Soft, sticky and gooey in the middle, these swirled pastries from the socially conscious London bakery are at their glorious best eaten fresh from the oven, but they keep well too
The technical bake
THE RECIPE
Makes 8 buns Hands-on time 40 min, plus rising, proving and at least 3 hours soaking Oven time 20 min Specialist kit 25cm x 35cm high-sided baking tin
MAKE AHEAD
Either make the dough the day before baking (to the end of step 5), then assemble, prove and bake the day you want to serve, or assemble (to the end of step 9) and rest for 1 more day in the fridge – or just prove and bake.
The buns are best warm from the oven but will keep for 2-3 days in an airtight container (warm to serve).
BE A BETTER COOK
To test the proved buns for baking, gently press a finger into the side of one. The indent should slowly ease back into shape. If it bounces back quickly, prove for longer.
• 410g whole milk
• 16g fresh yeast, or 8g dried yeast
• 600g strong white bread flour, plus extra to dust
• 70g caster sugar
• 15g fine sea salt
• 55g brown butter, at room temperature (see advice, left)
For the filling
• 200g raisins
• 105g unsalted butter, softened
• 175g dark muscovado sugar
• 20g ground cinnamon
For the glaze
• 100g caster sugar
• 100g dark muscovado sugar →
THE METHOD
1 First soak the raisins for the filling in warm water for at least 3 hours or overnight. Once they’re plumped up and soggy, drain them but save 200g of the soaking water for the glaze.
2 Heat the milk gently in a pan and bring it to the boil. Take it off the heat and leave until cool enough to hold your finger in without it feeling burny – a nice hot bath temperature. Pour into a bowl (or the bowl of a mixer) and add the yeast, then the flour and sugar. If using a mixer, mix on a slow speed for about 4 minutes. If mixing by hand in a bowl, use just one hand to mix everything in as well as you can until you have a coherent, shaggy dough. Scrape down the sides of your bowl and leave the dough to rest for 20 minutes.
3 Sprinkle the salt on top of your dough, add a little of the brown butter and begin to fold the dough in on itself (grab the edge of the dough, pull it up a little and fold it into the centre), rotating the bowl slightly each time so you work your way around the dough. Once each addition of butter has disappeared into the dough, add a little more and continue until the butter has all gone.
4 Continue folding (or mixing if using a machine) until your dough is silky and elastic. By hand this is likely to take about 10 minutes. In a mixer, more like 6 minutes or so.
5 At the bakery, we put the dough in the fridge to prove overnight a
