These vegan rock buns are light, quick to make, and have lovely warm flavours of vanilla and apricot.
Rock buns, or rock cakes, were promoted during the Second World War because they used fewer eggs than a sponge cake. This recipe takes that idea a step further by using no eggs!
Instead, dried apricots are soaked for a few minutes before being pureed in a blender. As well as contributing to the fruity flavour, they give the buns a subtle amber tone (if you use apricots preserved with SO2, that is – I haven’t tried these with the unsulphured variety.)
For a rocky effect, don’t tidy up the lumps of mixture when you drop them onto the baking tray. They should have lots of crispy little tips and edges while being quite soft and light in the middle.
This is not a wholefoody version of rock buns, but they’re lower in sugar than lots of other cakes, and you could certainly use a 50/50 mix of white and wholemeal self-raising flour without losing the lightness.
vegan rock buns…
ingredients
- 250 g white/unbleached self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 110 g soft vegan margarine
- 65 g caster sugar
- 60 g dried apricots
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- zest of around 1/3 of a lemon
- 100 g mixed dried fruit (eg, sultanas, raisins, currants, citrus peel, chopped apricots, cranberries)
method
- Set the oven to 180°C/360°F and line or lightly oil enough baking sheets for sixteen buns up to 7cm across.
- Place the dried apricots in a small bowl or jug and pour on 70 ml of boiling water. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, measure the flour, baking powder, sugar and lemon zest.
- Add the vegan margarine to the flour mixture and blend, ideally with a pastry blender, but you could also use a fork to begin with and finish off by rubbing it with your fingers. Make sure there are no little lumps of margarine, just as you would if you were making pastry.
- Stir the dried fruit into the flour mixture until evenly combined.
- Add the vanilla extract to the apricots and water and puree this mixture in a blender until smooth.
- Pour the apricot puree into the flour mixture and use a fork or spoon to bring it together, just as you would a soft pastry mixture. Don’t over mix.
- Using two dessert spoons, transfer rough blobs of the mixture to the baking tray(s). They should be more or less round with a rough surface.
- Bake for around fifteen minutes, until they have expanded and are golden all over with deeper golden tips.
- They are good eaten warm, but will store for a few days in an airtight tin once cooled.
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