Devonshire/Cornish Cream Splits
April 16, 2007 at 12:36 PM
by Ashleigh
Mmmmm. Is this recipe a dearth to low-carb or what?
I made these yesterday for the Waiter... There's Something in my ... event.
This month's theme is 'Bread' and I wanted something that was bready, different, sweet, and English.
These are definitely worth the time.The mix comes out scone like, but without the sharpness that baking powder gives scones.
They're less crumbly, yet moist with lovely airbubbles through the buns.
The name is confusing - I know these as Cornish Splits, but across the border in Devon, these are known as Devonshire Splits. From the little information I gleaned in searches the recipe varies slightly between the two counties, a Devonshire Split being made with cream, while a Cornish Split uses milk. A Cornish Split is apparently a little smaller than a Devonshire Split. Handy when you work out how many calories one of these has!
The recipe comes from Linda Collister & Anthony Blake's book 'The Bread Book', which I like so much that I've borrowed it from the library multiple times. I really would like my own copy but it's out of print in English and also in Dutch!
I'll have to just keep borrowing the book everytime I feel a bread baking session coming on.
Cornish/Devonshire Cream Splits
Makes 22 pieces
Recipe adapted for the food processor from Linda Collister's The Bread Book
For the ferment:
15 ml active dried yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
430ml lukewarm milk
170g white bread flour
For the dough:
500g white bread flour
110g butter in cubes
15g salt
icing sugar to dust
cream and good raspberry or strawberry jam to serve
- To make the ferment mix the milk and sugar together in a very large bowl, add the yeast and then work the flour through with a whisk. Cover with clingfilm and allow to stand for about 30 minutes at room temperature until it has developed a nice head of foam.
- With a metal cutting blade (or the dough blade) in your processor, add the flour to the bowl. Start the processor and add the butter cubes and allow the machine to run until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
- Add the ferment in a stream through the feed tube of the machine while the machine is running. It will start to hold together and form a soft, but not too sticky dough. Depending on your flour you might need a little more or less liquid or you might need a little more flour.
- Let the machine knead the dough for about a minute.
- Wipe a little olive oil over your hands and turn the contents of the bowl onto the countertop. Shape into a ball, cover and allow to rise for about 1. 5 to 2 hours or until doubled. I left mine longer because I was at the allotment.
- Knock the dough back, knead it for about 10 seconds and then divide it into 22 equally sized pieces. A tip here - weigh the ball of dough, divide by 22, then work with the scale to equally apportion your rolls. Much easier than doing it by eye, unless you're really good at judging quantities.
- Form a neat ball from each piece of dough. Place them on a greased and floured baking tray with enough room in between to rise without touching each other.
- Cover loosely with clingfilm or a damp kitchen towel and allow to rise to double their volume. This takes about 45 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220C.
- Bake for 15 - 20 minutes until they are golden. They should not darken.
- Remove from the oven, dust with icing sugar immediately and cover with a dry teatowel to stop them forming a hard crust.
- Serve the buns still warm, split down the centre, spread with jam and filled with cream. If you have clotted cream, even better! Otherwise, just do what I did and use a can. (Sacrilege I know!)
Comments
Dude, how come everything you make *looks* so pretty?
Ash: It's all an illusion ;) You will have to come for a picnic and see for yourself :)
These look great!
Both your blogs are really nice, and thanks for leaving a comment on my blog the other day.
We have a lot of things in common, since we are both expats living in Holland. I can see on your blog, you are going through a lot of the same things we went through after moving here. In our case, Steph and I are from the US and have lived here about 17 years.
Best of luck with the 'volkstuin', and I look forward to reading both of your blogs. If you change your gardening blog so that non Google/Blogger members can leave comments too, I'll probably leave the odd comment there as well. Sometime we should find an excuse to get together and meet each other!
Oh good heavens, Ash! What are you trying to do to me? Now I've gone and licked my computer screen and gotten it all yucky!
Oh yummy...
These look so tempting. I spent a lot of my childhood in Devon and ate these on the way home from school. But the ones at the bakers were not nearly so pretty as these.
If I walked back home I could spend the bus fare on cakes, sweets or comics.
If the recipes in the book are as great as this one - STEAL THE BOOK! ;-)
Many thanks for taking part in Waiter.
Wow, look at that whipping cream! Maybe you could treat them Sicilian-style and slap some gelato in there :)
These look delicious!
I admire your determination in living a healthier life. I'm trying too, but fail almost all the time.
April 16, 2007 11:45 PM