Apple Buns

What do you do or plan to do when you know its going to be raining all day Sunday, and you have a poorly person at home?  I can think of various options: knitting, watching Smiley's people  back to back, and baking bread, and ironing.....

I managed all of these...well the last three episodes of Smiley's people on Sunday, as we had watched three on Saturday!

With only five more buns in my list of catch ups, I selected the Apple Buns from The Book of Buns.  I read and reread the recipe after I started the predough with 25g of flour and 125g water.  It felt like I was about to make some very thin flour glue, so I knew there was something wrong.  Also later on in the recipe the predough was being used twice!  I went with my instinct and trawled the internet for a solution.  There were comments on the facebook page I was following regarding some errors, but with little Huddle it was not easy to find the original comments and corrections.  However thanks to 'A Shaggy Dough Story' Blog, I found the solution.  It should be 125g flour and 125g water.

For a bit of 'aromatherapy' I cooked up the apple stuffing Saturday evening.  In the end I decided to leave on the lovely apple skin.  When cooled the sugar, butter and spices made a lovely  coating.  It was fun shaping, stuffing, and encapsulating the apple in the soft dough, in a sort a masochistic sort of way that is.  After leaving my 16 portions to rest, I realised that the dough was not smooth enough, so made them all into loose balls as detailed with good pictures at the beginning of the book.  Then I started again with the stretching into rounds and stuffing the balls.

When I thought they were sufficiently risen, they went into the oven, with a gentle lick of the pastry brush laden with glaze, and a light sprinkling of cinnamon.  Mr S is now 'converted' into liking this level of cinnamon, it is so well balanced with the other flavours.

As we looked forward to tea, we were debating when this would be, as this was the day the clocks changed.  Would three o'clock be too early, well its really four in 'old time', so we compromised:  three thirty or thereabout.   With a mug of tea, and a slow enjoyment, the flavour is gentle, subtle, but builds well.  The dough is soft and smooth.  We really did have only one each:  elegant sufficiency as Aunty Prue would say.  I can just see repeat batches with different fillings.....