Glorious Food

Article | Ellie Stanton, System Trainer at Blue Stream Academy

These rolls are a wonderful mash up of mince pies and cinnamon rolls – a delicious festive sweet treat.

Sweet Mincemeat Buns

Makes: 10 | Time: 2 Hours

Ingredients

Dough

• 500g plain flour

• Pinch of salt

• 50g caster sugar

• 300ml milk

• 40g unsalted butter (cut into cubes)

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 7g sachet of yeast

• Vegetable oil, for greasing (or a plain flavourless oil)

• 1 egg

Filling

• ½ jar of mincemeat

Glaze and Icing

• 200g caster sugar

• 200ml water, plus 1 tsp for the icing

• 100g icing sugar

Method

1. Combine the flour, salt and sugar in a large mixing mixing bowl.

2. In a pan, gently warm the milk and butter until the butter has melted. Then stir in the vanilla extract.

3. Make a well in the flour mix, and add in the yeast. Gradually add the warm milk mixture to the flour. After mixing in the milk, add the egg and continue mixing until it forms a rough dough.

4. On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough for 5 minutes or until smooth.

5. Grease a large bowl and add in the dough. Cover with cling film and leave to rise for 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.

6. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a large rectangle. Spread the mincemeat over the dough and roll the dough up (roll from the short end of the rectangle).

7. Slice the roll of dough into 10 and place the sliced roll in a tin lined with greaseproof paper. Leave to rise for 30 minutes.

8. While you’re waiting for the dough to rise, preheat the oven to 190C/170C Fan/Gas 5.

9. Cover the buns in the tray with tin foil and bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove the foil for the last 5–10 minutes.

10. While the buns are cooling, make the glaze. To do so, mix the caster sugar and water in a pan and heat for 10–15 minutes or until the mixture starts to look a little thicker and stickier (it should still be clear and fairly runny).

11. Brush the buns with the glaze and leave them in their tin to cool completely.

12. To make the icing, mix a teaspoon of water into the icing sugar and stir until it has a pouring consistency.

13. Using an icing bag or a spoon, drizzle the icing over the cooled buns. Share and enjoy!

Festive Toad-in-the-Hole

Serves 8 | Time: 1 hour 30 mins

Ingredients

• 2 carrots

• 6–8 sausages (or vegetarian alternatives)

• 6–8 rashers of streaky bacon, smoked or unsmoked (or vegetarian alternatives)

• 140g plain flour

• ½ tsp salt

• 2 eggs

• 175ml milk

• Pinch of pepper

• 4–5 brussels sprouts (cut in half)

• Ready-made stuffing

• 2 tbsp cranberry sauce

• 100g brie (cut into small pieces)

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7.

2. Peel the carrots and chop them into large slices or chunks. Add them to a pan of water and boil until they are just starting to go soft.

3. Wrap the sausages in the bacon. Add the oil to an oven tray, place the wrapped sausages on the tray and bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until the meat starts to brown.

4. While the sausages are in the oven, mix the flour, salt and pepper in a bowl. Add the eggs and milk, and whisk the mixture into a batter.

5. Remove the sausages from the oven. Add the carrots and brussels sprouts to the tray, and pour the batter over the top. (You might need to reassemble the sausages, carrots and sprouts after pouring in the batter to ensure they are evenly distributed.)

6. Return the tray to the oven and bake for a further 25–30 minutes, or until the batter has risen and looks golden.

7. Remove the toad-in-the-hole from the oven. Crumble the stuffing over the top before adding the pieces of brie and a few dollops of cranberry sauce.

8. Cut up and serve with mashed or roasted potatoes.
   

Meet the Author

Ellie is a System Trainer and has been part of the Customer Support team since 2019. As a System Trainer, Ellie performs daily training sessions covering all our Blue Stream Academy systems and features for System Administrators.

She is also a keen cook and baker, preparing many treats for friends, family and, most importantly, the office. Ellie specialises in baking cakes and biscuits for her friends and family, including birthday cakes, wedding cakes and baby shower biscuits. It’s not just Ellie’s friends, family and colleagues who benefit from her baking skills. She will also regularly bake homemade dog treats for her lovely puppy.