pumpkinchickpea: Soggy Summer Morning

What to do if the summer just won't happen - bake! Bring a little summer into the kitchen - crank up the oven for a little heat and open up the fridge door of a blast of sunlight and in next to no time you'll have something to eat with a cup of tea gazing out the window at the summer rain!

So I've woken up to a drizzly summer day - jobless but hopeful for the future. But for my summer sunshine treat I've gone back to my mum's old BE-RO recipe book for a bit of nostalgic, comfort baking. Rock buns - my mum used to make them for my sister as she loved them much more than cakes and even jam tarts! I always remember the BE-RO book coming out and then the smell of the most amazing baked treats filling the house.

Then there is also the intrigue of trying to work out what temperature a hot oven is! My recipe book is getting a little fragile, pages slightly ripped at the edges or loose but hopefully not missing.

So to the baking: The BE-RO useful tips are: First look to your oven. Then slightly warm and grease your baking sheet. Have everything weighed or measured before beginning to mix.

Rock Buns the BE-RO Way

So if you want to bake the BE-RO way and not my adhoc weigh and measure as you go along you'll need: 8oz of self-raising flour, 3oz of sugar, 3oz of margarine, 3oz of currants, 1oz of peel (optional) and one egg and a little milk.

You'll need to warm and grease a baking sheet or as I do line the baking sheet with baking paper - much less washing up!

You'll need a hot oven - bit a trial and error required but if you bake scones then it's a similar temperature - this is the fun bit experimenting with temperature and timings!

Put the flour and sugar into a bowl, rub in the margarine.

Mix in the currants and mixed peel - this is where you can re-invent the rock bun - use different fruit, leave out the peel or use just the zest of a lemon or orange...

Mix to a stiff dough with the beaten egg and a little milk.