I used to be quite overwhelmed at the ideal of baking with yeast but I've had a bit of a play and I'm quite enjoying it. I think it's quite magical really. I would love to do it more, but I'm frankly not quite organised enough to fit in 2-3 hours of proving into my schedule. Anyway, in honour of the arrival of my dear relatives from Sydney I baked some cinnamon buns. This is the recipe:
Cinnamon Buns (yields 12 big ones)
Recipe by (you guessed it) Annabel Langbein:
Melt ½ cup butter in a saucepan then turn off the heat. Add 2 cups of milk and wait until the mixture is blood warm then add 3 tsp of yeast and ¾ cup sugar. Stir until sugar dissolves. In a large bowl mix 6 cups of plain flour with 1 tsp of salt. Add the liquid and knead for 30-40 strokes or until dough is smooth and elastic. Leave it to prove under a wet tea towel until double in size (took me 2-3 hours). Roll into a rectangle about ½ cm thick. Spread a layer of softened butter on top and sprinkle over a mixture of 1 tbsp cinnamon and 1/2 cup of sugar. Roll up and cut in 3 cm segments. Arrange into baking tray and let it rise for a bit (20 min) then bake for 10-12 min at 240 degrees C.
