GUEST BLOG: Naughty, with spice

By guest blogger KIM IRWIN

Friday saw our final breadmaking session working with the DEP groups in Whalley Range. On the menu was enriched breads which included Chelsea buns and hot cross buns - delicious sweet treats!

 

Our bakers divided into teams and were soon weighing out the flour and making dough, with soaked dried fruit added to the Chelsea bun mixture and dried fruit added to the hot cross bun mix. Pretty soon the doughs were rising and the team got to work on making the pastry for the buns and a glaze made from apricot jam.

 

As it was our final session, we'd invited the other group to join us for a lunchtime celebration, everyone bringing in dishes they'd prepared at home. Soon enough we had enough food to feed a small army, with dishes from all over the world reflecting the diversity of cultures in the groups we had worked with. Dishes such as potato pakoras, bhajis, aloo chat, noodle salad, stuffed aubergine and vine leaves were all happily gobbled up, as was a delicious beetroot and chocolate cake for afters! It was a real celebratory feast of food. We all wondered if were going to have enough room to try the buns…

 

 

By this time the doughs had risen and the hot cross buns were shaped and crossed to finish baking in the oven. The dough for the Chelsea buns was rolled out and sprinkled with fruit, then rolled into a sausage and sliced into smaller pieces - they looked so gooood already. The room was smelling amazing and it was with a bittersweet air that our wares were lifted from the oven one final time. Finished with the glaze, the hot cross buns were sliced and spread with butter and we certainly found the room to sample how wonderful they tasted. 

 

All agreed it had been a fabulous way to spend a Friday morning over the past 10 weeks and here at Cracking Good Food, we hope to accquire funding to continue our work with such enthusiastic cooks. Well done, everyone, and thank you for sharing your food, energy and enthusiam with us.

There are now lots of photographs from our bun-baking sessions with the DEP up on our Facebook page. Click here to look at them.