Rock Buns

[GilliAnne]

I don't know if this belongs here or not, but mods can move it if necessary.

A long time ago a friend gave me a recipe for rock buns - we even made them together. I wrote the recipe down and put it in a file with other recipes, but over the years the page with the method for the recipe has gone missing and I have forgotten how we made the buns. I remember something about mixing the ingredients together but that's all. I was hoping someone might be able to suggest what we would have done next.

The ingredients I have written down are:

8 ounces self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
4 ounces Blue Band margarine ( any tub margarine spread would probably do).

There probably was sugar in there as well.

Any suggestions?

Gillian

 

[JustJoel]

I don't know if this belongs here or not, but mods can move it if necessary.

A long time ago a friend gave me a recipe for rock buns - we even made them together. I wrote the recipe down and put it in a file with other recipes, but over the years the page with the method for the recipe has gone missing and I have forgotten how we made the buns. I remember something about mixing the ingredients together but that's all. I was hoping someone might be able to suggest what we would have done next.

The ingredients I have written down are:

8 ounces self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
4 ounces Blue Band margarine ( any tub margarine spread would probably do).

There probably was sugar in there as well.

Any suggestions?

Gillian

Never heard of rock buns. Today seems to be a “whaaaa?” day for me! I probably wouldn’t make these, they look just a bit too much like their namesake, but I did google it for you, came up with an entire page of recipes. Here’s one; I choose it because it comes from the BBC. Rock bread is British, right? I couldn’t imagine a French baker coming up with it! And naming it “rock bread” seems so, well, British!

From the BBC:
https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/rock_cakes_03094

 

[CakePoet]

In Scotland rock buns are scones with raisins in them.

 

[JustJoel]

In Scotland rock buns are scones with raisins in them.

So is the “rock” the scone or the raisins?

 

[blissful]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_cake

A rock cake, also called a rock bun, is a small fruit cake with a rough surface resembling a rock.
Rock cakes originated in Great Britain, where they are a traditional teatime treat, but are now popular in many parts of the world. They were promoted by the Ministry of Food during the Second World War since they require fewer eggs and less sugar than ordinary cakes, an important savings in a time of strict rationing. Traditional recipes bulked them with oatmeal, which was more readily available than white flour

 

[CakePoet]

I ask my mother in law and she said Scottish rock bun and English rock cakes are the same but we are right.

It more that they are lumpy and not perfect as scones are.

 

[Addie]

Well, I will be danged! Learn something new every day. I wonder why my British husband never mentioned them. He was always trying to get to eat like a war time bride.

 

[GilliAnne]

Many thanks to those who clarified what rock cakes are and that they are not as awful as they spound!

I still don’t know how to make them!

Gillian

 

[CakePoet]

I check my notes from my mother in law and I give you the recipe

 

[GotGarlic]

Many thanks to those who clarified what rock cakes are and that they are not as awful as they spound!

I still don’t know how to make them!

Gillian

A recipe from the BBC was posted above.

 

[GilliAnne]

I check my notes from my mother in law and I give you the recipe

Many thanks, Cakepoet. I shall look forward to that.

Gillian

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

I've never heard of Rock Buns, but I know all about Buns of Steel!

 

[CakePoet]

8 ounces/225 grams self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 ounces/110 grams butter (or margarine, soft)
2 ounces/55 grams sugar
4 ounces/110 grams mixed dried fruit
2 ounces/55 grams currants
1 medium egg
1 to 3 tablespoon milk
Optional: demerara sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C/Gas 4

How to Make the Traditional Rock Bun
Sieve the flour and baking powder into a large baking bowl, add the softened butter or margarine, and lightly rub together with fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Add the sugar and the dried fruit and mix so all ingredients are well incorporated.
Add the egg and 1 tbsp of the milk and mix to create a stiff dough. If the mixture is still dry add milk a tbsp at a time until required consistency.
Lightly grease two baking sheets.
Using a tablespoon divide the mixture into 12 mounds evenly spaced on the 2 baking sheets. Sprinkle with the demerara sugar.
Bake in the preheated oven for 15 mins or until golden brown and well risen. The rock buns should be firm to the touch, but they harden up properly once cold.

