2011 Cooking Club Week 17: Rock Buns and Garam Masala Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies

The Black Oil

Apologies, I realise that this is a little early, but I'll probably be busy tomorrow and Monday.

Originally, I was only going to post the rock buns, but then I discovered the cookies recipe on NPR's website. I'll include the original link in the next post.

OK, so the rock buns first. These are pretty easy to do, but you'll only get about 15 or so out of them.

Ingredients:

225g self-raising flour
a pinch of salt
half a teaspoon of mixed spice
half a teaspoon of ground nutmeg
100g butter, room temperature
100g dried fruit - raisins/sultanas/whatever you like
2 tablespoons of chopped peel - didn't have any so I threw in desiccated coconut instead
100g of sugar
1 egg, beaten
milk to mix



Method

Heat your oven to 180C and grease a baking sheet.

Sift together the flour, salt, spices, etc.
Next, rub in the fat. This may take a while if done by hand, as I did.



Add the fruit, peel, sugar and mix well.



Add the egg, some milk - mix to produce a stiff dough.
The quantity of milk isn't specified in the book I have so don't lash it in there. The mixture should a similar to consistency as per this pic - wet, but not overly sloppy.



Spoon small piles of the mixture onto your greased baking sheet.



Place in the oven for 15-20 mins.
Had to be pretty careful with these, a few minutes too long and they would have been scorched, so keep an eye on them..
I generally do 10 minutes then turn the tray around for the final few minutes.





Simple, but effective.

The Black Oil

Garam Masala Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies

This involves a bit more time and effort than the rock buns, but it's mostly done with an electric mixer. I don't know if you could do this in a processor because the final mixture might be a little large (the dish on our processor isn't very big). I just went with a hand mixer, Braun thingy.

OK, firstly here's the link to the recipe posted on NPR, if you'd prefer to work from it. It also includes a DIY version of garam masala if you don't have a jar of it from a supermarket.

The measurements on the above link are American, so I converted them with a bit of guesswork involved. Here's what I came up with based on Delia's suggestions and also this link here. If anyone has a better suggestion on conversions feel free to post it.

Ingredients:

200g porridge oats
225g of plain flour
175g raisins (NPR link says golden, I went with a mixture)
130g unsalted butter, room temperature
150g caster sugar
200g brown sugar (link says dark brown, but I find it a bit strong, went with golden/light brown)
1.5 teaspoons of garam masala
half a teaspoon of baking soda
half a teaspoon of baking powder
half a teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 large eggs



Method:

Heat your oven to 170C degrees and grease some baking sheets.

Combine the oats, flour, garam masala, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
I sifted the flour and baking soda/powder even though the link didn't mention this.
Set this mixture aside.





Next, beat the butter* and sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer until thoroughly mixed and creamy. The link suggests going at it with a fork if the butter's a bit hard, then you can finish it off with the electric mixer.

Note* I ended up having to add a little more butter near the end because I felt the mixture was a little dry (as you'll see in picture #7), so I melted some in the microwave using low setting.





Next, add the eggs one at a time, and beat the mixture until it's light and fluffy.
Then add the vanilla essence.



Next, stir in your flour and oats mixture.
I followed the instructions, adding about a third of it at a time.



Add in the raisins and combine them with your mixture.



Scoop rounded balls of the mixture onto the greased baking sheets.
Flatten slightly.



Bake until golden.
15 to 20 minutes, perhaps a little more as the oven's at 170C.





This was my first attempt and I was very happy with how they turned out. Made upwards of 32 cookies, iirc.

Enjoy!

neuro-praxis

Ah rock cakes...that brings back memories. I'll be making these!

John Mason

god rock buns - my mam used to make these every friday. havent had them in years cos i got to the point where i hated them but will give this ago

psycho-hope

ooo rock buns havnt had them in years, my mum is gonna love you, shes been after me to make them for ages:D

catho_monster

Made the rock buns for brekkie yesterday - really lovely, will defo be making again.
I also didn't have the peel and used the coconut, but I can really see how the citrus would bring it to another level. They'd be lovely smothered in lemon curd

yimrsg

Made the rock buns twice now, the mother used to make her own but I never really liked them unless they were still hot from the oven, they were too claggy and lacked the richness of your recipe.

It really is a doddle to make them. I've made a double batch and have left half of the wet mix in the fridge so rather than have too many at once we can stagger them. I was thinking about freezing them but I had already added the egg and milk so just went ahead and only cooked half. I'll report back and let you know how I get on with the chilled half.

John Mason

well, i have just taken both of these out of the oven, the in-laws are coming around for coffee

had a nightmare with both of them

i used the wrong flour with the rock buns, used strong flour rather then self-raising so they didnt rise but they taste lovely.

the cookies, are really nice but the mixture broke the beaters on my food processor, hand held electric mixture and a normal old fashioned beater

so ended up mixing it hand.

both taste lovely though

The Black Oil

Glad they turned out well. Sorry about the banjaxed equipment.

Little Alex

I made the garam masala cookies last night and they're lovely. I made 16, so they are quite big ones and I used the Sultana and Cranberry Mix from Shamrock.

Thanks, Black Oil!

The Black Oil

Out of interest, how did you find them? They can be rather filling, at least that was my impression.

Little Alex

The Black Oil wrote: »

Out of interest, how did you find them? They can be rather filling, at least that was my impression.

They were great! I brought some into work too for coffee break and they were very well received!

Little Alex

And on to the rock buns...

Made these tonight and am bringing them into work tomorrow! I doubled up the quantities and made twelve really big buns!

foodaholic

Baked these this evening the smell in the house is amazing, and they taste just as good. They wont last long ......