My earliest memories of munching on freshly baked rockies goes back to my Ridge Church School days. My classmate Priscilla had an amazing Mom who'd bake these snacks and the fragrance of nutmeg would envelope me when I walked into their house. I must have been 13 or so but the memory has stayed with me all these years!
Rockies or Rock buns are popular Ghanaian snacks usually sold in pastry shops, by FanMilk bicycle vendors and at some filling stations across the country. Its identified by its “rocky” and almost dry surface sometimes dotted with black raisins. Somewhere in our history we renamed rock buns as rockies 😄.
Fast forward to today and some few weeks back when I got a sudden craving for rockies. Such a weird craving it was. Just sudden and demanded to be sated. So I stopped by a roadside store which had several pastries displayed in a glass case. I bought two rockies as a first timer and i just couldn't wait to bite into one with a steaming mug of coffee!
Unfortunately, these rock buns were straight out of a bad dream! Too much bicarbonate soda and zero sugar. It actually tasted like rocks 😣🫢 (yes I know the taste of rocks😆) Thus I decided to make my own Rockies because how difficult could it be?
Although there's several recipes out there for the Ghanaian version of rockies I decided to give my culinarian PhD Auntie a call on some tips.
It was easy making these rock buns and I totally customized it by adding chocolate chips, dried cinnamon apple chunks and raisins. 🤤 The start of making rock buns is similar to short crust pastry where the fat is mixed in with the flour to make a breadcrumbs texture before adding the wet ingredients.
Rockies (rock buns)
How to Store Baked Rock Buns
You can store any leftover rock buns in the freezer by sealing it in a ziploc bag. Warm in the microwave once taken out or in the oven for better freshness.
What can you eat with Rock Buns?
Rockies can be eaten on its own as a breakfast snack with your beverage of choice. Or as mid-afternoon snack with a scoop of ice-cream 😜.
Ingredients
2 cups of flour
1/3 cup of margarine
1 egg
2 Tbsps baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
Salt
1/3 full cream milk
1/3 white or brown Sugar
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp water
Raisins
Dried cinnamon apple (optional)
Baking time!
Measure out flour into a mixing bowl and add baking powder, grated nutmeg, salt and bicarbonate soda. Mix and add in cold margarine. You want to mix this with the tips of your fingers till mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Pour sugar in and mix.
Grease muffin pans.
Measure out milk into another mixing bowl. Add one egg and beat well. Add 1 tsp water to lighten milk and crumb texture. Add vanilla essence and whisk well.
Chop dried apple chunks.
Preheat oven at 190°C
Pour wet mixture into flour and mix. The mixture should be not too wet nor too dry. To test texture, scoop the dough with a spoon and turn over, it should be a gradual fall from the spoon. If it's too wet, add a little more flour.
Add chocolate nibs and dried apples
Scoop dough into greased muffin pans, top with more chocolate nibs and raisins.
Apply milk atop each bun for a golden color when baked.
Bake for 20-25 mins in preheated oven.
It's done when a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Enjoy warm with your favorite cup of tea.
These were super delicious! The crumb texture was not too moist and not too crumbly! Just perfect! And the dried cinnamon apple chunks were a great idea! So fragrant too! This was also loved by my daughter so go ahead and make these for your kids at home too!
Bake this delicious nostalgic buns and tag me #accramommy on Instagram! I'd love to read from you!
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Happy week!
