Fresh From The Oven ~ Chelsea Buns

This months Fresh From The Oven challenge was set by Wendy of Notes From The Quirky Kitchen blog (great name for a blog by the way, I love it!!!)

I was tickled pink to find that Wendy had picked a recipe for Chelsea Buns, having always wanted to have a bash at these myself.  It was such an easy recipe and tasted wonderful that I am sure these will be made again and again.

These are a little on the 'nude' side.  There are a couple of reason for this, firstly I'm just not that find of the normal Chelsea Bun icing so I decided that I would swap this for some lovely melted chocolate artistically drizzled over.  This is where the 'secondly' comes into play, my chocolate seized and didn't want to play ball at all so I lost my patience and decided that nude buns would have to do.  I'm not denying that the sublime addition of melted chocolate wouldn't have gone astray but that said, these buns were perfectly tasty in their natural state ;0)

Chelsea Buns
225g strong white bread flour
25g caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
25g softened butter - this is for the dough
1 1/2 tsp fast action dried yeast
1 medium egg, beaten
90ml warm semi-skimmed milk
25g butter really softened, but not melted - this is for the filling
65g light muscovado sugar
115g dried fruit (I stuck to sultanas)

Combine the flour, sugar, salt and yeast into a mixing bowl (I used my KitchenAid). Make a well in the centre and add the softened butter, egg and milk. Mix to make a soft dough.  Knead until smooth.

Cover and prove until doubled in size.

Generously butter and line a 7" square tin. Make sure it's not a loose bottomed one, or you'll get problems later on and loose your filling.

Flour your work surface, and roll out the dough, (no need to knock it back) to a rectangle measuring about 12 x 9 inches. If you get the edges as square as you can it will help to make your buns look even.

Spread the softened butter as evenly as you can over the dough. Sprinkle the sugar and the dried fruit on top, and gently press it into the butter.

Now, roll up the dough along the long edge, as though you were making a Swiss Roll.  Seal the edge.

Turn the roll over so that the seal is underneath and divide the roll into 9 equal buns. (I got 10 out of my dough - I know I can't count!)

Place the buns, cut side down, into the buttered and lined tin, and leave to prove until the dough has doubled in size, and they have all joined together into one big Chelsea bun muddle.  Heat the oven to 180C.

Bake for about 20 minutes. Some recipes suggest covering the buns with parchment or foil, I guess this is if they are browning before they are cooked.

Once cooked, cool on a wire rack, and eat them as soon as you dare.
Makes a Chocolate Teapot 10!!!!