Belvoir Castle Buns

So off I go, and I'm starting the journey right here in my adopted home county of Leicestershire. Seemed appropriate as I can't really travel anywhere else at the moment!  For anyone reading from abroad, it's a county in the East Midlands - so just about in the centre of England.  It's known for pork pies; Stilton and Red Leicester cheeses; and Richard III.  Oh, and for a football team who pulled off a league win that no-one ever expected.

As I'm really enjoying bread making at the moment I thought I'd try these yeast risen, sweet buns which were (apparently) a favourite of the seventh Duke of Rutland (1818-1906)

Source - Unsplash//Paula Cockcroft https://unsplash.com/photos/Iuc9g7sipCY

Belvoir Castle (pronounced 'Beaver' for those not in the know) is situated in the Vale of Belvoir, Leicestershire.   It has been home to the Duke of Rutland since 1555.  Although it's part family home,  you can tour inside and it hosts many public events.  It's been featured in various productions, including 'King Ralph', 'Da Vinci Code', 'Little Lord Fauntleroy' and most recently, Netflix series 'The Crown'.

Here's an interesting fact - in the 1840s Anna, Duchess of Bedford, spent some time at the castle.  She found that dinner was served too late for her liking, and she was becoming hungry in the afternoon.  So, she asked for a snack of tea and cake in between (well, you can demand this sort of thing when you're a duchess!)... and the tradition of 'afternoon tea' was born.

Apparently the current Duke and Duchess lead quite a colourful and unconventional life.  I'll pop this here for you to read at your leisure...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5184689/Duke-calls-police-lover-refuses-leave.html

Here's the Wiki page if you'd like to find out more about the Castle and family https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belvoir_Castle.  And here is the official website, in case you fancy a visit https://www.belvoircastle.com/

We had a family day out at Belvoir Castle, back in the summer of 2013, having won an entrance ticket complete with guided tour.  Evan was pretty well behaved during the tour (considering he was then a boisterous 3 year old).  It wasn't until the end that he announced in a big loud voice "I don't want to go round with that lady anymore, she talks too much!"  Luckily, the guide had a good sense of humour!  Anyway, we really enjoyed exploring the grounds - there are some lovely woodland walks and we all enjoyed playing hide and seek around the battlements.  Here I hoped to bring you some lovely photos of our visit, but can I find them?  No.  Despite trawling both our hard drives, they seem to be lost.  Ah, the hazards of the digital age.

Anyway, on to the recipe...

I found several versions of this, in my books and online.  They're all pretty similar - this is from 'Taste of The East Midlands'.

Ingredients

400g/1lb plain flour
115g/4oz currants
115g/4oz sugar + 1tsp
150ml/1/4 pt lukewarm milk
50g/2oz butter
1/2oz fresh yeast or 1/4oz dried yeast
1 tsp salt
A little milk (to finish)


Method

1.  Place the flour in a mixing bowl, and stir in the salt.  Add the butter and rub it into the flour - until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs 

2. Mix in the 115g (4oz) sugar.

3.  To the lukewarm milk, add yeast and 1tsp sugar.  Stir until dissolved.  Leave to stand, covered, until it begins to froth.

4.  Pour the yeast mixture into the flour and mix well (I like to bring the ingredients together with one hand, like a claw - until they are just combined).  Then add half the currants.  Begin kneading the dough - you want it to be nice and soft, and maybe slightly sticky - but not too much to handle.  When the dough has come together, knead for at least 10 minutes - or 5 minutes in a mixer with a dough hook.  For more information on bread making, see my previous post here -

https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blogger.g?blogID=4175460286579835613#editor/target=post;postID=717942182286552508;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=25;src=postname

5. Here's the dough, kneaded and ready for its first rise.  Place into a large bowl, and cover tightly with cling film.

Now, the recipe says to leave the dough until it's doubled in size.  This is my dough after 4 hours of rising, rather than the usual 1-2.   As you can probably tell, it hadn't grown much.  When I pressed it with my finger, it felt firm and left a dent which didn't spring back - this is a sign that it's over-proved.  Feeling a little despondent, I read up on enriched doughs.  A few sources say that they often don't double in size, even if the recipe says they should.  This is because the extra sugar feeds on the yeast and stops it working as efficiently.  So, I think I should have checked (and prodded it) before.

6. Anyway, when the dough feels spongy - and your finger leaves a dent that slowly springs back , it is about ready.  Take it out of the bowl, knock it back and knead well again.  Megan loves this bit, she really puts some welly into it! My fabulous kitchen assistant 😀

7. Next, roll out the dough into a square about half an inch thick.  Sprinkle on the remaining currants, then roll up like a Swiss roll. 

8. Cut your dough into slices of about 2.5cm (1 inch) wide.  

9. Place the slices onto a greased baking sheet, cut side up and leave to rise again for about 30 minutes. Cover with a roomy plastic bag (I use a clean bin bag) to prevent the dough forming a skin.  Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220C/425F/GM7.  

10. Just before baking, gently (so you don't knock any air out) brush the slices with milk.  

11. Bake the buns in a pre-heated oven for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown.

And here they are!  I was quite pleased with the way they turned out, after all.  Not sure they'd get the Duke's seal of approval - a bit more practice needed first.  They were slightly heavy, and I think this was due to the over-proving.  But they tasted good.  Stayed fresh for a couple of days, and after that I grilled them and spread them with butter - not unlike a toasted teacake.

So that's it for now.  Next time, going further back in history to the time of Richard III - with Bosworth Jumbles.  See you then!