Classic hot cross buns

The perfect Easter recipe comes from a lovely book called A Good Egg by Bristol-based cookery writer Genevieve Taylor who describes herself as an 'urban henkeeper'.

This isn't the eggiest of them but there are some brilliant ideas for how to use eggs imaginatively, written in diary form to tie in with the seasons.

Genevieve writes: "Why go to the bother of making your own hot cross buns? Well, first, you can add as much spice as you like, and secondly your house will smell divine as they bake.

This recipe, like a lot of breads –particularly the sweet ones, uses an egg to enrich and soften the dough. The flour-paste cross on the top adds nothing in the taste department but is completely necessary all the same."

makes 12 buns

150ml hand-hot water (use half boiling & half cold)

1 tbsp dried yeast

40g caster sugar

500g strong (bread) flour

1 heaped tsp ground mixed spice

1 tsp salt

50g butter, melted

1 beaten egg

75ml warm milk

Vegetable oil for greasing

75g raisins or currants

50g chopped mixed peel

For the topping:

4 tbsp plain flour

4 tbsp cold water

2 tbsp caster sugar

2 tbsp boiling water

"Measure the water into a jug, stir through the yeast and a teaspoon of the caster sugar. Set aside for about 10 minutes until a foamy head forms on the surface. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and stir through the spice, salt and the rest of the caster sugar. Make a well in the middle and set aside.

In another mixing jug or small bowl, beat together the melted butter, egg and warm milk. Pour into the well in the flour, along with the foaming yeast. Mix together with a spoon until the dough comes together in a rough ball, then tip on to the work surface. Knead the dough for at least 5 minutes, pushing away with the heel of your hand and rolling back towards you until it becomes stretchy and smooth. If it is sticking to the worktop, add a little flour, but be careful not to add too much or it will become dry. The fluffiest lightest bread comes from dough that is a bit sticky and wet to work with. Place the dough in a bowl which you have lightly oiled, and cover with a clean tea towel or piece of clingfilm.

Set aside in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size. Depending on the temperature of the room, this will take an hour or two, maybe longer. Once the dough has doubled in size, tip on to the worktop and flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. Sprinkle over the dried fruit and mixed peel and gently knead into the dough. Using a knife, cut the dough in half, then cut each half into 6 equal-sized pieces. Gently roll each piece into a ball, tucking any fruit under the surface as much as possible because it can burn in the oven, and place in a deep-sided baking tin lined with baking paper. (You need a deep tin so that when you cover it, the buns have room to rise without sticking to the clingfilm.)

Repeat with the remaining dough until you have 12 buns equally spaced in the baking tin. Cover lightly with a double layer of clingfilm, tucking it under the tray to keep the air out. Leave to prove again for 30–45 minutes until the buns have risen by half. Preheat the oven to 220°C/Gas 7.

Once the buns have proved for the final time, prepare the flour paste for the ‘crosses’ by mixing the flour and cold water until smooth. Spoon into a small sandwich bag and snip off a tiny corner to create a quick piping bag. Pipe crosses on to each bun. Transfer to the hot oven and bake for about 10 minutes until golden brown. While they are cooking, dissolve the caster sugar in the boiling water. As soon as you remove the buns from the oven, glaze them by brushing with the sugar syrup. Put them on a rack to cool."

As you can see the recipes are really clear in this book and the photography charming. A lovely gift to take someone as an Easter present.

What to drink: My original thought was black tea, drunk English-style with milk but I'm rather taken with M & S wine buyer Jeneve Williams' idea of Marsala

For more Easter wine pairing ideas see 15 Easter pairings to learn by heart

From A Good Egg by Genevieve Taylor, published by Eden Project books. Photograph © Jason Ingram

Bacon sausage bread

If you like a bacon sandwich and/or a sausage sandwich what better idea than combining the two in a bread as Niamh Shields has done in her Bacon: The Cookbook. Stroke of genius!

