Pastry Recipes

Hot Cross Buns

1/4 lb flour
1 oz yeast
4 oz castor sugar
% pint milk or milk and water
1/8 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
4-6 ounces currants
1 ounce chopped peel
4 ounces butter
2 eggs
Milk and sugar to glaze

Sieve flour into large bowl. Cream yeast with 1 teaspoon sugar and stir in tepid liquid.
Strain into sieved flour and mix well. Cover with a cloth and leave in a warm place to set the sponge about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, sieve remaining flour with sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg, and stir in currants and peel. Melt butter and beat eggs. When mixture has well “sponged,” stir in all dry ingredients, pour in melted butter and eggs and mix thoroughly, beating with the hand. Cover basin with a cloth and put it aside in a
warm place to rise for about 1 hour or till dough has almost doubled its size.
Flour hands, take small portions of dough and shape into buns. Put on a well-greased baking tin, spacing well. Cut a cross on top of each and again put in a warm place to prove for 20-3 0 minutes. If necessary, re-mark cross before putting buns in a very hot oven (450 degrees). Glaze when golden brown and almost cooked. Cool on a cake tray or sieve

Chelsea Buns


4 ounces butter
¼ pint milk
4 ounces castor sugar
>~ ounce yeast
2 eggs
1 lb flour
A little lard
3 ounce currants

Melt butter, add most of the milk and 3 ounces of the sugar, and warm together. Cream
the yeast with the rest of the milk; beat the eggs. Sieve the flour, add the warmed
ingredients and the creamed yeast to the flour, together with the beaten eggs, and mix
thoroughly. Cover with a clean, damp cloth, and put to rise in a warm place until the
dough has doubled in size. Roll out dough to an oblong, brush with fat, sprinkle fruit and
sugar over the dough and roll up from the long end tightly. Cut slices 1 inch thick and
place close together in a greased straight-sided pan. Let rise for 25 minutes. Bake in a hot
oven (450 degrees) for 15-20 minutes until well risen and golden. When almost cooked,
brush with a sugar glaze.

Empire Biscuits

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup margarine
1 cup sugar
4 cups all-purpose flour
Raspberry jam
4 tablespoons icing sugar
1-2 teaspoons water
18 glace cherries, cut in half

Cut butter and margarine into sugar and flour (may use a food processor, pulsing every 20-30 seconds). Spread out and pat into a large, lightly greased cookie sheet. Mark rounds with a 2-3-inch round cutter. Sprinkle lightly with sugar, and bake 40-45 minutes at 325 degrees, or until golden brown. Remove from oven, let cool slightly, then cut into rounds with cutter while still warm. When cook, remove rounds to cooling rack. (Save leftover shortbread, crumbled, and use for base for pies instead of graham cracker crumbs.) Mix icing sugar and water until smooth, but not too thin. Spread on top of half of rounds. Top with half a glace cherry. Before serving, spread un-iced half with small amount of raspberry jam and top with iced half Makes 18