Bath Buns

We're not quite half way through 2019 yet, but as there are 81 recipes to attempt in The Best of Mrs Beeton's Afternoon Tea cook book, I figured I need to up my game a little and do more double bake weekends. This weekend was a bank holiday so I had the extra time on my hands to make some Bath Buns along with the Strawberry Meringue Torte.

I'd never heard of bath buns so went into baking them blind. It wasn't until after I took them out of the oven that I thought to google them to see what they were.

Essentially, they're a sweet bun made with a milky dough mixture. I think my mixture was meant to be wetter as I forgot to add in the additional 75ml water the recipe calls for, but as it stands it rose quite nicely.

There wasn't much space to work during this bake as my husband was making lunch at the same time as I weighed each little dough ball and tried to find somewhere warm for them to rise. In the end they were on the floor next to the oven (which was on baking meringue.)

Unfortuntly, our oven is still baking unevenly and too hot. We might need to get someone out to look at it as we already tried cleaning it. The buns came out a bit too dark in colour. However, the flavour was really nice. Slightly sweet with generous sultanas and mixed peel. It's like a hot cross bun but without all the spices. i expect warmed with clotted cream it'll be like a lighter scone.

Bath Buns

butter or oil for greasing

400g strong white flour

1 tsp sugar

125ml milk

75ml water

15ml/1 tbsp dried yeast

1 tsp salt

50g butter

50g caster sugar

150g sultanas

50g chopped mixed peel

2 eggs

Grease a large baking sheet. Sift about 75g of the flour and the 1 tsp sugar in a large bowl. Warm the milk and water until lukewarm. Sprinkle on the dried yeast. Pour the yeast liquid into the flour and sugar, then beat well. Leave the bowl in a warm place for 20min.

Sift the rest of the flour and the salt into a bowl. Rub in the butter. Add the caster sugar and dried fruit. Beat the eggs into the yeast mixture and add the flour, fat and fruit mixture. Mix to a very soft dough. Use your hand to beat the dough for 3 minutes. Cover the bowl with cling film. Leave in a warm place until the dough has almost doubled in bulk - this will take about 45 minutes or longer.

Beat the dough mixture again for 1 minute. Place 15ml / 1 tbsp spoonfuls of the mixture on the baking sheet, leaving plenty of space between them. Place the baking sheet in a large, lightly oiled polythene bag (or under a kitchen towel like I do). Leave in a warm place for about 20 minutes or until the buns have doubled in size. Set the oven to 220C / gas 7.

Glaze each bun with egg and sugar (or milk like I did). Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.