"Bacon is as intrinsic to Irish food culture as potatoes, black pudding and Irish stew" writes Niamh, who blogs as Eat Like a Girl. "Traditionally, an Irish family would have a pig that they would raise for the year. That pig would then provide meat for the following year. In Ireland, a whole pig could be and was cured as bacon so that it could be preserved for longer. This is less typical now, but joints of bacon for boiling and roasting, bacon chops and bacon ribs are still common and Bacon and Cabbage is a core national dish that everyone loves. Bacon is so much more than a rasher, or streaky bacon. Although we love those too.

"This is one of my favourite recipes in the book and you absolutely need to make it. A soft bread dough, butter or lard and egg enriched with a little milk, so like a porky brioche but not as sweet and rich. You can use butter or lard, and if you have some bacon fat to hand, absolutely mix that in.

The bread is made in a more or less typical way, and proved twice. The second time you prove it is after you shape it as a sausage-and-bacon braid. Brushed with egg wash before baking, it gets a lovely bronze sheen.

For special occasions, double up the amounts and shape it into a circle. During the festive season you can fashion a bow of crisp-fried sage leaves and redcurrant berries and you have a Bacon Sausage Bread Wreath.

Bacon Sausage Bread

Makes: 8 slices

For the bread dough:

330g (11½ oz) bread flour

5g salt

100g (3½ oz) room temperature butter or lard

7g (¼ oz) fast-action yeast

3 large eggs

50ml (2fl oz) milk

For the bacon and sausage filling:

15g (½ oz)/1 tbsp butter

1 red onion, finely chopped

400g (14 oz) sausage meat (or the equivalent in sausages with the meat removed from the skins)

1 tbsp fresh sage, finely chopped

6 slices smoked streaky bacon

1 egg for egg wash

sage leaves, to serve (optional – they look great and are very tasty too)

METHOD

1. Start by preparing your bread dough, using either a dough hook or by hand. It is important that your lard or butter is at room temperature, and therefore soft and easy to work with. This makes it much easier to mix.

USING A MIXER WITH A DOUGH HOOK: Put all of the ingredients for the bread dough in your mixing bowl and mix at a low speed until it has formed a dough. If it feels sticky add a little more flour, a tablespoon should do it, but add more if you need to, slowly and mixing well every time. When it is no longer sticky but before it is dry and flaky, it is good. If it feels too dry, add a tablespoon of milk at a time (flours vary so both of these things can happen). Continue to knead with the dough hook for 5–6 minutes until the texture is no longer rough and it has an elastic quality.

BY HAND: the same as above but it takes longer to knead (approximately 10 minutes).

2. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and allow the dough to double in size in the warmest part of your kitchen or in your airing cupboard. This will be faster in the summer and slow in the winter; I usually put it near a radiator in the winter to help push it along. This proving stage usually takes an hour to an hour and a half.

3. Prepare your bacon and sausage filling. Melt the butter in a frying pan over a low heat and gently sauté the finely chopped red onion in it for about 10–15 minutes until soft, stirring occasionally. Allow to cool and combine with the sausage meat and sage and mix well with your hands.

4. When the dough has doubled in size, knock it back by punching the air out of it and allow it to settle for 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl to a floured board and divide into three equal amounts. Roll into sausage shapes roughly twice the length of one of your smoked streaky bacon strips and just as wide. Flatten each log so that the width doubles and lay two strips of bacon on each so that the surface is covered with bacon from top to bottom. Now divide the sausage meat mixture into 3 and place the sausage meat on top of the bacon in a strip. Pull the dough up around the bacon and sausage meat gently and press it closed as best as you can and lay the three strips next to each other. Bread dough can take it, don't worry.

5. Join the three strips of dough together at the top and pinch them together so that they all originate in the same place. Tuck the ends underneath what will become your loaf, and again, press them firmly underneath, without squashing the top, aiming to hide the messy bits and secure the braid. Braid the three strips by pulling the outside strand over the centre one, and repeating with the other side until you have a braid. These look best if done a little tightly. Join the ends as neatly as you can, and tuck underneath, just as you did the start. Place on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and allow to sit at room temperature while you preheat the oven.

6. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180° Fan (400°F). Beat the egg and gently brush the surface of the braided bread with it. Bake your bread for approximately 25 minutes until golden brown. Best eaten warm and the leftovers (if any!) make a terrific French toast.

