Buns, Plain
INGREDIENTS for 12 buns.-1 lb. of flour, 6 oz. of good butter, lb. of sugar, 1 egg, nearly 1/4 pint of milk, 2 small teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, a few drops of essence of lemon. AVERAGE COST, 1s.
Warm the butter, without oiling it; beat it with a wooden spoon; stir the flour in gradually with the sugar, and mix these ingredients well together. Make the milk lukewarm, beat up with it the yolk of the egg and the essence of lemon, and stir these to the flour, &c. Add the bakingpowder, beat the dough well for about 10 minutes, divide it into 12 pieces, put them into buttered tins or cups, and bake in a brisk oven from 20 to 30 minutes.
TIME.-20 to 30 minutes.
SEASONABLE at any time.
A plain chemically-leavened bun of the kind that filled tea tables between the yeast-raised Bath and Chelsea buns on either side of it in the book. The method is closer to a rubbed-in cake than to bread, and a few of the instructions need adjusting.
- The missing sugar quantityThe text reads "lb. of sugar" — a fraction has dropped out in transcription. Given 1 lb of flour and 6 oz of butter, a quarter pound (4 oz) is the proportion that makes sense for a plain bun; half a pound would give something close to a sweet cake.
- Imperial liquid measureA British pint is 20 fl oz, so "nearly 1/4 pint" of milk is a scant 5 fl oz, around 130-140 ml. Hold a little back and add it only if the dough will not come together.
- A brisk oven"Brisk" is generally taken to mean a hot oven, somewhere in the region of 400-425F / 200-220C. At that heat small buns may be ready before the stated 20 to 30 minutes, so start checking early and pull them when the tops are set and golden.
- Do not beat for ten minutesTen minutes of beating is more than this dough needs today: with modern plain flour, prolonged beating develops gluten and can give tough, tunnelled buns. Mix only until no dry flour remains.
- When the baking powder goes inBeeton adds it last, after the liquid. Sift it through the flour at the start instead — it disperses evenly and you avoid the risk of a bitter pocket. Two small teaspoons for a pound of flour is on the modest side; three level teaspoons gives a better lift.
- Essence of lemonVictorian lemon essence was an oil-based extract dissolved in spirit and could be stronger than modern supermarket lemon extract. Add a few drops of extract and taste, or use the finely grated zest of one lemon for a cleaner flavour.
- Only the yolk is usedThe recipe calls for one egg but beats up only the yolk with the milk. Whisk the white in as well for a lighter crumb, or set it aside for glazing the tops before they go in the oven.
- Tins or cups"Buttered tins or cups" in the original; a standard 12-hole muffin tin is a reasonable modern stand-in. Butter it well — there is no paper case in this recipe and the sugar content will catch.
Beeton files this among a run of bun recipes, and the difference between them is largely the raising agent. The older buns were yeast doughs; this one leans on baking powder, the commercial preparations of which spread through British kitchens from the middle of the nineteenth century and are often credited to Alfred Bird's work on an egg- and yeast-free leavening. What that meant for a household cook was a bun that could be decided upon after breakfast and served at tea, with no proving and no barm to keep alive. The average cost of one shilling for a dozen, printed as a matter of course, is a reminder that Beeton's book was written for mistresses budgeting a kitchen as much as for anyone standing at the table, and that a bun was reckoned in pence per head.