The beauty of pan rolls is in the layers of texture: the crunchy fried outer layer gives way to the soft pancake, which encloses the highly spiced filling. Serve them on their own or with a good chilli or tomato sauce.

Pan rolls

600 g plain (all-purpose) flour

g cooking salt

960 ml full-cream (whole) milk

eggs

vegetable oil, for pan-frying (optional)

100 g plain (all-purpose) flour

ml full-cream (whole) milk

450 g coarse breadcrumbs (I like panko crumbs)

vegetable oil,

salt flakes

kg desiree potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 cm dice

ghee

g moru (white) chillies, roughly crushed or chopped

g brown mustard seeds

fennel seeds

g curry leaves

turmeric powder

cinnamon powder

salt flakes and white pepper

coconut oil

1.7 kg coarsely minced (ground) beef

g garlic

g ginger

35 g chilli powder

g Brown curry powder (see Notes)

tomato paste (concentrated puree)

salt flakes and black pepper

green bird’s eye chillies, finely chopped

This recipe celebrates plain-ness. The traditional recipe from Malaysia and Indonesia turns out an unassuming brown cake. However, the technique employed in beating air bubbles into the batter and allowing the baking soda to do its work creates holes in the structure of the cake. So, the plain-looking cake actually has a very unusual texture. This is an aesthetic that characterises the way I like to work.

Ants’ nest cake

sugar

unsalted butter

250 g plain (all-purpose flour)

condensed milk

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

purple figs

300 ml port

tbsp honey

cm cassia bark

star anise

vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped

cumin seeds

g sugar

ml milk

250 ml thick (double/heavy) cream

This crusty, classic French baguette is an excellent baking skill to have up your sleeve.

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Pan rolls

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Baguette

Top 3 ace recipes from across the web

The most viewed ace recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

Pan rolls

Ants’ nest cake

Baguette

The most viewed ace recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine