Iced Buns
Servings 12 buns
Ingredients
Dough
- 450 g Strong White Bread Flour
- ¾ tsp Salt
- 4 tbsp Caster Sugar
- 7 g Fast-action dried yeast
- 50 g Unsalted Butter
- 1 Egg
- 225 ml Lukewarm Milk
Topping
- 200 g Icing Sugar
- 2 tbsp Water
Instructions
Dough
- Put the flour, salt, sugar and yeast into the mixing bowl and stir them together well with your hand. Add the butter to the flour mixture and rub together between your fingertips and thumbs until you cannot see any lumps or bumps in the mixture
- Add the egg to the lukewarm milk and beat with a fork for a couple of seconds just to break up the yolk an mix everything together.
- Pour the milk mix into the bowl with the flour and gently press and squeeze everything together until it is thoroughly combined to make a soft but not sticky dough.*
- Sprinkle a little flour over the worktop and your fingers then tip out the dough onto the worktop. With both hands knead the dough thoroughly by pushing and stretching it then folding it over, for 4 minutes. Cover with the upside down bowl and leave to rest for 10 minutes.
- Uncover the dough and give it another 4 minutes of kneading until it feels very soft, elastic and smooth. Then put the dough back into the bowl and cover it with clingflim. Leave for about an hour to prove.
- Turn out the dough onto the floured worktop again and divide into 12 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball then with your hands roll it on the worktop into a sausage about 12cm long.
- Set the sausages about 2cm apart on the lined baking sheet. Cover the sheet loosely with clingfilm and leave for about 45 minutes. Towards the end of the rising time preheat the oven to 220c/425f/gas 7.
- Uncover the buns and place in the heated over and bake for 10 - 12 minutes until golden brown. Remove the sheet from the oven and using a fish slice transfer the buns to a wire rack and leave to cool.
Icing
- Put the icing sugar and water in the small bowl and stir to make a smooth icing that just runs off the back of the spoon when you lift it out of the bowl.
- Spoon the icing over the cooled buns using the back of the spoon to push the icing along the top of each finger.
Notes
*if the dough feels sticky, and sticks to the sides of the bowl, sprinkle more flour a tablespoon at a time and mix it in. if the dough is dry and hard, or there are dry crumbs at the bottom of the bowl, sprinkle over more milk a tablespoon at a time and mix in.