Seasonal Baking

Because clearing out picture folders and also autumn fetish. I am quite indifferent about cooking (whaddya mean, I have to do repetitive food prep three times a day just to stay alive?! BORING) but baking, like makeup, is an actual hobby. And one that's perfectly suited to autumn, because while it can be fun to try my hand at finicky French patisserie things or new flavour combinations in ice creams, the kind of baking that gives me most pleasure both in the making and the eating is the more slapdash, homey variety, which pairs best with autumnal elements of fruit and veg, spice and rich, dark sugar.

Some recent acquisitions: Matryoshka nested measuring cups! :D So I can play with all the American recipes on pinterest;
Two books by Dan Lepard, one of my favourite baking writers (see his Guardian columns);
and Scandilicious by Signe Johansen, who seems a lovely, greedy, unpretentious sweetheart [though the recipes themselves have some proofing errors].

Better look at the cups, disassembled



In this post I'll just be showing you some of the especially seasonal stuff I've been nomming. It is of course also fun to make/eat something totally impractically unseasonal to cheer a drear rainy day too... but I think blogposts have word/picture limits.


1. Signe Johansen's Chestnut Cinnamon Buns involves a ridiculously fragrant yeasted spelt and cardamom dough, softened with milk and butter:

Which is, after rising and rolling-out, filled with a crumble of cinnamon, dark sugar, butter and chopped chestnuts:

Cut up into rolls, glazed with egg and sprinkled heavily with demerara sugar (because I like my cinnamon buns to come out with a creme-brulee-ish crust):

SO GOOD. I made fifteen and have no idea how well they'd keep because *burp* (If you are going to make these, I would recommend doubling the quantity of filling -- because SO GOOD -- and cutting the rolls 1" (2.5cm) thick before the second rising.)



2. Another Johansen recipe, this time for spelt bread because I had that posh spelt flour leftover from the buns :P No really, it's very pleasurable working with this stuff, smells so nutty and soothing. And I fancied a change from Dan Lepard's Sour Cream Sandwich Bread (basically a cheat's sourdough, toasts amazingly well) which has become a bit of a recent staple.

And it also used up some leftover treacle from previous failed rye bread experiments. Dammit, anyone have a reliable recipe / tips?

the main flavourings: espresso powder, pumpkin puree, light muscovado sugar, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg [ I don't like cloves]