I've never had a Chelsea bun before, but TF and catalyst both love them, so I decided to try a batch. I had to improvise a bit on the fruit since we were out of raisins. I ended up using a mix of dried cranberries and glacé cherries. That mix seems to have worked out well, although I think I'd like to try it with some raisins (and maybe a few chopped pecans) in next time. I also think it'd be fun to try the dried cranberries with an orange-flavoured dough and glaze.

Chelsea Buns

Slightly adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

Dough

• 225g hard (bread/"high grade") flour
• 1 tsp. sugar¹
• 100mL warm milk
• 1/2 Tbsp. active dry yeast
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 75g salted butter
• 1 egg

Filling

• 50g salted butter, softened
• 100g mixed dried fruit
• 25g mixed peel
• 50g brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. mixed spice
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Toppings

• 1/4 c. sugar, divided
• 2 Tbsp. milk

Directions

Dough

• Mix 2 Tbsp. of the flour with the sugar and milk.
• Sprinkle the yeast over the warm milk mixture. Set aside for 10 minutes.
• Sift the remaining flour and salt together and cut in the butter.
• Pour in the egg and the yeast mixture.
• Mix well to form a soft dough.
• Knead (as best you can) for 5 minutes. The dough will be quite wet, so it probably work best to knead with one hand while wielding a bench scraper with the other hand. I found that the dough became even slacker after the first minute or two as the butter began to melt from the heat of my hands. I recommend working quickly.
• Shape into a ball and place in a lightly buttered bowl.
• Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill and rise overnight.²
• On a lightly floured surface, turn out the dough and roll it into a 23x30cm rectangle.
• Spread evenly with the softened butter. (I found a long off-set spatula helpful for this.
• Combine the dried fruit, mixed peel, brown sugar, and spices.
• Sprinkle the filling mixture evenly over the buttered dough.
• Roll up from a long edge to form a cylinder.
• Cut into nine pieces and place cut side down in a greased 7" (18cm) square tin³.
• Cover with a damp cloth and set to rise for 30 minutes.
• Sprinkle with 2 Tbsp. of sugar.
• Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.
• Dissolve the sugar in the milk and heat to form a glaze.
• Brush the glaze over the buns while hot.
• Pull apart and serve warm.

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¹ Edmonds calls for caster sugar here, but I just used regular granulated sugar. ^Back
2 The original recipe has you setting the dough to rise for 90 minutes at room temperature, but with the butter melting and the dough being so soft, I decided that it might benefit from some time in the fridge. My understanding is that a long slow prove is often quite beneficial as well, so I figured why not! ^Back
3 I only have an 8" square tin, so I just used that. They didn't quite rise enough to fill the tin during the second prove, but they had closed the gaps by the time they came out of the oven. I think a 7" tin would've been better but, in a pinch, you can get away with an 8" tin. ^Back