Week 20 - Rock Buns

Notice anything different about the blog this week? Yes, we've had a bit of a bank holiday makeover! The blogger template was great to get me going, but now I've found my feet a bit with this blogging malarkey I thought it was time for a new look. The design comes from a great site called www.yummylolly.com. It's run by a fab designer who has been kind enough to share her blog templates for free! I loved her designs & found it tough to pick a favourite, it's great, with this new look I feel like a proper blogger now!

This weeks recipe was a suggestion from Our New Life in the Country & it got me thinking back to some of my earliest memories of cooking in home economics at school. The first thing I think we ever cooked at middle school was potato pie. Now from what I remember 'pie' was used in the loosest sense of the word, we basically made mashed potato, tipped it into an oven dish & topped it with grated cheese! I feel sorry for my Mum & Dad who were probably made to eat it, having to make the appropriate noises of appreciation! I do also remember baking at school & have the battle scars to prove it. One week I came home from school with my arm wrapped in cling film after dropping a baking tray out the oven onto my arm. Unfortunately my clumsiness seems to have got worse with age & I'm still a bit of a liability in the kitchen!

I'm sure we made rock buns at school, the traditional ones with mixed peel & sultanas. But keeping with the makeover theme for this week, I thought I'd try a new more grown up version, see what you think?

100g butter
50g light brown sugar
1 egg
225g self raising flour
100g fudge
100g milk chocolate
Dash of milk

1. Cream together the butter & sugar, then beat in the egg until it's all light & fluffy

2. Chop both the fudge & chocolate into small chunks (or use chips instead), add them to the mixture along with the flour. Fold it all together until it combines to a stiff dough, use a little dash of milk to help it along if its a bit too dry

3. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper & place on small dollops of the mixture leaving a gap to allow them to spread. I made 12 rock buns out of a batch

4. Bake in the oven at 200c/GM6 for 10 minutes until they have just started to brown on the top. Leave to cool completely, then peel them off the paper.

I'm really pleased with the result, the fudgy bits on the top have melted into delicious caramel gooeyness & the cake itself is lovely & crumbly! I hope you like the new twist on an old classic? However if you're a bit of a traditionalist & want to stick to the classic, then simply substitute the fudge & chocolate for 150g of mixed fruit & a good pinch of mixed spice. Right I'm off to research food processors, managed to break mine in the process of this weeks baking...what was that about liability in the kitchen?? Till next week, Rebecca x