Succulent Sunday

Sundays are always too short. This might be due to the fact that I don't start the day before 10.30 a.m. when we are having our customary sunday brunch with fresh croissants and soft pretzels. Which customarily also lasts till round about 12.30 p.m. It might also be due to the fact that my Sunday usually ends with watching the Tatort at 8.15 p.m.(for my non German audience an explanation for this very German habit can be found here).
The roughly seven and a half hours in between where spend today with reading the Sunday paper (an interview with Jon Hamm - mmmmmhhhh), an hourlong phone conversation, doing a load of laundry (including putting it up for line-drying), making some yummy Yorkshire Teacakes, taking them to a friend's place for 5 o'clock tea and upon my return at seven preparing potatoe pancakes for dinner. All in all, a regular Sunday for me.

Here's the recipe for the Yorkshire Teacakes:

What you need is 1/2 cube of fresh yeast, about 1/2 pint of tepid milk, 1 lb flour, 1 tsp salt, 2 oz butter, 1-2 oz sugar, 4 oz dreis cranberries (the original recipe called for currants but I didn't have any at hand) and 2 oz of lemon peel (usually I would prefer freshly grated peel, but I couldn't find any organic lemons, so I had to make due with the pre-packaged stuff)



Can you find which three ingredients are missing from the picture?

While I heated the milk a little in the microwave I put the flour and salt in a large bowl and rubbed the butter in.


Then I added the sugar, cranberries and lemon peel.


Meanwhile the milk was tepid and I mixed some of it with the yeast to form a creamy liquid.

I then poured the yeast cream and some milk into a little well I had made into the centre of the flour mix.



All this I kneaded until the dough was soft but not sticky (add flour or milk as needed). It was then put on a flat surface and kneaded until elastic.

I wrapped the dough ball in a damp cloth and placed it into the warm oven for about 30 min. until it had doubled its size. After that I formed eight pieces from it which I placed on a baking sheet.


Bake for about twenty min. at 200° C/400° F and voilá:


The Teacakes are especially good while still warm with some butter.

Happy Sunday!