Making British Christmas Chelsea Buns, A Bowl Of Christmas Joy, Happy New Year!!!

 

My Chelsea Bun "tree"

Making British Christmas Chelsea Buns-

I  saw this a few years ago-

From Everythinglooksrosie.com

Rosie, the Scottish blogger I follow, make some amazing recipes! I decided to make this and see how it went. First I had to convert the measurements to American ones. Then I had to find certain ingredients. I had never worked with Marzipan before and unsalted Pistachios were a bit tricky to find. I will say this was the trickiest dough I've worked with, VERY sticky! It was hard to tell from the photo how big they'd be. I was thinking Danishes, but really more normal bun/biscuit-sized. It was a toss up to use American bread flour or American unbleached. I went with bread flour. I liked the combo of fresh and dried Cranberries, and orange. Here are my calculations on the measurements, feel free to do your own research for conversions. Detailed directions and photos on Rosie's blog- 

1.4 cups full-fat milk

3.48 TBL butter, chopped into cubes

1 and 8/10th cups  bread flour- NOT ENOUGH

7g sachet fast-action dried yeast

3.5 TBL white and brown sugar mixed,  plus 3 TBL 

1 Tsp ground cinnamon

Spray oil 

7 Oz.  Marzipan, chilled- 1 tube (this is hard to grate!) 

1 orange, zested and juiced

0.43 cup fresh cranberries

0.43 cup dried cranberries, plus 1 tbsp

1/3 cup pistachios, chopped

3 TBL apricot jam, sieved (I subbed Orange Marmalade) 

2/3 cup powdered sugar

I think if I made these again I would use quite a bit more flour. I did find several generic sweet dough recipes (see my Pinterest food folder) that might work better. Rosie's photos make the raw dough look thicker and mine rose plenty. It was pretty hard to handle, use LOTS of flour on your board and roller!!! 

Flavor-wise, excellent and a very different flavor profile.

A Bowl Of Christmas Joy-

I wanted something different for Christmas Eve dinner so I made beef stew. I used a basic (Martha Stewart) beef stew recipe with red wine. Simpler than the Beef  Bourguignon I had made in the past. I also added mushrooms, the last 15 minutes. It was warm, comforting and a bowl of joy! I served with hot French bread. I doubled the recipe so we had plenty for two dinners and some lunches. I made Molten Chocolate Baby Cakes for dessert, simple, fast and delicious! I used Nigella Lawson's recipe and it's great that you can make the batter ahead of time and chill until you need them  

Happy New Year!!!

Thanks for all your kind comments this last year, they really helped me feel connected! My family and I have much to be grateful for. Looking forward to this next year and all the exciting projects and adventures!!!