Iced Coconut Finger Buns - Summer on a Plate (RECIPE)

Being on a diet and avoiding carbs for a considerable amount of time - I had a really strong craving for some soft white bread and something sweet.....

This is a new recipe I've created and although I DID have one, the rest were eaten by staff and people in adjacent units in rapid quick time. Carb fest over - it's back to the diet :-(

I do love making bread. There is something really satisfactory in kneading the dough, watching it rise and the smell from the oven and knowing there is no preservatives. Nothing beats the smell for fresh bread and coffee.

We are opening a cookery school in Attleborough, Norfolk, NR17. First class is a bread class on Friday 14th June - where students will be making and baking various types of hand made breads including sour dough.

 Future cookery classes at Sarah-Jane's Kitchen will appear on www.siliconemoulds.com very soon. These will include chocolate work, macarons, structural cakes, cupcakes, cookies etc.

Ingredients - makes 10 > 12

250ml coconut milk

2 eggs

1 tsp salt

3 tbsp golden syrup

1 sachet instant yeast

500g white bread flour

Put the flour, salt and yeast in a bowl, making sure to keep the salt away from the yeast.

Combine the coconut milk, golden syrup and eggs and pour into the dry ingredients. Mix together and then turn out and hand knead for around 10mins. Cover with cling wrap and leave until doubled in size.

When doubled in size, divide into 10 > 12 pieces and shape into finger buns.

 I made mine into 10 x 85g pieces and these made generous sized finger buns ! 

Cover with oiled cling film and leave again until doubled in size. Bake for approx 8 > 10mins at 180deg C Fan.

Remove from oven and immediately apply the icing and coconut.

For the icing, I used powdered sugar (sorry - didn't weigh) - maybe around 400g - some coconut milk and a couple of teaspoons of Malibu if you have any plus a teaspoon of glycerine. Mix together until you have a thick and stiff paste. Pipe this straight on to the top of the buns in a thick line and allow it to melt over the bun then quickly scatted some flaked coconut over the top.

They'll be very soft and dense but fluffy if that makes sense in the inside. A complete dream in a bite that made me think of summer sunshine.

A May bank holiday day out with Oliver to the seaside.....

We didn't get the terrible twos, or the terrible threes but we often get a stroppy 4yo !

In a mood and not getting his own way at Orford Castle. Mummy and Daddy hadn't finished looking - Oliver had done it all and was ready to leave.....

I love this photo - sums up the strops nicely !!

Introducing Digger..... Just Born today 9/1/11

January is VERY early for a  baby foal to be born... but here he is. Born on the most beautiful day of the year so far.

Saying that, the ground was covered with a thick hard frost when he arrived this morning ... but both mum and baby are well.

Summer is a 15hh palomino Welsh section D mare. Digger's dad is a dun and white coloured cob called Castrol. This will be the only baby Castrol will sire as he "saw" the vet late last Spring.

Digger is going to be palomino just like his mum. Only time will tell if he is going to have any white leg markings.... since he has been born blessed with a thick furry coat to cope with the winter weather.

It's so lovely to have a new baby foal - especially when he is so friendly and Summer is so happy to have us all cuddle him (and her) too.

Last year, Summer had a little foal at the end of January. It died in a tragic accident when it fell in a pond and drowned. We were ALL heart broken - especially Summer.... and my husband who had to retrieve the little body from the pond to bury the next day. It should never have happened, but unfortunately, the day she foaled - I was in hospital with Oliver who was very sick with pneumonia. Had I been there, she would have been safely tucked up and in a stable with her baby instead of having got into the back field in the first place.

Because she had such bad luck, I vowed she would not lose another and let her have another baby. Summer is a total sweetheart and the proudest mummy. With much of the winter still to come, there is a lot of hard work on the way... but a lot of visitors and fun too !

I know this has absolutely no place on a food blog - but heck... it's not every day a new foal arrives :-)

I had every intention of baking and food blogging today. Instead, we spend much of the afternoon fetching more straw and foal cuddling !

Digger's father and mother - Castrol (left) and Summer (right). Summer 2010