MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Stollen is one of my absolute favourites at Christmas time and thanks to all of you coming to my Stollen making demonstrations this year I have been making (and eating) loads!
That means I have had quite a fair amount of dough left over, and inspired by a post of some rather tasty iced buns I saw on Twitter, I thought I'd turn my left over stollen dough into another one of my favourite treats.
These don't have marzipan inside, but if you wanted you could push a little piece into the centre before you roll them up.
For a little extra Christmassy flavour, try swapping out the water in the icing for orange juice.
Have fun!
Stollen Iced Buns
This recipe makes 12 iced buns
Difficulty
Easy
4.5-5 hours
Ingredients
For the dough
500g Strong White Bread Flour
8g Salt
80g Caster Sugar
1 Heaped tsp of Mixed Spice
100g Soft Butter
24g Fresh Yeast (or 2x7g sachets of instant dry yeast)
200g Whole Milk at room temperature
1 Medium Egg
For the filling
75g Sultanas
75g Raisins
75g Dried Cranberries
100g Mixed Peel
To finish
300g Icing Sugar
50g Water
Method
First you'll need to soak your fruit. Place the raisins, sulatanas and cranberries into a heatproof bowl and pour over just enough boiling water from the kettle to cover. Leave to stand and soak for 10 minutes before draining and allowing to cool. Then add the peel to the bowl too.
Next, make your dough. Place a large bowl on your scales and weigh out your flour. Zero the scales and add the salt, sugar and spice, then mix them through
To the bowl add your soft butter and break it up into pieces. Don't rub the butter in, just break it up and that will be fine.
Weigh your milk into a jug, and put it in a microwave or saucepan to warm slightly. Just enough to take the chill off. Wisk your egg into the milk and pop in your yeast, fresh or dry. Let it dissolve.
Pour the liquid into the bowl and use a dough scraper to mix everything together, then turn it out onto the table.
Knead the dough for 8 minutes on a clean surface, without dusting with any flour. You'll get sticky with the butter but don't worry too much. Use a dough scraper to bring everything together every once in a while. Resist the urge to dust with flour and it will come together nicely.
Spread your dough over the table and pile your fruit on top. It will look like too much at first! Bundle up your dough around the filling like a parcel. Then knead the fruit throughout the dough, expect this bit to get super messy but keep on with it untill the fruit is evenly incorporated and the dough comes back together again.
Next, with a very light dusting of flour on the table, shape the dough into a ball, and place it back into the bowl. Dust the doughs surface, and cover the bowl with a clean cloth. Allow 90 minutes for your dough to rest and rise.
When your dough has puffed up nicely, dust the table with a little flour, turn the dough out onto it, and press with fingertips and knuckles into a circle, to knock the gas out really well.
Make a couple of folds, one from the top and one from the bottom, to make your circular dough into a rectangle. This makes it easier to divide up.
Cut your dough into 12 equal sized pieces.
Roll each piece of dough into a ball and line them up nicely as you go along. Next, starting with the first piece again, pick up the ball and turn it upside down onto a lightly floured surface. Press slightly to flatten and roll it up like a swiss roll to make it long rather than round. Do the same with the rest of the dough balls.
Line up your buns on a parchment lined tray a finger width apart so they touch as they rise up.
Cover your shaped buns with a cloth and allow 60-90 minutes for them to rise up.
Place a deep roasting tray on the floor of the oven and pour 2cm deep of water into it. Preheat the oven to 180°C with the tray of water inside.
Bake your rolls for 20-25 minutes until golden, remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.
Mix up your icing and ice the tops of your buns. Rest the buns to allow the icing to set on top.
