Recipe: Chelsea buns
From simple scones to impressive pies: in British Baking Book, Regula Ysewijn, judge on Bake Off Vlaanderen, pays tribute to the extensive British baking culture. The 18th-century Chelsea bun is something like a cross between a coffee bun and a currant bun. But however you want to describe them, they are above all extremely delicious.
The bun is made from a yeast dough and should have a square shape with a circular spiral studded with currants. The pleasure of unrolling them as you eat them is addictive. They should be sticky, and you achieve that by brushing the hot bun with sugar syrup. The buns should also be more square than round, so the size of the baking tray is important to ensure that the buns touch each other and push one another into a square shape.
Preparation
- Heat the milk until it is lukewarm but not hot. Add the yeast and leave it to activate. Put the flour and sugar in a large bowl or the bowl of your mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix and place the butter on top in pieces. Pour half of the milk and yeast over the butter and start mixing. When the milk and butter have been fully incorporated, add the other half together with the eggs.
- Knead for 5 minutes, then leave it to stand for a few minutes, add the salt and knead for 10 minutes until all the dough has come together into a smooth dough that is not too dry. In between, scrape the dough from the sides and dough hook back into the rest of the dough.
- Leave the dough covered to rest for 1 hour, until it has doubled in volume. Preheat your oven to 200 °C.
- Make the filling by beating the butter with the sugar, cinnamon and salt until creamy.
- Roll out the dough 2 millimetres thin, or as thin as possible, into a rectangle of approximately 60 x 95 centimetres on a floured work surface. Place the rectangle horizontally in front of you and spread half of the filling over the top half; now fold the bottom half over the covered top half and spread with the rest of the filling.
- Sprinkle with the currants and roll up the dough lengthwise. Now cut slices 5 centimetres wide and place them, spiral side up, next to one another with a little space between them on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
- Bake for 20–25 minutes until the buns are golden brown. During baking, make the syrup by heating the sugar and water and simmering until the sugar has dissolved.
- As soon as the buns come out of the oven, brush them immediately with sugar syrup and sprinkle with fine sugar.
- The next day, they can easily be heated for a few minutes in a hot oven. You can also freeze these buns, defrost them on the day itself and warm them briefly in a hot oven.
Image: Regula Ysewijn
Title: British Baking Book
Author: Regula Ysewijn
Price: €31.99
Publisher: Carrera Culinair
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