Homemade Iced Buns

All fluffy and Sweet

Good afternoon all!

As promised, I made Iced buns today! What great fun! They are especially fun, as they are made with ingredients that are basic staples in the home! You are bound to have most if not all of these ingredients to hand!

I am really excited about these! I mean really excited, like do you ever know when you always aspire to make something or do something and when you do and not only is it an achievement in itself that you are making or doing it, but when they are done, they are actually successful!?

Really happy! I don't know if you can tell?...

These are easy enough to make, I'd probably rate them as moderate to difficult, as yeast can always be a bit of a hit and miss sometimes. It all depends on the weather, temperature, level of humidity and all that, so even before you are baking it is already harden than you'd think!needed!

I loved making these. With the heating on and the oven pre heating it helps a lot with the humidity and temperature.

This is a Paul Hollywood recipe.

He says to add a filling, I didn't. Making these more my own and putting my own twists on them. I didn't add a filling as I feel, if not eaten right away, then they are going to have a greater chance of going soggy and stale...

The ingredients that you'll need for these;

DOUGH:

- 500g Strong White Flour
- 50g Caster Sugar
- 2 x 7g packets of instant yeast
- 2 tsp Salt

- 150ml Milk, warmed with the butter
- 40g Unsalted Butter

- 2 Eggs, whole and whisked

- 140ml Water

ICING:

- Icing Sugar
- Water


METHOD:

- Pre heat the oven to 200C in a fan assisted oven and grease two baking sheets with a thin layer of butter. Set aside until they are needed. Pre heating the oven now, even though you aren't using it for like 2 hours, will help to make the kitchen warm and humid; perfect for the proving of the dough.

- Put the flour, sugar, yeast and salt into a bowl and attach to a mixer.Mix this with the bread hook for 1 minute. This will ensure it is all fully combined.

- Gently and slowly melt the butter in the heating up milk in a pot.

- This will go from being some butter soaking in milk, to a pale yellow mixture.

- Once this is combined, whilst stirring the butter/ milk mix, stir in the whisked eggs. This will ensure they don't scramble.

- Now, with the mixer on a low beat speed, gradually pour the buttery milk into the flour mixture.

I poured the mixture liquid in along the edge of the flour mix. This ensured it gradually incorporated itself into the mix.

- Now add the water in. VERY slowly. If you add the water in all at once, it'll turn from being a lovely dough, to a raw piece of batter soaking in some floury water.

- Once all the water is in, give the dough a good mix for 10 minutes. If it is way too sticky and wet, just keep adding flour until it doesn't stick to the sides in one wet mess and starts to look and has the form of a dough.

- Pinch the dough and stretch into a smooth ball. Drop this into an oiled container that is airtight and allow this to rise in a warm place (mine is on the radiator near a pre heating oven) for an hour or so until it has risen to double the size and is peppered with air pockets.

- Do the dishes, you'll thank yourself later. Raw dough is a .... to get off a bowl. It hardens and acts like cement in a way.

- After the dough has risen to the desired height and amount, take it out of its container. Using your scale, weigh out 70g pieces of the dough.

I know this says 71g, but hey...

Paul said this would make 12 pieces, I got 16...

- Using the middle of your palm, between your index finger and thumb, make a backwards C shape, like a claw. Haha- C, Claw, I never realised that. I'm not as thick as I sometimes come off, really. All in good spirits.

Even when I baking, just for me, I still wear a hairnet 

- Using this shape, get a 70g ball of dough and roll it anti-clockwise until it is smooth and a ball shape.

- Then flatten out your hand and roll the dough ball up and down, this will form a finger shape, like a sausage.

- Once you have the finger shape achieved, put this onto the greased baking sheet. Space the about a finger apart, as you want them to touch and connect during their second prove.

- Once all the buns are shaped and on the baking sheet, cover loosely with a piece of cling film to prevent them from developing a skin.

- Once they have proved again and are all connected, if not, give them a wee nudge and they will be grand.

- Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, mine were in about 8 minutes, so it depends on your oven and the day and all that. So keep an eye on them and once they are golden brown and risen more, they are done.

- Take them out of the oven and let them cool on the sheet for 5 minutes, you can make the icing whilst they are cooling. After five minutes, pull them apart and put them onto a cooling rack to cool completely. If you tried to pull them apart when they were too hot, they would rip and pull apart, but not in the intended way.

- To make the icing, put the icing sugar into a wide bowl or pie dish and using your hand, mix in a little bit of cold water at a time. You want the icing to be thick and hold its shape, but not so thick, causing it to harden and not be able to spread or coat anything at all. It should be able to coat your fingers, but dribble off at the same time.

My hands were cleaned, I washed them beforehand. Although, I used a spoon later as I'm not a big fan of getting my fingers coated in icing, it makes for not being able to touch anything as I'd make everything sticky.

- Whilst holding the edges of the bottom of the bun, dip the top of them in the icing and is needed, use the back of a spoon to spread the icing over the top and even it out. Then sit on a cooling rack or whatever you are planning on serving them on to set.

- Ready to eat! Yum! They are so good, I have no shame in saying it. I'm normally quite modest, but when something is really good, I'll say it with happiness!

That is it, I hope you enjoyed this!

Thanks and speak again soon!