Baby Hedgehog Breakfast or Tea-Time Buns - Enriched Dough

Our garden is a haven for hedgehogs, in particular because it is a forest with plenty of natural hedgehog food and also some opportunities for a giant hedgehog treat in the form of a new-laid egg, which our hens obligingly leave in nests under bushes and flowering plants. However, I can't deny them a few of these delicacies, as on a warm Spring evening the garden is filled with the snuffling cries and crunchy chewing noises of hedgehogs eating their way through the snail population, themselves out on a hunt for our lettuce and strawberries.

So, inspired by these lovely creatures, I decided to make hedgehog-shaped buns but unlike the plain ones sometimes sold at our local bakery, I'm going to fill them with a mixture of nuts and fruit.

Step 1: Ingredients & Temperatures

This amount makes 8 baby hedgehogs

All the ingredients I use are organic.

For the Dough

4 cups (455g) white bread flour

1 teaspoon of sea salt

3 tablespoons (40g) raw cane sugar

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

¾ cup (170ml) lukewarm milk

1 extra large egg (or 2 bantam)

4 tablespoons (60g) butter - melted

extra flour for dusting

For the Filling

1½ tablespoons (20g) butter - melted

⅛ cup packed (18g) raw cane sugar

½ cup (70g) mixed dried fruit - raisins, sultanas, (these I plump up in a little warm water) almonds

Extra sultanas/raisins or currants for eyes

Extra almonds for the ears

Baking tray - greased

Icing sugar for dusting

TIP for peeling almonds
Place the almonds in boiling water for 60 seconds, then drain and rinse with cold water, so you can pick them up. Squeeze each one gently from, the thicker end, between the finger and thumb, the almond will pop out of the skin.

Temperatures

400°F (200°C) - Preheating the oven to this temperature means the yeast is killed quickly, so will not have the potential to over-rise or continue to rise in cooking.

Step 2: Making the Dough

In the colder Winter temperatures we have at the moment, I usually like to heat my flour before I start mixing. I do this by just placing it in a large earthenware bowl at the side of our cooker.

Add the lukewarm milk to the yeast and a teaspoon of the sugar. Leave until the yeast has started to 'work', you will see a head of foam on the top of the liquid (approximately 5 to 10 minutes).

Mix together the sifted flour, salt and the remaining sugar.

Make a well in the centre of the mix and pour the yeast mix into it.

With your fingers, add just a little flour from the walls of the well to the centre, enough, when mixed with your fingers to form a thick batter. This is called the sponging method.

Leave for around 10 minutes or until it becomes spongy.

Beat the egg and the melted butter into the spongy mixture in the well and then incorporate the rest of the flour.

Knead for 5 to 10 minutes until the dough feels and looks smooth and has a silky surface. I actually favour 5 minutes.

Form into a ball.

Clean the bowl.

Oil the bowl and place the ball in the centre.

Turn the ball over in the bowl to make sure the top of the dough is also oiled.

Cover with a damp cloth and leave in the open kitchen away from draughts until it has doubled in size. This takes about an hour.

Knock back or punch down the dough and turn out onto a floured board.

Step 3: Adding the Filling

Set aside a piece of dough of the size of a billiard ball (this is for the feet).

Using a floured pin, roll out the rest of the dough to form a rectangle, approximately 16" x 9" (40cm x 23cm)

Cut the dough across the widest side into 8 lengths

Brush the dough with the melted butter, taking care to leave a ½" (1cm) border around the edge.

Sprinkle the sugar over the dough.

Place the fruit along the middle of each band - to just two thirds of the length and then do the same with the nuts.

This way you allow a margin on each hedgehog when you roll up the dough, so as not to leave the fruit and nut filling exposed.

Starting with the filled side, take the dough firmly in both hands and begin to roll towards the opposite edge.

Smooth down the edges.

Step 4: Making the Prickles, Feet and Eyes

With your finger and thumb, draw out the nose shape.

Add half an almond for each ear, firstly using a chop stick to make a hole and ease the almond in.

Using the chop stick, press the sultana/raisin/currant eyes into the face. This will both stop the fruit from burning and make the eyes more in proportion to the face.

Take a pair of small sharp scissors and start making low angle cuts into the dough, following the imagined semi-circular line of the brow, behind the ears.

After each cut use the scissor blades to gently raise each 'spine'.

Make the next row of prickles in the same way but so as the prickles rise in between the previous row.

Continue snipping until you have covered each hedgehog with prickles.

Make two front feet for each hedgehog bun. As a pattern I (roughly) used our photo of the baby hedgehog from our garden.

Place the feet on the baking tray first and then add the hedgehog. The rising of the dough will allow them to meld to the body. Remember to leave sufficient space between each hedgehog as they will double in size.