So, upon the request of Maggie, I am adding this recipe to my blog.
Every Easter my mum could bake these Hot Cross Buns for our family. I always loved them and so did everyone else. Hopefully you can enjoy them on Good Friday or Easter as well...
They turned out pretty well for me, unfortunately I don't have a camera so I can't take any sweet pictures of them. But hopefully Mags can attest to how awesome they were except that they were a little burned.
Direct from my Mum:
HOT CROSS BUNS
INGREDIENTS
3 ½ cups white bread flour
1 package dried yeast (or 1 tblspn)
1 teaspn sugar (for yeast)
½ cup water, ½ cup milk (at room temperature)
1 teaspn salt
½ teaspn English mixed spice (replace with ¼ teaspn allspice)
½ teaspn cinnamon
½ teaspn nutmeg
½ cup sugar
2 oz (1/2 stick) butter, melted and cooled but not firm.
1 egg, beaten
Optional: 4 oz currants (about ½ cup), 1-2 oz mixed peel (about ¼ cup)
For the glaze: 4 tblspns milk and water, 1/3 cup sugar
Prepare the baking sheet: grease and flour.
Warm the water to blood heat, dissolve the teaspn sugar and stir in the yeast. Set aside until frothy (about 10 mins). Sift the flour, salt and spices together, stir in the sugar. Mix the butter, egg, milk, yeast mixture, then add to the dry ingredients (and fruit if used). Mix all together and knead well (about 10 minutes). Leave in bowl (cover with cling wrap) to rise until doubled in size.
Turn out onto floured surface, knead lightly, then divide into 12 pieces and shape. Arrange on the baking sheet, flatten the tops with the palm of your hand. Leave to rise again (about 20-30 mins). Preheat the oven to 375. Just before putting them in the oven slash the tops with a sharp knife to make the cross marks (just cutting the surface of the dough). Bake for 15-20 mins.
While baking, prepare the glaze: dissolve the sugar in the hot milk/water mixture. Brush the hot buns with the glaze, then leave to cool.
I actually accidentally flattened them with my hand after they rose for 20 minutes, which was a bad idea. Leave them after they rise. A sharp knife is kind of necessary for the slashes.
The glaze didn't really work for me, maybe reduce the amount of water and add more sugar? Who knows.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Commodities, Gold, Saving money
Thought I'd write a quite post on saving money since I think it's going to be important in the coming years.
Basically, I believe in buying Gold and Silver now before it keeps becoming more and more expensive. I'll tell you why.
What we're going to see is inflation. The reason is because there is so much debt (national, and otherwise) the best option for Americans (even though it is, in my mind, immoral) is to inflate away that debt. I.e. the US government will print money to pay back Chinese and other foreign investors and bond holders. This printing of money naturally will make US dollars cheaper, make everyone's savings worth less in terms of real objects (cars, food, houses, gold). Other governments are having similar issues and will also see their currencies inflated. The US dollar might not lose much ground relative to other currencies but I bet commodities will become much more expensive.
While holding good companies will presumably also be a good option in the long run, it is difficult to choose companies you know will survive an impending financial crisis, and there are other things that in my mind suggest stocks are going to be less attractive in the coming years, but I won't get into that now as I don't have any good evidence for some of my conjectures.
So, with inflation, things are going to get more expensive. We should move our money away from dollars and into "stuff" that maintains it's value. Inherently everything has value in society: even gold is used industrially and in jewelry. Other things might have more intrinsic value (gold one can do without in a pinch, food is pretty necessary), but all those things also inherently lose value over time. Gold does not, which makes it perfect for maintaining wealth. If it were possible to track the current price of say grain, corn, cotton over a long period of time, this would provide a viable alternative to buying gold as a way of saving money. Actually some ETFs exist which track futures prices, but they have issues and lose value relative to the actual value of the commodity. Gold ETFs track the spot price of gold a lot better. As do Silver and Platinum.
Anyway, as more people realize that their dollars aren't worth a lot, and Gold (and other metals) are a good option for preserving wealth, there simply wont be enough of these metals to go around. The value of them is going to increase A LOT as people try to buy them. And that value will be maintained. Although there will be spikes and dips from speculation, investors will push the price up over the long run.
It would be great to get paid in Gold, not dollars.
Basically, I believe in buying Gold and Silver now before it keeps becoming more and more expensive. I'll tell you why.
What we're going to see is inflation. The reason is because there is so much debt (national, and otherwise) the best option for Americans (even though it is, in my mind, immoral) is to inflate away that debt. I.e. the US government will print money to pay back Chinese and other foreign investors and bond holders. This printing of money naturally will make US dollars cheaper, make everyone's savings worth less in terms of real objects (cars, food, houses, gold). Other governments are having similar issues and will also see their currencies inflated. The US dollar might not lose much ground relative to other currencies but I bet commodities will become much more expensive.
While holding good companies will presumably also be a good option in the long run, it is difficult to choose companies you know will survive an impending financial crisis, and there are other things that in my mind suggest stocks are going to be less attractive in the coming years, but I won't get into that now as I don't have any good evidence for some of my conjectures.
So, with inflation, things are going to get more expensive. We should move our money away from dollars and into "stuff" that maintains it's value. Inherently everything has value in society: even gold is used industrially and in jewelry. Other things might have more intrinsic value (gold one can do without in a pinch, food is pretty necessary), but all those things also inherently lose value over time. Gold does not, which makes it perfect for maintaining wealth. If it were possible to track the current price of say grain, corn, cotton over a long period of time, this would provide a viable alternative to buying gold as a way of saving money. Actually some ETFs exist which track futures prices, but they have issues and lose value relative to the actual value of the commodity. Gold ETFs track the spot price of gold a lot better. As do Silver and Platinum.
Anyway, as more people realize that their dollars aren't worth a lot, and Gold (and other metals) are a good option for preserving wealth, there simply wont be enough of these metals to go around. The value of them is going to increase A LOT as people try to buy them. And that value will be maintained. Although there will be spikes and dips from speculation, investors will push the price up over the long run.
It would be great to get paid in Gold, not dollars.
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