Chelsea Buns

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large mixing bowl
• •Wooden spoon
• •23cm square baking tin
• •Rolling pin
• •Pastry brush
• •Sharp knife
• •Clean tea towel

Instructions

1. 1

   Mix the dough

   Tip the flour into a large bowl. Add the yeast on one side and the salt and caster sugar on the other. Yeast and salt are old enemies and prefer not to meet directly. Make a well in the middle and pour in the warm milk, the melted butter, and the beaten egg. Stir with a wooden spoon until it comes together into a shaggy, untidy mass. Don't fuss over it. It just needs to know everyone is in the bowl.

   Blood temperature means warm enough to feel pleasant on the inside of your wrist, no warmer. Hot milk kills yeast, and dead yeast doesn't rise.
2. 2

   Knead until smooth

   Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for ten minutes. It will start sticky and a little uncooperative, then gradually transform into something smooth, elastic, and faintly tacky to the touch. You'll feel the change happen under your hands. When you press a finger into it, the dough should spring slowly back. Resist the urge to add more flour. Wet dough makes soft buns; tight dough makes bricks.

3. 3

   First rise

   Lightly oil a clean bowl and tuck the dough into it. Cover with a damp cloth or a plate. Leave somewhere warm and draft-free until doubled in size. This usually takes about an hour and a half, though a cold kitchen will ask for two. The dough should look puffy and pillowy, and when you press a finger gently into it, the dent should stay rather than spring back.

4. 4

   Roll out and butter

   Knock the dough back gently on a floured surface, just enough to deflate it. Roll it out into a rectangle roughly 30cm by 40cm, with a long edge facing you. Spread the soft butter all over the surface in a thin, generous layer, right to the edges. Leave a thumb's width clear along the top long edge so you've got something to seal the spiral with later.

   If your butter isn't truly soft, the dough will tear when you try to spread it. Take it out of the fridge an hour before you start.
5. 5

   Scatter the filling

   Mix the brown sugar with the mixed spice and cinnamon in a small bowl. Scatter the spiced sugar over the buttered dough, then strew the currants and the mixed peel evenly across the lot. Press them gently with the flat of your hand so they sink into the butter and don't go rolling everywhere when you start to roll.

6. 6

   Roll into a spiral

   Starting from the long edge nearest you, roll the dough up away from yourself into a tight, even sausage. Take your time. You want it snug but not strangled. When you reach the clear strip at the top, pinch it gently along the seam to seal. Roll the cylinder so the seam sits underneath.

7. 7

   Cut and arrange

   Trim the ragged ends off the cylinder. Cut the rest into nine equal pieces with a sharp knife. A bit of gentle sawing is better than pressing straight down, which squashes the spiral. Butter a square baking tin, about 23cm, and arrange the buns cut-side up in three rows of three, with a small gap between each one. They should be close enough to touch as they rise.

8. 8

   Second rise

   Cover the tin loosely with a tea towel and leave the buns to prove for forty-five minutes to an hour. They should swell and merge into each other, soft and puffy. While they prove, set the oven to 200C/180C fan.

9. 9

   Bake until golden

   Bake the buns for twenty to twenty-five minutes. They're ready when the tops are deep golden brown and the kitchen smells of cinnamon and warm bread and something faintly caramelized at the edges. If you tap one gently, it should sound hollow underneath the softness. The currants on top will have darkened to almost black. That's fine. That's where the chew is.

   Trust your nose more than the timer. When the smell changes from yeasty and milky to sweet and toasty, you're nearly there.
10. 10

    Glaze while warm

    While the buns bake, gently warm the milk and granulated sugar together in a small pan until the sugar dissolves. As soon as the buns come out of the oven, brush the glaze generously over the tops. It will go sticky and shiny almost immediately. Let them sit in the tin for ten minutes before tearing them apart. They're meant to come away from each other in soft, pillowy clumps. That's the whole point.

Chef Tips

• •The dough wants to be softer than you think. Sticky dough makes tender buns, and a few minutes of kneading turns it from a mess into something silky. Don't rescue it with extra flour at the first sign of trouble.
• •Currants are traditional, but a handful of sultanas or chopped dried apricots in the mix is no betrayal. Your kitchen, your rules. Mixed peel divides people; leave it out if it isn't to your taste.
• •The glaze matters more than people realize. Brushed on while the buns are still hot from the oven, it sets into a sticky shine that catches the light and tells you, before you've even tasted one, that this is going to be good.
• •Eat them the day they're made if you possibly can. They'll keep until the next day in a tin, but a Chelsea bun warm from the oven is one of the better things you'll do with an afternoon. Day-old buns split and toasted, with a scrape of butter, are the consolation prize and not a bad one.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be made the night before and given its first rise slowly in the fridge overnight. Bring it back to room temperature for half an hour before rolling out.
• •Shaped buns can be arranged in the tin, covered, and refrigerated for up to twelve hours before their second rise. Take them out an hour before baking to come back to life.
• •Baked buns keep in an airtight tin for two days. To revive day-old buns, warm them in a low oven for five minutes, or split and toast them with butter.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 145g)