Each year I make a few proper British Christmas cakes and mail them out to the friends who request them, having sampled them in prior years. Even though I bought my usual pounds and pounds of dried fruit, candied peel and crystallized ginger, I never got around to making them last October (as one does, in order to let them mature as one saturates them periodically in booze until Christmas).
It has been practically a year since I bought all of the ingredients and I am nearly at the end of my over-supply of peel and dried fruit, which I have used in a myriad of recipes since then. It is a chilly and gray day here in New York City, I am tired of sending out cheerful emails to strangers selling my strengths as a job candidate, I am doing back loads of laundry which is a thankless task and so baking, and the happy smells of baking, came to mind as a cathartic activity to turn my day around. (Also, I remembered that I was making flatbreads for dinner and thought "what the hey").
L. will be the winner today. Warm saffron scented buns, chock-a-block full of dried cranberries, currants, golden raisins and mixed citrus peel will be waiting for him after school. I will suggest that he break them lengthwise into rough halves and gild the lily with the addition of clotted cream and orange marmalade even though these are buns and not scones. All that, and a cup of milky builder's tea, sound to me like a cheer inducing after school snack.
makes 12 buns
4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 large pinch, saffron strands
1 stick (8 Tbps) butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 envelope (2 1/4 tsps) dried yeast
1 cup mixed dried fruit and chopped candied peel
1 large egg
1/2 cup lukewarm milk
4 Tbsps boiling water
Put the saffron in a bowl. Pour over the boiling water. Set aside while you combine the rest of the ingredients.
In a separate bowl, measure out the flour, yeast, salt and sugar. Grate in the butter (I find that this makes for a flakier dough). Mix together well, pressing the dry ingredients into the butter, so that the flour mixture looks like rough sand.
Measure the milk into a measuring cup. Break in the egg and whisk to combine. Pour in the still hot saffron water and mix well. Pour into the flour mixture and combine, incorporating the wet ingredients into the dry. I found that my hand was the best way to achieve this.
Add your fruit and peel to the dough and knead it until the fruit is evenly distributed through the dough and it goes from shaggy and dull to smooth and shiny; a few minutes.
Place a piece of parchment on a baking tray and oil lightly. Separate the dough into 12 equal pieces, roll into balls and place at even intervals on the baking tray. Flatten each ball slightly with the palm of your hand and cover with another lightly oiled piece of parchment paper.
Place in a warm place until doubled in size. I usually use the unlit oven. These buns took a long time to prove, maybe because there was so much fruit and peel in the mix. At 1 1/2 hours they were close to double in size.
Preheat oven to 425. (If using oven to prove the dough remove tray first...)
Bake the buns for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and flip each bun over. Return to oven for an additional 5-10 minutes to ensure buns are golden on both sides.
Serve at once as described above or on their own, which tastes pretty good too.
Inspiration recipe, here.