Cinnamon Chelsea buns

Brunch seems like one of the easiest way to entertain: some bagels from the best baker in London (according to the FK household), smoked salmon, Philadelphia, houmous, egg mayo and a few salad, add in a dash of fruit and you're there. 

With friends coming round on Sunday, and Mr Finchley Kitchen staging a TV takeover with Match of the Day at midnight on Saturday night, I decided to make some Chelsea bun dough for a cinnamon-y home-baked addition to our brunch.

These buns are sweet but not cloying, and a great sweet end to a light meal. They require a bit of advanced preparation and the floury dough-rolling does add to the washing up. But you can prep in advance, freezing the dough before cooking. Then you can defrost it overnight and pop the buns in the oven first thing to have the delicious smell wafting through the house that sets the scene for a special breakfast. Enjoy..

Ingredients


Dough:


500g strong white flour
1 x 7g sachet fast-acting yeast
300ml milk
40g butter
1 egg
20g sugar


Filling:

120g butter
80g brown or caster sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon
few handfuls of raisins


Decoration


150g icing sugar + water

Method


Mix the flour and the yeast powder
Together melt the milk and butter (microwave works, or in a small saucepan if you prefer)
Mix together with the flour and add the egg until forms a soft dough.
Knead the mixture for five-ten minutes, until the dough is more smooth and less sticky (I confess I outsourced this job to Mr Kenwood)
Leave the dough in a bowl with clingfilm or a damp tea towel on top, in a warm place, for about two hours or overnight - it should roughly double in size.

Meanwhile, make the filling: soften the butter and add the sugar, and cinnamon.

Next stage: put half of the dough on a floured board, and roll it out as best you can into a rectangle shape - as big as poss whilst still ensuring the dough is at least 1cm thick.
Brush half of the filling on top of the rectangle, then sprinkle some raisins on top.

Roll the rectangle up, long-wards, into a Swiss-roll shape. If you've time, pop it into the fridge for half an hour- makes it easier to cut.
Then use a sharp, serrated if poss knife to trim off the wonky ends of the roll, and cut it into about ten slices, about 1cm-2cm wide.
Next, repeat the process with the other half of the dough and filling.
Place the circle dough shapes on baking paper on a tin, and bake for about 20m (until golden brown, with oozing cinnamon) at 180 degrees C.
Once cooled, drizzle with the icing sugar + water mixture for that pro effect.