Orangey honey buns

As Jo mentioned, we had a barbecue. The weather was spiteful, but the cakeness was good. This was one Fran had seen on Valentine Warner’s ‘What to Eat Now‘ (series 2, episode 2). I’m not sure oranges are ever terribly seasonal for Britain, but what the heck, the buns are great.

The way he made them on the TV show and the way they’re written up on the BBC Food site are slightly at odds. For starters, the recipe on BBC Food says it’s enough for a 12-hole muffin tray – hm, not it ain’t. I doubled quantities and it was about perfect for my 12-hole tray. Plus, the recipe says “whisk using an electric whisk” – well, no, don’t, that really wouldn’t work. Warner beat it with a wooden spoon in the show, and I used a combo of wooden spoon and an hand mixer with blender attachments.

The recipe also talks about “the dough” – well, this mixture is a dough by no stretch of the imagination, it’s very much a thick, sticky batter, so don’t feel tempted to keep throwing in flour to make it into a dough.

Get all that straight, and the results are delicious – yeasted buns, but with a very cake-like texture. The syrup, meanwhile, gives them an almost Middle Eastern dimension.