 

[Mad Cook]

I don't know if this belongs here or not, but mods can move it if necessary.

A long time ago a friend gave me a recipe for rock buns - we even made them together. I wrote the recipe down and put it in a file with other recipes, but over the years the page with the method for the recipe has gone missing and I have forgotten how we made the buns. I remember something about mixing the ingredients together but that's all. I was hoping someone might be able to suggest what we would have done next.

The ingredients I have written down are:

8 ounces self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
4 ounces Blue Band margarine ( any tub margarine spread would probably do).

There probably was sugar in there as well.

Any suggestions?

Gillian

Mad Cook comes galloping to the rescue.

The Be-ro Home Recipe book circa 1930

8oz Be-ro flour 3oz currants
3oz sugar 1oz candied peel
3oz margarine one egg and a very little milk

(The flour would have been self-raising flour as that's what Be-ro was back then and the margarine would have been hard block marge eg "Stork")

"Put flour and sugar into a bowl, rub in the margarine, mix in currants and chopped peel. Then mix to a STIFF DOUGH with the beaten egg and a little milk. Place in 14 rough heaps on a greased baking sheet. BAKE IN A HOT OVEN about 20 minutes".

I'd bake then at gas mark 6/400F//200C

There's also a recipe for "Cocoanut" (sic) Rocks" which substitutes 3oz of dessicated coconut instead of the currants and peel.

Sorry, I only bake in ounces

 

[Mad Cook]

8 ounces/225 grams self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 ounces/110 grams butter (or margarine, soft)
2 ounces/55 grams sugar
4 ounces/110 grams mixed dried fruit
2 ounces/55 grams currants
1 medium egg
1 to 3 tablespoon milk
Optional: demerara sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C/Gas 4

How to Make the Traditional Rock Bun
Sieve the flour and baking powder into a large baking bowl, add the softened butter or margarine, and lightly rub together with fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Add the sugar and the dried fruit and mix so all ingredients are well incorporated.
Add the egg and 1 tbsp of the milk and mix to create a stiff dough. If the mixture is still dry add milk a tbsp at a time until required consistency.
Lightly grease two baking sheets.
Using a tablespoon divide the mixture into 12 mounds evenly spaced on the 2 baking sheets. Sprinkle with the demerara sugar.
Bake in the preheated oven for 15 mins or until golden brown and well risen. The rock buns should be firm to the touch, but they harden up properly once cold.

This is the first recipe for rock buns that I've come across that includes baking power as well as SR flour and there is rather a lot of fruit. Rock buns were not a delicacy for the ladies in the drawing room. They were served in the servants' quarters and an occasional treat in the farm and factory workers' "snap" (packed lunch). They are called "rock buns" because of their shape not because the were hard as rocks - at least, not intentionally.

 

[GilliAnne]

Many thanks to Just Joel, Cake Poet and Mad Cook for the recipes you posted. I was looking for something that gave an all-in-one method, similar to the one my friend and I used. I did find one on a Google search, which didn't actually use margarine spread like we did, but it seems to be the closest I'll get - Rock Buns | Denise's Delicious Gluten Free Bakery - so I think I'll add the essential missing ingredients from that to my recipe and take it from there. Even better is that this is a gluten-free recipe, so should suit my coeliac daughter nicely.

Gillian

 

[CakePoet]

In the recipe I have it says using the left over dried fruit from baking fancy cakes or less fancy like apple, pear and hawthorn and currants in the old recipes wasnt raisins, it was dried black currants.

 

[CakePoet]

Mad Cook : Do you you think I will question my Glasgi Mother in laws recipe??? I just smile and nod.

 

[GilliAnne]

In the recipe I have it says using the left over dried fruit from baking fancy cakes or less fancy like apple, pear and hawthorn and currants in the old recipes wasnt raisins, it was dried black currants.

Sounds good.

Gillian