffee for babies?! She must've been a real hyper baby :D
    Thanks, Helen, for sharing this recipe and the photo ... esp the photo ... awwww all over again!

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  2. how nice is the litle bay! an good cookies also! congratulations!

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  3. Thanks for this recipe, am off to buy some Camp. I always preferred Camp when I was younger, even though everyone else was hooked on Maxwell House.

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  4. :cringe: Still - it's a mother's job to embarrass their kids... Right ?

    Mum - I haven't eaten these in YEARS. Certainley not in the last 10. I think you should have posted some to me. Saying that - they'd probably have arrived in crumbs like a few of the "samplers" I've posted to you over the years !

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