Guest Blogger: Anna’s Raspberry Buns

Anna, over at beepbeepdesigns, has kindly baked us some raspberry buns! Thanks for all your hard work!

This recipe is from my mother-in-law. Raspberry buns are not really cakes, but are more like scones. They are more efficient than scones, though, because the jam is already inside! Perfect for picnics and teatime and whenever you feel a bit peckish.

Ingredients:

240g/8.5oz plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

90g/3oz margarine

90g/3oz caster sugar

1 lemon

1 egg

some milk

raspberry jam

Instructions:

Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Preheat your oven to 200C or foreign equivalent.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a big bowl.

Wash your hands well, then rub the margarine into the flour until it looks like breadcrumbs. Then wash your hands again. A nailbrush might be helpful.

Zest the lemon. I hate this part. I use the side of a box cheese grater and all the rind gets stuck and I have to scrape it off with my fingers. But you should end up with this:

And then you can wash your hands again.

Add the sugar and lemon rind to the bowl and mix in. Add the egg — I like to live dangerously so I always crack it straight into the bowl, but you might want to crack it into a cup and then pour it into the bowl after checking for eggshell.

Mix in the egg, and enough milk to make a soft dough. You don’t need very much milk; I always add too much and have to put in extra flour. You don’t want it to be sticky, just soft and maybe looking like this:

Now for the complicated bit! But don’t worry, it isn’t very complicated. And if you get it wrong it doesn’t matter because it’s only baking.

Prepare yourself with a floured board, an open jar of jam with a teaspoon, some milk in a cup with a pastry brush (you might not need this if your dough is too sticky like mine), and your lined baking tray. If you didn’t line your baking tray at the start, now is a good time to do it.

(the baking tray is over to my right, please ignore cheese grater and nude lemon)

Make a ball of dough about 3cm across, and squash it flat on the floured board.

Put a little bit of jam (not too much! Don’t be tempted to make them extra-jammy, unless you like scrubbing jam off the bottom of your oven. About half a teaspoon is plenty) in the centre of the circle.

Pinch the edges of the circle upwards to cover the jam. If your dough is not sticky enough, brush some milk on the edges to make them stick together.

Then in one swift movement, flip the whole thing upside-down and dump it on the baking tray.

Once you have done a trayful, sprinkle them with caster sugar. Also you might need to wash your hands.

Then put them in the oven for 18-20 minutes, or until they’re just starting to go brown and are just a bit hard on top. Then put your new buns on a rack to cool.

Mmm, raspberry buns.

A note of caution though — like scones, these are especially delicious while still war. But biting hot jam is…. unpleasant. So let them cool down for a few minutes even if you have to sit on your hands at the other end of the house. Then tuck in!

These look great, Anna. I’m sure I’ll try them myself soon enough…