The King Who Had A Sticky End

Yesterday, Sue in Suffolk reminded us that it was St Edmund's Day. Last November we actually visited the Cathedral in Bury St Edmunds, and I added my Lego brick to the model  Since then, I have occasionally looked at the Cathedral's Facebook Page. They have been updating the page very diligently this year - with lots of links to services and reflections, as well as activities and competitions for children and families. Sure enough, there was a post with a recipe for St Edmunds Suffolk Buns [and even a YouTube demonstration]

The buns are rather like upmarket scones. I didn't have any rice flour, but after a bit of research I discovered that you can make your own if you put regular rice into a blender. My Kenwood did a great job. When I sifted the rice and plain flours together, everything went through the sieve, so I guess I got the texture right.

The caraway seeds added an interesting flavour [trivial fact - technically these little brown things are the fruits of the caraway, not the seeds] and the drizzled honey makes the top sweet and sticky - people say it represents St Edmund's sticky end. I think that idea came later. Bob ate his split with quince jelly and said he felt extremely medieval! 

Ingredients

• 500g plain flour
• 150g rice flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 200g softened butter
• 100g caster sugar 
• 20g caraway seeds
• 2 tbsp runny honey 2 beaten eggs
• 1 tbsp milk
• 40g currants

Method: 

• Preheat oven to 200°C (fan oven 180°C )/ Mark 6.
• Lightly butter a baking sheet. 
• Sift the flours together with the baking powder. Rub in butter to make fine breadcrumbs. Stir in sugar, caraway seeds and currants, then eggs, honey and enough milk to make a smooth but dry dough.
• As the dough is brought together, be sure to mix it thoroughly with your fingers before turning out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll dough out to 2.5cms (1 inch) thickness and cut out 5cm (2inch) rounds. Space out on baking sheet.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes until lightly golden and risen. Cool on a rack and drizzle with honey whilst still warm.

Caraway is grown all over the place - Northern Europe [not the Med] Western Asia and some parts of Africa. It features in many different cuisines, in both sweet and savoury dishes - goulash, sauerkraut, curries, cakes, breads and biscuits. In England, it was mentioned in the 14th century cookbook "Form of Cury" and the Tudors loved caraway. It fell out of favour, but when the Queen married German Prince Albert, the Victorians went mad for the stuff. Seed cakes became really popular. 

I think I may make these again - they were very easy [I halved the quantities above, and made 12 buns] and will make a change from plain scones for Sunday tea. They'd be great just buttered. If I do make more, I think I'd add a splash more milk, they were a little bit too crumbly. But still delicious. 

Thank you Sue for this idea.