h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...four wee stale lemon buns?

They are your standard sponge bun, lemon flavoured, but no cream, icing etc.

There's not a lot of pleasure in eating them as they are, as they've gone a bit hard, but maybe I could do something with them?

I quite like a wee spongy lemon bun, so I don't know why I let four of them go hard, but that's life.

Most baked goods that have gone stale come back if you heat them in a low oven with a pan of water on the bottom shelf.

I think.

Use them as a base for trifle? I'm sure soaking them in sherry will revive them.

Thirty seconds in a microwave will usually reverse staling, adjust time to item, more and larger items take longer.

A lemon trifle...I'm not usually big on trifle, but maybe... watch this space. That might be a project for tomorrow

(Mal, have you much on next week? I'm off all week, and thinking of a bit of zoo/wildlife reserving, if you're interested! )

sounds good. I only have one day of work lined up so far.

Lemon trifle, you could make it with limoncello, but that could be a bit sickly.

cut them into slices and use them as a basis for French toast?

If you don't go a bundle on trifles, how about a sort of bread-and-butter pudding. Didn't we have a discussion about them not too long ago - you tried the suggestion of a cheesey version and liked it.

Chop buns and place in a dish with perhaps a little extra butter scraped on them. Add fruit or dried fruit (or, in this case perhaps even candied lemon peel if that's your sort of thing - see Lanza's recipe in the EG) Stir that lot together. Whish up an egg and a quarter pint of milk (that should be enough for the 4 small buns, depending on size of egg) - spice the milk with finely grated lemon peel and maybe nutmeg, sweeten and pour over the chunks of cake. Bake and eat with custard or a lemony sauce (made with lemon curd? ) or a chocolatey sauce.

That's totally untested and right off the top of my head. I am still trying to think of more suitable spices to combine with the lemon flavour. Allspice? Coriander?

Nice word: Whish - was supposed to be "whisk", of course.

I've put them in the freezer, to buy some time, because I'm not ready to do them yet, and don't want them to spoil completely.

There are four contenders for what to do with them now.

1) Revive them with a steamy process (microwave or humid oven)
2) Lemony trifle, possibly involving a softly set lemon jelly, and cream...
3) A bread and butter pudding style affair, with spices and fruit - although that feels like a better idea for autumn or winter

Or

4) Leave them stale and feed them to my brother, who is highly unlikely to object to them no matter what their condition.

...grate or crumble for meatloaf...

I'd pulverise in a blender until they were cakecrumbs. There's loads you can do with crumbs. Here's what I might do:

Mix the crumbs with something soft like cream cheese or lemon curd and shape into balls. Gently melt some white chocolate, dip the balls in the chocolate and leave to set in the fridge. Get 1 or 2 chillis, de-seed and chop very finely. Heat 50 mls water and 50g sugar in a pan, add the chopped chilli and simmer until it's reduced by half, then leave it to cool a bit and there's time for the chilli to infuse. Before it sets, drain the syrup so that there aren't bits of chilli in it. Dip the set chocolate covered balls in the syrup and roll the ball in desiccated coconut.

I use this syrup to coat white chocolate truffles, and I add lime juice to it, but with the lemon in the balls (and especially if you use lemon curd) I don't think it is needed. For truffles the chocolate, chilli, lime and coconut hit is amazing and I always regret not adding more chilli, but it depends on taste.

Or you could just make crumbs out of one bun and use it as a topping for the trifle you make with the others.