All the Seasons at Once – Spider Buns Recipe.

My plans for today were to make a Chocolate Fruit Cake and some Gluten Free Scones but I have baked more than that and it is only 11.30am. I feel as though my gluten free and egg free cookies are a definite winner and something that I will expand upon with time. To start with they are now available on my webshop but I will be trialling them at a couple of local cafes to see how they go. I feel that these type of special dietary bakes will be a hit with lots of people and there is a huge market out there. So far I have had nothing but positive reactions to my gluten free and egg free bakes so let the development continue.  In the future, I am going to make a Victoria Sponge (I think) gluten free of course and I still have to master the Blondies and Brownies.

Back to today though, my Scones have turned out really well. They taste fantastic but I only made little mouthsized scones, quite dainty really, so that I could judge how the dough changed in the oven. I think I am getting the hang of this gluten free and egg free baking as the texture of the scone is perfect. Not crumbly at all, unlike some scone recipes where the writer has stated that the resultant gluten free scones were crumbly. These scones held together really well. Over the years, I have made many scones so I basically changed the flour and egg in my plain scone recipe to gluten free and egg replacer respectively  but when it came to adding the milk I judged the amount by eye and feel of the dough. I am not going to share this recipe though ( a trade secret) as I am wanting to see if I can supply some local cafes and tearooms with gluten and egg free scones. Next week, I will put some feelers out, take samples round etc, but first I need to work out the cost to make these scones and the nutritional information of the scones.

In the mean time, I made some extra bakes for the children to enjoy. I decide to make some Halloween inspired Spider Buns which I haven’t included in my Halloween Recipes book. I have seen some  cookies similar to these buns on Pinterest before but they seem to be all made with peanut butter. So when I was busy making the Chocolate Fruit Cakes (which are in the oven baking right now) I decided to make a batch of Rock Buns minus the currants. Remember those from your school cookery lessons. The main problem with these buns is that they have a short shelf life and have to be eaten with two days. This is no problem with my children. I am going to share this recipe as I think the buns look pretty cool and the children are loving them.

This recipe can be changed to suit different dietary requirements such as gluten free or egg free. My children are getting rather fed up with all the gluten free bakes I am making. So next week I am going to make a batch of gluten free and standard flour treat and see if they can tell the difference. I don’t know if they feel they are missing out on something by not having egg or standard flour in a recipe. Two of my children are starting to pull faces when I say that the bakes are gluten and egg free. Only time will tell if they can taste the difference. This recipe for Spider Buns can be changed to Jammy Buns where a drop of jam is placed in an indentation which you make in the top of the dough ball before it is baked. I have allowed one of daughters to make these Jammy Buns before but I don’t think I shared the recipe.

The equipment needed to make these Spider Buns is a mixing bowl, piping bag and nozzle, baking trays and scales. Not too much really and these buns can be added too with the addition of eyes if you are feeling more artistic.

On a final note, don’t forget that two of my handy sized recipe books are available for 99p on Amazon. You can buy my Easter Treats recipe book and my first book right now. If you like the recipes I share on my blog then these books have plenty more which I haven’t shared on my blog. Go and take a look over at Amazon and grab a bargain whilst you can – a perfect stocking filler!! I know it is no where near Easter yet but you might as well be organised. 🙂

For the rest of the week, I am going to spend some time with my children before they go back to school. I have a postal trial of cookies, a Blondies recipe to try again then ice some fruit cakes.