Strawberry & Lemon Curd Buns

Berries are a food typically associated with summer, even though they are readily available all year round these days. I always have a punnet of raspberries in my freezer ready to chill down a glass of wine or to add to a smoothie, but they are always better tasting in the summer, especially fresh from the fields on a pick your own farm.

I bet you didn't know that listening to certain sounds whilst eating your berries can alter the way that they taste. For example, if you listen to happy, summery sounds, people found that strawberries tasted 'fruitier'.

Seasonal Berries have put together a few soundscapes for us to put this research to the test.

 

Now, I'm not sure that these sounds made my strawberries taste any sweeter, but the tracks were really relaxing, especially the beach *drifts off into relaxing holiday mode*, so why don't you try it out for yourself - after you've made my Strawberry & Lemon Curd Buns of course.

Strawberry & Lemon Curd Buns - makes 12

For the dough
225ml milk
500g white bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
50g caster sugar
50g butter, softened
7g yeast

For the filling
150g Lemon curd
300g strawberries, sliced
butter

For the icing
80g Lemon curd
50g Full fat cream cheese

• Add the dough ingredients into a food mixer & combine & knead until smooth & elastic
• Place in a greased bowl and cover with clingfilm and leave to double in size for an hour or two
• Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and roll out into a large rectangle  
• Spread the lemon curd over the dough and scatter with strawberries
• Roll the dough up along the long side & press the end to seal
• Cut into 12 equal slices using a very sharp knife
• Lay the slices into a well buttered baking dish
• Cover with clingfilm & leave in a warm place for approx 1 hour, until doubled in size
• Bake in a preheated 200 C oven for approx 15-20 minutes until golden brown
• Beat the leon curd & cream cheese together until smooth
• Leave the buns to cool a little and spread the creamy lemon topping over the buns
• Serve warm or cold 

Sweet, sticky and very very moreish.

I was provided with some strawberries for the experiment

52 Cook Books : Lemon Curd Syllabub

With all this training that I'm doing for the Team Honk relay it's leaving me with less time to bake so I picked a nice and easy recipe for this week's 52 Cook Books Challenge.

Lemon Curd Syllabub, a creamy lemon dessert that takes just minutes to prepare yet looks and tastes good enough for a dinner party.

I found the recipe in James Martin : Desserts, a hardback book full of hot & cold puddings, tarts & flans, cakes & bakes and ice creams & sorbets.

I decided to omit the wine from the recipe but apart from that the only ingredients are mascarpone, double cream, icing sugar, lemon curd and shortbread biscuits - there is a very similar recipe here, the only difference I can see is that there is no mascarpone in it.