Following on from my last post (sweet bun dough), here is the Chelsea bun recipe, also from The New Zealand Chef. Again, I’ve slightly adapted it.

What you’ll need

1 quantity of sweet bun dough

20g butter, melted

50g brown sugar

250g dried fruit of your choice (I used a mix of chopped dried apricots, sultanas and about 50g mixed peel)

2 tsp mixed spice

Optional: I slightly rehydrated my dried fruit before using it. I did this by popping the fruit into a small saucepan, squeezing the juice of an orange over it and adding a little water. I then lightly heated it and stirred for about five minutes. I cooled the mixture before adding the spices. 

How to make them

Line an oven tray with baking paper. Turn oven to 200°C.

Lightly knock back the dough.

Very lightly flour your bench and roll the dough into a large rectangle. Mine was about 35cm x 25cm x 0.5cm. I was able to do this with my hands and didn’t use a rolling pin today.

Brush the dough with melted butter. Sprinkle the surface with brown sugar – the recipe uses about double the amount of sugar than I use. Leave a small margin along one of the ‘long’ ends.

Add the mixed spice to the dried fruit and combine, before sprinkling on top of the sugar.

Working towards the margin, roll the dough. Give the margin an extra brush of melted butter to help seal the dough.

Using a sharp knife or pastry cutter, cut even sized slices. Pop each slice onto the prepared tray, adjusting each piece into a circular shape (if necessary). Cover with cling film and set aside to prove again. I pop on top of the warming oven. This will take 30-40 minutes.

Bake the buns in the heated oven for around 15 minutes – check them, as the fruit can burn quickly.

While the buns are cooking, prepare a sugar syrup:

Mix together 100g sugar and 125ml water. Boil until sugar has dissolved.

Remove the buns from the oven and brush with the sugar syrup (or drizzle a light icing over them). Boom, and there’s lunch!

You can also use this sweet dough to make jam doughnuts.