Easter Brunch

EASTER BRUNCH!

It’s that time of the year again! Easter Eggs, Easter Egg Hunts, Easter Bunnies… and of course, delicious Easter food!

I wanted to share with you some of my favorites for a mouthwatering Easter Brunch….

Let’s start with some very popular brunch dishes, made with eggs.

Who doesn’t love Eggs Benedict, which can be made adding smoked salmon, smoked ham or spinach (Florentine). Our original recipe is made by using homemade English muffins, poached eggs, creamy Benedict sauce topped with freshly chopped chives. Delicious.

Bacon and eggs is another popular brunch dish -at Babingtons we add roasted tomatoes and mushroom just to make it even more special. You can of course go for the richer full breakfast which includes sausages and beans, but do leave some space for other goodies!

Quiches are also very popular and you can prepare them the day before, decorate as you wish and lay out on your Easter table while preparing the last minute foods. Our most loved? Quiche Lorraine and Asparagus Quiche…yummy!!

If you plan to organize an Easter Egg hunt before lunch, make sure you have a nice basket to put all the boiled eggs in to place in the center of your table and… don’t forget to make some homemade mayonnaise for those like me, who love their boiled eggs with mayo!

And now let’s talk about cakes and sweets…

Waffles, Pancakes and French Toast (which I used to call eggy bread when I was a child) are the most popular. Sweet and fun to prepare, you can choose to serve them with honey, jam, maple syrup or chocolate spread. And always a sprinkle of icing sugar on the top. Perfect for children but always a big hit with the adults (who like me have a sweet tooth).

Another very traditional and super delicious - sweet, but not too sweet - cake is the famous Hot Cross Bun. They are at their very best served straight out of the oven with butter and strawberry or raspberry jam, you will fall in love with its delicately spicy aroma and softness!

This is Babingtons recipe:

HOT CROSS BUNS: THE RECIPE

Preparation time : 30 mins (including leavening time)

Cooking time: 12 minutes

INGREDIENT

120 gr milk

105 gr eggs

100 gr salted butter room temperature

50 gr fresh brewer’s yeast

400 gr flour

100 gr sugar

2 gr mix of spices (cinnamon, cardamom)

3 gr orange zest

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20 gr Corinth raisins; 70 gr Sultana raisins

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Finishing syrup:

50 gr sugar

25 gr water

For the cross

25 gr cold water

25 gr flour

Procedure

PROCEDURE

Preheat the owen at 160°

Put all the ingredients, except the raisins, in the mixer, respecting the order of the list and knead until you have a smooth dough, which no longer adheres to the walls of the mixer bowl.

Add the raisins and let the planetary mixer work until the dough incorporates them homogeneously.

Cover with cling film and wait for the dough to rise to double its volume (about 2 hours)

Transfer the dough onto the work surface and divide it into portions of the size of an egg

With each portion, form spheres by 'pirling' the dough and place them equidistantly (providing pre- and post-cooking leavening spaces) on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Cover the spheres with cling film and wait for the second leavening (the spheres should double their volume- about 50 minutes)

In the mean time prepare the finishing syrup by bringing water and sugar to a boil in a saucepan

To make the cross, mix the water and flour by hand with a whisk, making sure no lumps remain

Pour the mixture into a piping bag without a spout.

When the buns are ready, brush the sugar syrup on the dough with a large soft bristle brush.

Cut the tip of the pastry bag containing the dough for the crosses, leaving a hole with a diameter of max 4 mm.

Draw a cross on each bun with the pastry bag, taking care to first follow a vertical direction and then the horizontal direction and bake for 12 minutes, untill the surface becomes a nice golden brown color.

Serve alone or hot with butter and strawberry or raspberry jam