Easter Chelsea Buns

We seem to be racing towards Easter and I haven’t even thought about making any Easter treats yet, rather unusual for me since more chocolate and spiced fruit breads are consumed at Easter than any other time of the year, although I would to have to exclude myself from that survey. My chocolate  consumption doesn’t alter at all at this time of year and I will let you read into that what you will!

Sunday morning I woke up and thought of hot cross buns but as I began to make them I decided to change them to Chelsea buns. I love hot cross buns but Chelsea buns are so much more fun peeling the dough away to reveal the raisins and cinnamon inside. It is something I haven’t eaten in years, probably since I lived in the UK so it is almost 20 years ago. You can buy something similar here but they aren’t quite the same, or is that because my memory of them shines brighter the older I become? I often wonder about this. But as they came out of the oven and I sugar glazed them while hot they were every bit as delicious as I remember them, in fact better as I had used Peter Reinhart’s recipe which contains butter in the dough and I don’t think the original ones I made did.

So if you have a few hours to spare (two) on a Sunday morning they are worth the effort.

Ingredients – makes 12

• 3.25 oz sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2.75 oz butter, soft
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 16 oz bread flour
• 2 tsp yeast
• 1 cup warm milk
• 1/2 cup cinnamon sugar (3 tbsp sugar to 1 tbsp cinnamon)
• Large handful of raisins

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C and line a baking sheet with parchment.
2. beat sugar and butter together.
3. Add egg and vanilla extract.
4. Add the flour, yeast and milk and bring together to form a tacky but not wet bread like dough.
5. Knead dough for 10 minutes and then allow to rest in a warm place till double in size.
6. Roll the dough out into a rectangle about 2/3 inch thick, 14 inches by 12 inches.
7. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar and raisins to cover the dough and roll.
8. With seam side down slice the dough into 1 inch thick buns and place 1/2 apart on the baking tray.
9. Lightly spray with oil and cover with food grade plastic bag.
10. Allow to prove till double in size and the buns are now touching each other.
11. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown
12. Mix some icing sugar with some lemon juice to make a runny icing and glaze buns while still warm.