Easter Recipes
Happy Easter to you and yours! Wishing you a safe and Happy Easter at home this year. Our hotels are not able to serve you delicious Easter treats this year but instead they have shared some Easter recipes for you to try at home.
Hot Cross Buns - Ballynahinch Castle
Hot Cross Buns - Brooks Hotel
Carrot Cake - Headfort Arms Hotel
Easter Griddle Tops - Kiltimagh Park Hotel
Left over Easter Egg Biscuit Cake - Racket Hall Country House Hotel
Hot Cross Buns from Ballynahinch Castle
Ingredients:
500g Strong Flour
10g salt
75g caster sugar
10g instant yeast
40g soft butter
2 whole eggs mixed
120ml room temperature milk
120ml cold water
150g Chopped Sultanas
80g chopped mixed peel
Zest of 2 orange & lemon
1 pealed apple diced
3tsp cinnamon
100g plain flour
100ml water
75g Apricot jam
Large bowl mix flour, salt then dry yeast. Slowly add wet ingredients until the dough comes together. Turn out and need for 10 minutes until smooth. Put into a bowl cover with a towel and let it double in size (1-2hrs). Tip out, add fruit and zest and need to incorporate. Back into a bowl for another prove. Knock out air and shape into 12 buns and place on an oven tray. Leave buns to rise (double). Mix your flour and water and pipe your crosses onto the buns. Bake in a preheated oven at 250°C for 15 minutes. Take out and brush with your warm apricot jam as a glaze.
Hot Cross Buns from Brooks Hotel
Makes 12.
454gm Plain / All purpose flour
300ml Milk
2 heaped Teaspoons Mixed Spice
1 heaped Teaspoon of Cinnamon
75gm Sugar
25gm Butter
A Pinch of Sea Salt 1 egg beaten
75gm sultanas
50gm mixed peel
Zest Of 1 Lemon
7gm Dried fast action/instant yeast
For the crosses, 7gm plain flour, 75gm water, piping bag
For the Glaze, 50gm Honey or Golden Syrup (Warm at the end and brush the buns once they've just came out of the Oven)
Method
Warm the milk with the butter, sugar and spices, we just want the butter to melt, leave to cool until tepid if you've overheated it.
Put flour into a large bowl (3 litre capacity to leave room for rising) add the salt, yeast, sultanas, mixed peel and lemon zest. Make a well in the centre, once the liquid is tepid add it in and stir it through with a spoon add the beaten egg and mix well in the bowl using the spoon. Turn it out onto a floured surface and knead it well for a couple of minutes, return it to the bowl cover with cling film and leave in a warm place for approx 1 1/2 hours until it has doubled in size. Turn it out onto a floured surface and knead lightly. Divide evenly into 12 pieces, roll each into a ball and place evenly onto your tray approx 2cm apart. Cover the tray with a damp tea towel and leave to rise again approx 1.5 hours until they double in size.
While your buns are proving, make the mix for the crosses, blend the water into the flour ensuring there are no lumps, fill this into a small piping bag. Turn oven on to preheat 180c. Once the buns have doubled in size, it's time to pipe the crosses and bake the buns. Holding the Bag upright make a snip at the end approx 3mm width, pipe all the buns lengthways first in rows, then pipe across in rows.
Pop the tray into the preheated oven set the timer for approx 25 minutes until evenly browned. Just before they are ready warm the honey ready for brushing on top. As you can see from the picture a piece of rosemary will do the trick if you haven't got a brush. Leave to cool and enjoy buttered with a cup of tea. Store in an airtight container/tin.
Grandma's Carrot Cake from The Headfort Arms Hotel
For the carrot cake:
450ml oil
400g plain flour
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
550g brown sugar
5 eggs
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
550g carrots grated
150g shelled walnuts
Chopped Dash of vanilla extract
For the icing:
200g cream cheese
150g caster sugar
100g butter, softened
Method
- For the carrot cake, preheat the oven to 160C. Grease and line a 26cm cake tin. Mix all of the ingredients for the carrot cake, except the carrots and walnuts, together in a bowl until well combined. Stir in the carrots and walnuts.
- Spoon the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and set aside to cool for 10 minutes, then carefully remove the cake from the tin and set aside to cool completely on a cooling rack.
- Meanwhile, for the icing, beat the cream cheese, caster sugar and butter together in a bowl until fluffy. Spread the icing over the top of the cake with a palette knife.
If you don't have the ingredients for the icing, just dust some icing sugar over the cake as we did
Easter Griddle Tops
Recipe
500g Plain Flour
75g Caster Sugar
2tps Mixed Spice
1 x Lemon
10g Dried Yeast
40g Melted Butter
300ml Milk
2 x Eggs
You can also add whatever extras you like to the mix, Kiltimagh Hotel recommendeds white chocolate and fresh berries.
Mix all the dry ingredients together, fruit and chocolate. Add the melted butter, milk and eggs & combine. Knead Lightly & Cut to shape. Grill on a lightly oiled pan on a medium heat for 12 mins turning occasionally.
Enjoy!
Lisa's Easter Egg Biscuit Cake from Racket Hall Country House Hotel
Ingredients:
1 tin condensed milk100g butter
230g Left over milk chocolate easter eggs
450g Selection of biscuits or bars
Line a 2lb loaf or a 7"round tin with cling film(about 3 layers with enough to wrap over the top). Melt together the condensed milk, butter and chocolate in a bain marie over a medium to low heat. Stir to combine. Pour over chocolate and mix all ingredients together. Place the mix into the prepared tin, wrap and leave in the fridge for at least 4 hours until hard.
Slice and enjoy!