The Amazingly Soft and perfectly Sweet Chelsea Buns!

Yesterday while I was out shopping with my dad and sister, my dad picked up a tray of chelsea buns which where totally over priced and way too small for my liking. So I suggested to him, that if he got the necessary ingredients it would be my pleasure to bake him some wonderful home made large chelsea buns. And as you can see here, he made the right choice and got chelsea buns for less than half the price, larger and most importantly freshly baked. I chose to have two different filling and just used what was available around the house. I hope you will try out this wonderful recipe and give me some feed back on what you would change or what you like or did not like about them. You can use the same dough to make dinner rolls, hotdog buns, and even a loaf of bread. This dough mixture is also known as a enriched dough as it has eggs, butter and sugar, which gives this bread a soft texture and a sweeter taste. 

Ingredients 

• 659g flour
• 303g warm water(should not be above 40C)
• 66g eggs
• 40g sugar
• 33g milk powder 
• 13g salt
• 33g fresh yeast (12.5g instant dry yeast) 
• 53g soft butter

Method

1. Place all ingredients except for the butter into a bowl and combine(knead) till you have a ball of dough.
   
2. Once you have a nice medium gluten dough ball add your soft butter and continue to knead till butter is fully incorporated. (you will be tempted to add more flour, but don't. Simply continue to knead and it will become back to normal dough texture. It is a difficult dough to make by hand, at least once you add the butter so if you do have a mixer you can let the mixer do the work.) 
3. Once your dough is ready, place into a large bowl and cover with plastic rap and allow to bulk ferment for 3 hours and at 1.5 hour intervals de-gass. 
4. After the 3 hours have pasted, roll out your dough about 0.5cm thick into a rectangular shape, and then place your topic of choice on. (you can roll the dough out in two batches as well. And remember to place flour on the surface you going to be using.)
5. You can start by spreading the butter across the surface of the rolled out dough and then sprinkle sugar ontop followed by cinnamon or chocolate chips or peanut butter and banana, the choices are endless. So play around and find your favourite. 
6. Once you have your toppings on, start to roll the dough up into a cylinder and then cut into 2.5-3cm high segments.
7. Place segments into baking tray which has been greased and has silicone or baking paper on the bottom. Remember to leaf space in between each bun for the rising process n the final proofing. 
8. Once all the buns are in the tray, allow to proof for one more hour before baking at 180C/356F for about 12-15 minutes or golden brown. (do not use thermo fan setting, turn the fan off.) 
9. Once your buns come out of the oven, you are going to glaze them, to make them look shine and yummy! So all you need to do is take 150ml of apricot jam and melt it in the microwave or on the stove top. Using a pastry brush, brush the jam onto your chelsea buns and then allow for them too cool down a bit. 
10. For the icing you drizzles over the top, you simply take 3/4 cup of icing sugar and add a little bit of water at a time mixing it till you have a nice thick paste which you then use to drizzle over the top.  (You can also add a little bit of lemon juice just to lighten it up a bit.) 

Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do and hope everyone is having a wonderful Festive Season!  

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