Preparation Time
45 minutes (2 hours to rise)
Serves
Makes 14
Nutrition
N/A
Puree
N/A
Finger Food
Toast and butter a bun then chop into bite-sized pieces
Ingredients
125 ml lukewarm water
40g fresh yeast (available in bakeries or online)
500g strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
2 tsp milk, plus extra for brushing
2 eggs
60g sugar
½ tbsp salt
85g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
100g sultanas
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp mixed spice
Pinch of nutmeg
Butter and marmalade, to serve
To decorate
60g plain flour
1 tsp icing sugar
4 tbsp water
These buns are traditionally served around Easter, but leave off the cross decoration and you can eat them anytime as teacakes
Pour the water into a large bowl, crumble in the yeast, stir in 100g of the flour, then cover the bowl with a dish towel and leave to stand for 20 minutes.
Add the milk, eggs, sugar, salt and the remaining flour and knead using the dough hook of a food processor or electric whisk until smooth.
Stir in the butter, sultanas, cinnamon, mixed spice and nutmeg. Cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rise for about 1 hour, until doubled in size.
Meanwhile, to make the decoration, mix together the flour, sugar and water in a small bowl.
Grease two large baking trays. Turn out the dough on to a lightly floured work surface, knock back, then divide into 14 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and place the balls on the prepared trays.
Fill a disposable piping bag with the flour mixture, cut off the tip and pipe a cross on to each ball, then gently brush some milk over the tops of the buns. Leave the buns to rise for 40 minutes, then brush with milk again.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 190°C/Gas Mark 5. Bake the buns in the preheated oven for 15–20 minutes until golden.
Serve warm with butter and marmalade.
Recipe from ‘BAKE’ part of Parragon Books’ range of Love Food cookbooks