What to drink: Got to be a good strong cup of breakfast tea IMO!

All content copyright Niamh Shields from Bacon the Cookbook

Max’s (well, actually Felicity’s) chocolate pots

One of the things that’s compensated for not being able to go to restaurants, as I explained here, is cooking with friends on Zoom.

With one of the groups I hang out with, however, we all cook individually but choose a theme. Last week it was French bistro food a tribute to Bar Buvette, a much-loved Bristol natural wine bar and restaurant that closed last year and which we all very much miss.

They used to have an absolutely awesome chocolate mousse on the menu which a number of us recreated. We thought it came from Max (Ososki) the owner but turns out it was my Guardian colleague Felicity Cloake’s.

Here’s Max’s version as written on a scrap of paper. You can find Felicity’s version, with an account of why she made it that way, on the Guardian website.

Max's chocolate pots (before we discovered they were Felicity's)

Serves 6

250ml whipping cream

100ml whole milk

150g dark 70% chocolate

40g dark muscovado sugar

3 fresh organic egg yolks

Simmer cream and milk

Add choc to cream/milk

Let sit for a minute then whisk vigorously until mixed

Leave to cool for about 10 minutes

Whisk yolks and sugar until voluminous

Pour chocolate over yolks and sugar and mix in well

Pour into coffee cups or ramekins, tapping each one to remove air bubbles

Cover and refrigerate

Serve with creme fraiche

So you see, really easy. And insanely delicious. Trust me.

What to drink: I know I’m an advocate of pairing wine with everything but honestly I wouldn’t in this case. Maybe a black coffee. Or a brandy if you’re feeling particularly indulgent.

Max and her partner Peter Taylor run the wonderful Auberge de Chassignolles in the Auvergne which hopefully will be up and running again before too long.

Penne in walnut sauce

If you've run through your pasta sauce repertoire several times during lockdown try this delicious penne in salsa di noci (penne in walnut sauce) from Christine Smallwood's lovely new book Italy: The World Vegetarian. It's really simple - as she says basically a walnut pesto.

Christine writes: Walnuts are found throughout Italy, as are beautiful bowls and other wooden objects made from their tree’s wood. The nuts are found in various dishes and the first pasta I came across with a walnut sauce was a ricotta-filled ravioli, but linguine, spaghetti and penne (as here) are all good choices, too.

A walnut sauce is often made with cream, but I like it as more of a pesto, albeit with walnuts and parsley instead of pine nuts and basil. Some people blanch their walnuts to remove the papery skin, but it is not essential.

Penne in Salsa di Noci

SERVES 4

NOTE: THIS RECIPE CONTAINS NUTS

300g shelled walnuts, roughly chopped

30g vegetarian Italian hard cheese, finely grated

20g parsley

½ garlic clove

1 teaspoon salt, plus extra to season

a pinch of black pepper, plus extra to season

about 8 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve

350g penne pasta

Reserve a small quantity of the chopped walnuts for garnish. Put the remainder, along with the cheese, parsley, garlic and salt and pepper in a blender or food processor. Blitz to combine. Add enough oil to make quite a loose sauce. Transfer the sauce to a pan large enough to hold the cooked pasta and set aside.

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and add the penne. Cook according to the packet instructions until just al dente. Reserve a few spoonfuls of the cooking water, then drain. (I found I needed quite a bit to loosen the sauce so keep back at least half a cup (about 125ml)

Loosen the walnut sauce with a little of the reserved pasta cooking water and adjust the seasoning, if necessary. Add the pasta to the pan with the sauce and stir to coat. Serve immediately sprinkled with an extra drizzle of olive oil and a few sprinkled chopped walnuts.

What to drink: You don't want anything too obviously fruity for this dish - a dry Italian white like a Soave, Orvieto or Vernaccia di San Gimignano would be ideal and, having tasted it, it would also go with an orange or skin contact wine) I also like the idea of drinking a savagnin or Jura chardonnay with it but haven't tried it

Extracted from Italy: The World Vegetarian by Christine Smallwood (Bloomsbury Absolute, £20). Photography by Mike Cooper.