May 28, 2024

Iced Finger Buns

With the Summer holidays in full swing, keep your family entertained with our brand new quick and easy to make Iced Finger Buns.

Makes 16

Ingredients

For the buns:

250ml milk

50g salted butter (plus approximately 2 tablespoons of butter, melted and set aside)

2 tbs icing sugar

1 sachet dried yeast

1 medium size free-range egg

250g plain flour

250g strong white bread flour

2 tsp salt

For the icing:

icing sugar (approx 200g)

various shades of food colouring gel or powder

sprinkles

optional extras: icing sugar, seedless raspberry jam, whipped cream

Equipment:

small saucepan

Place the milk and 50g of the butter into a small saucepan and warm, gently, until the butter melts. Turn off the heat and allow to cool until it is 'hand hot' (slightly warm to the touch)

Put both kinds of flour, salt, icing sugar and yeast into the large mixing bowl and whisk briefly to combine.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and crack the egg into it. Pour the milk and butter mixture into the well and mix to shaggy dough with a wooden spoon.

Turn the dough out onto the counter and knead for five minutes until the dough is smooth and pliable. Return to the bowl and leave in a warmish place to rise for an hour and a half, by then the mixture should have doubled in size.

Scoop the dough on the counter, knead very briefly and cut into 16 equal pieces. Roll each into a sausage shape, about 12cm long and arrange on the baking trays. Leave space between each bun to allow for rising. Allow to rise for an hour and a half.

Fifteen minutes before the end of the rising time, set the oven to 160 degrees Celsius fan (320 degrees Fahrenheit) and brush each of the buns with melted butter.

Bake for 12-16 minutes until risen and golden brown. Then remove from the oven and allow the buns to cool on their trays.

While the buns are cooling, mix icing sugar and water to a stiff paste (no hard and fast rules for measurements here, but as a guide, you can start with 100g of icing sugar and add half a tablespoon of water. Add water, drop by drop, until you reach a good consistency for spreading. Colour to any shade that you like).

Spread the icing onto the top of each bun and throw over the sprinkles reasonably quickly while the icing is still tacky. (Alternatively, skip the icing and split each bun with a bread knife, spread with jam and pipe fresh cream inside with an icing bag fitted with a star tip nozzle.)

Tips:

For lemon flavour buns, add the zest of one lemon to the dough mixture and replace the water in the icing recipe for lemon juice.

The buns freeze beautifully – freeze after baking in a plastic bag. Defrost when needed and decorate before serving.

Before the second rise, instead of cutting the dough into 16 pieces, cut each piece in half again for cute mini fingers. Keep a close eye on them during baking as they may need up to five minutes less baking time.

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