It goes without saying that my inaugural post had to be rock buns. Rock buns for those of you not in the know are a fancy, lightly spiced/ foreign, 70’s, free-form scone like item. So, with my teething maggot finally asleep upstairs (nurofen jelly for six month olds on my next post) I made these little treats. I say treats but I reckon I can get away with having them on my new regime* because I don’t see them as a dessert and if I eat them right after lunch no one could question me.
Aoife (sister No. 3) dusted off quite the 70’s, brown, faded cookbook to find the recipe for me. It’s marked with a big asterisk in blue biro from Mum. I’ve tweaked the recipe slightly and this is what I decided upon:
Oven Temperature – 190 Celsius
Butter – 75g
Caster sugar – 75g
Self raising flour – 200g
Salt – a nice pinch
Mixed Spice – half teaspoon
Mixed peel/ sultanas/ nice dried fruit – 100g
Egg – 1
Whole milk – 2 Tablespoons
Preheat your oven. Put the butter, sugar, flour, salt and mixed spice into a big mixing bowl. Rub the ingredients together using your thumb against your three big fingers until the mixture looks like very fine, unrealistic breadcrumbs. Mix in the fruit. Mixed peel is essential but the other dried fruit choices are up to you.
In a separate bowl/ cup/ vessel beat the egg and milk together with a fork.
Add the egg mix to the flour mixture. Using your hands, gently work the ingredients till they just form an almost sticky dough. They’ll be crumblier the less you work it.
Make about 8 roughly ball-shaped mounds and place them on baking trays lined with baking parchment. Leave quite a bit of space between them because they grow more than you might think. Pop them in the oven for about 15 – 18mins or until lovely and golden. If they are browning too quickly just turn the oven down.
Best served slightly warm with butter. I don’t want to hear how rubbish the picture is by the way (thank you sisters) but it’s 9.30pm and all I have is Risteard’s iphone.
* My New Regime : nutella porridge and berries for breakfast, NO snacks, nice lunch, NO lunch dessert, NO snack, lovely dinner and only one portion of dessert.
The Rock Bun 
Glad to have come across your page from a link you shared while making a comment on The Cooks cook page. Tried these Rock buns – made them plain as I didn’t have candied mixed peels or enough raisins as per recipe…They we’re good!
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Thanks so much for the comment. I love rock buns, never make them as much as I should!
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No chance I’m afraid. I’m a believer in chocolate making almost anything better but you wouldn’t put chocolate on a scone and as such my little beasties will remain mixed peeled and chocolate free. I will, however, post a chocolate recipe next (with mixed peel).
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Well I’m feeling rather privileged to have tasted the actual first batch of Rock Buns. Still believe that there is no real need for mixed peel in the world. Feeling rather vindicated by this recipe http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/oct/12/rock-cake-recipes-dan-lepard
which makes no reference to it and has chocolate on. Please could you make a batch of these bad boys and I will come and eat them all. X
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Challenge accepted. Follow me by scrolling down to the end of the page where there’s a black triangle with a white ‘+’ sign. Click on that and press ‘follow me’.
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Haa how amusing you made that comment about sisters commenting on the photo! It was the very first thing that came into my head, take the piss out of her choice of background! However the photo itself is great, particularly if taken with an iPhone. As for the blog I think it’s a great idea, one of these weeks I’m going to set you a malagasy challenge where you must cook something with the limited ingredients I have here, using only a gas hob or fire! How do I follow your blog?
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Right, firstly – excellent and I like the flagging of mixed peel being essential. Question – do these rise significantly as my attempt only recently for the first time ever to make scones resulted in rather pathetic looking pale scones!!! I used self raising flour and all! Also, FYI, love the fact your new regime has “Nutella porridge” – Jesus! Haha!
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How exciting my first actual question. Scones don’t rise that much, it’s better to flatten the dough softly with your hands rather than rolling it. Also don’t flatten them too much, I leave the dough at least an inch thick so they start pretty fat. As for my little rock buns they don’t rise hugely, much like a scone.
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