Regional recipes (Sussex) : Brighton Buttons and Sussex Heavies #bestbudgetbake

As you can't have failed to notice if you're a regular reader of my blog, I absolutely love globe-cooking, trying out the cuisine of exotic climes. (You can see the country-by-country index of the recipes I've tried here.) However, when Aldi asked me take part in the #bestbudgetbake challenge, I decided I needed to look closer to home and make something more traditional and economical, just like my mum and before her my nan used to make. I've long been meaning to join in with the regional recipes challenge over on the Dragons and Fairydust blog too, so I decided to go for simple, wholesome Sussex recipes. First, we made some Brighton Buttons, which are a bit like crunchy biscuit whoopie pies, then we followed on with Sussex Heavies, which are very similar to scones. There was no defined budget but these are certainly budget bakes - I stocked up on all the ingredients needed with my Aldi voucher and the whole lot came in under a tenner !

Brighton Buttons

ingredients :

120g butter

30g icing sugar

120g plain flour

1tsp baking powder

Zest of 2 oranges

1/2 cup apricot jam

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Cream together the butter and icing sugar, then stir in the flour, baking powder and zest.

Grease a baking tray and use a spoon to make 24 little dollops. (Traditionally, you're supposed to use a piping bag but that sounded like too much faff !)

Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool on the tray for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

When totally cold, sandwich them together in pairs with some apricot jam and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Sussex Heavies

280g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
100g butter or margarine
75g sugar
75g currants
60ml milk
squirt of lemon juice

Preheat oven to 160°C.

Rub the butter into the flour/baking powder then add the sugar and currants. Squeeze the lemon juice into the milk (to create sour milk) and add to the bowl. Work into a ball of dough.

Roll out on a floured borad to about an inch thick. Use a cookie cutter to cut out rounds and put them on a greased baking tray.

Brush the tops with a little milk and bake for 15 minutes until golden. They can be eaten as they are or topped with butter or jam (or, if you're feeling partucularly decadent, both !)

Disclosure : I received a hamper of baking goodies and a shopping voucher for ingredients from Aldi to take part in the #bestbudgetbake challenge.