Apple, Date and Cardamom Buns

On to the second in my trilogy, and my favourite. Apple, date and cardamom buns. I love the sweet/sour taste of cooking apples so decided to add them to my bun recipe. Cardamom is a seriously underrated spice with a fragrant kick. These are perfect for rainy nights in London.

Ingredients

60g chopped dates

140g cubed Bramley apple (sprinkled with lemon juice and caster sugar)

2 tbsp dark muscavado sugar

1 tbsp mollasses sugar

1 cinnamon stick

300ml almond milk

1 beaten egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

55g butter 

1 tsp Cardamom

pinch of salt

10 wheatgerm

250g Spelt flour

300g Strong white flour

11/2 tsp fast rising yeast

Glaze

250ml cider

1/4 tsp ginger

3 tbsp apricot jam

Directions

**1**

Gently heat the almond milk, sugar, cinnamon stick and vanilla. Turn the heat off once the sugar has dissolved. Meanwhile rub the butter into the flour and wheatgerm in a large bowl, adding the cardamom and salt.

**2**

Add the yeast to the cooling milk and pour into the flour bowl. Add the egg and mix lightly with your hands - keep the four handy incase you need more. Kneed energetically for ten minutes then add the chopped apple and date and kneed until incorporated into the dough. Leave the dough to rise in a warm place covered by a wet tea cloth for 1 hour.

**3**

Knock the dough down by patting it lightly, then tear off small (between a golf and tennis ball) pieces and shape into rough buns before laying them out onto greaseproof paper. Leave in a warm place for 1 hour. Meanwhile put the glaze ingredients into a pan and reduce until syrup thick. 

**4**

Glaze the buns with a brush and bake for around 14-16 mins (until golden) at 190 degrees centigrade. Re-glaze the buns and allow them to cool. Serve sliced in half with butter.

Brains

This is speech and language therapisst inspired.

FUR Real

Throwing around some print ideas for FUR a London based hiphop, West African Mbalax, ethio-jazz, dub influenced band: http://fur-real.bandcamp.com/track/bamako. I've toned it down and gone for an abstract fur with two tone lino inks to give a slight African vibe.

Breakfast Buns

My mum hails from Sweden, these are a homage to Swedish breakfasts - my bun trilogy.

Sour Cherry and Walnut Buns
I've mixed together a basic bread recipe with a hot cross bun recipe and sexed it up a little with sour cherries and cider. I've used almond milk infused with vanilla and dark muscovado sugar as the base to which i add the yeast. This gives the buns a light nutty sweet flavour with tangy sour cherries and crunchy toasted walnuts. I normally pre-roast the walnuts a little to give them more flavour and rub off the skins which can be bitter.

Ingredients

250g strong smoked flour (or strong white flour)

300g spelt flour

50g butter - cubed

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

100g toasted walnuts (5-7 mins at 175 degrees)

65g dried sour cherries

300 ml almond milk

3 tbsp dark muscavado sugar

11/2 tsp fast action yeast

1 beaten egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

150ml cider

3 tbsp cherry jam 

1 star anise

Directions

**1**

Sift together the flours removing half of the residue. Add the spices and wheatgerm. Meanwhile heat the almond milk gently and dissolve in the sugar and vanilla. 

**2**

Rub the butter into the flour mix and allow the milk to cool a little. Add the yeast to the milk then make a well in the flour and pour in the milk followed by the egg. Mix the milk and egg in with your hands adding more flour if needed. Kneed the dough aggressively for 10 minutes before kneeding in the sour cherries and walnuts. Allow the dough to rise for 1 hour.

**3**

Knock down the dough by pulling off small handfuls to make small bun sized balls (the dough will rise again). Place the balls onto buttered greaseproof paper and allow to rise for 1 more hour. Meanwhile reduce the jam/cider and anise into a sticky glaze. Glaze the buns with a brush, saving some glaze to add after they have baked. Bake at 200 degrees centigrade for 14-16 minutes until golden.

Binned

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Nailbeds

Dough and water based block printing ink under my finger nails, mmm

Foxes in the night

Foxes in the night
London man
always cotching

Framed

The Russet - Evening Dining

I've developed some flyers/posters for The Russet a cafe in east London which is starting to do evening meals, serious stuff. The design is pretty simple, i've gone for a posh knife and fork and a russet apple. The apple was a little tricky though and i decided to use gold instead of brown. It still looks like a rrusset apple, just sexier..

Compass

I'm working on a logo for a recording artist called ' Joel Compass' (real name!!!). I've gone with
a record compass hybrid, disced out. I made the machet out of lino but am aiming for making the final version out of wood, purhaps using some metallic inks to give some contrast.