The penultimate sour cherry recipe. I've been enjoying BBC2's The Great British Bake Off massively. I've been learning loads about the chemistry of baking and it inspired me to have a go at bread dough based treats. This was featured in the episode where Jonathan was sent home which, as a viewer, seemed completely absurd. This one's dedicated to you Jonathan!!
Ingredients
For the dough
500g strong white bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 sachet (7g) of fast action dried yeast
300ml milk
40g softened unsalted butter
1 large free range egg
A little splash of vegetable (or other flavourless) oil
For the filling
25g unsalted butter, melted
75g brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
150g dried sour cherries, steeped in boiling water for 15 minutes (or until plumped up) and then drained
For the glaze
2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp caster sugar
A pinch of ground cinnamon
Method
In a large bowl sift together the flour and the salt. Make a well in the centre and tip in the contents of the sachet of dried yeast.
Very gently heat the milk and the butter in a pan until the butter has melted and the mixture is lukewarm. Make sure the liquid isn't hot as this will badly affect the yeast and the buns won't rise.
Add the milk and butter mixture and the egg to the flour mixture and stir well until a soft dough is formed (I started with a wooden spoon and ended up using my hands).
Tip the dough onto a floured surface and knead for approximately 5 minutes (or until smooth and no longer sticky). Your worktop needs to be floured sufficiently for the dough not to stick but you also need to be careful about how much extra flour is being worked into your dough - too much will result in a dry bun!
For some handy hints on kneading have a look at these videos:
Kneading dough - Epicurious (You Tube)
Kneading dough - BBC
Take a clean bowl and lightly oil it. Place your dough into the bowl and turn it over so it has a light coating of oil all over. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and leave in a warm place for about an hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.
While the dough is rising you can oil your baking tray and prepare the filling. Take a small bowl and mix together the sugar, cinnamon and cherries.
When your dough has risen, tip out onto a lightly floured surface and knock back to its original size. For help on knocking back have a look here:
Knocking back - BBC
Put your butter for the filling in a pan and while that's gently melting over a low heat, roll your dough out into a rough rectangle 0.5cm thick. Brush with the melted butter and then sprinkle with the sugar, cinnamon and cherries you prepared earlier.
Now comes the slightly tricky bit! Roll the dough into a cylinder as tightly as possible (along the long edge of the rectangle). You then need to cut the dough into 10 pieces. When I made mine I lacked confidence that they would rise so made mine slightly bigger and only got 7 and a wonky one but they did actually rise so ended up with massive buns! The bit of advice I can give is that if your dough has risen nicely during the hour then have confidence that your buns will rise nicely during the second rising and in the oven.
Place each bun in your lightly oiled baking tray with a little bit of room between each. Cover with your tea towel and leave for about 30 minutes to rise again. About 10 minutes into this time, preheat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5.
Bake in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden and risen.
Towards the end of the baking time, prepare the glaze. Heat the milk, sugar and cinnamon in a pan until boiling. Stir constantly until the sugar has dissolved. This should take about 2 or 3 minutes.
When the buns come out of the oven, brush generously with the glaze. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes and then take out to cool completely on a wire rack.
Really enjoyed making these buns and the results were quite satisfying, especially when they were still warm from the oven. This has also given me the basic skills to try more bread based recipes. I'm sorry there are no photos to go along with this post. My camera has broken and I did take some with my phone but then that broke too - took it in for an exchange and completely forgot to save the photos! It will encourage me to make them again...watch this space.
