Windowsill of Joy – 10 April

Good Friday, some hot x buns, hope you shared them with friends and family in your bubble or in your thoughts. Our thoughts were in Auckland, Wellington, Mana to Paraparaumu and also Europe and the United Kingdom.

The pizza stone is inscribed with the words, ‘A tavola non Si Invecchio’, at the table one never gets old. Looking forward to sharing meals with you.

Hot Cross Scuffins – gluten free and no refined sugar.

Roughly 200ml milk, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1 tsp lemon juice or vinegar and one egg. Shake and put aside for 15 mins.

Oven on at 180 fan oven

Grate or finely chop the zest of half a lemon and quarter of an orange.

Chop 7 dates into raisin size pieces and add to the zest along with 1 tbsp dried cranberries

1 cup of coconut flour in a processor bowl and add 2 tsp baking powder, and up to 2tsp mixed spic, or your preference of whatever spices you have, I didn’t have any mixed spice so ground up whole allspice, grated some nutmeg, a pinch of powdered clove,1 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp ground ginger.

whizz till combined, add about 30g salted butter and whizz till chopped

Add the zest and fruit, whiz gently until combined but not totally chopped.

Dust baking trays with coconut flour or as these are pretty sticky baking paper.

To make the crosses, blend tbsp coconut flour ith 1 tbsp greek yogurt,1tbsp olive oil, 1tsp runny honey and as much water needed to make a thick paste. Put this paste into a piping bag or bag, cut across the bottom corner if using bag.

Using a spoon stir the milk mixture into the dry mixture until all flour combined and stiff dough formed, you may not need all the milk or you might need more,if you need more just use frsh milk or water if you havent any more milk.

spoon small blobs onto your trays, these are denser than scuffins made with wheat flour so smaller ones will cook better.

pipe the paste on the top to make the crosses.

Bake for about 7 minutes then reduce the temperature to 160. fan oven and cook for roughly another 13 minute, or until the base brown and they smell cooked.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool, but whilst hot drizzle some runny honey over the tops, avoiding the crosses.

These are best served with butter, as a little crumbly just spread the butter on their bases.

Enjoy.

Note, To make these with wheat flour, use 2 cups of flour, omit the chia seeds, and use a hotter oven for shorter time. 200 for 7 to 10 minutes.