Iced Buns

Iced Buns / Sticky Willy

This is my first attempt at iced buns and as you can see from my pictures they are not going to win any prizes for tidiness and regularity but what they lack in looks they make up for in taste. I have surprised myself with how nice they taste for a first attempt! It's up to you now to show me up and make yours look as pretty as you can make them :-)

 

Ingredients

For the dough

500g Strong White Flour

50g Caster Sugar

40g Unsalted Butter, softened

2 Eggs

2 x 7g sachets instant Yeast

2 tsp Salt

150ml Warm Milk

140ml Water

For the icing

200g Icing Sugar

5 tsp cold water

method

• Place all of the ingredients into a large bowl, holding back a quarter of the water. Stir the mixture (I used my Chef with a dough hook), and then slowly add the remaining water to form a dough and knead in the bowl for about four minutes.

• Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead well for 5 -10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for around an hour.

•   Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces, then roll into balls and shape into fingers about 13cm/5in long.

• Place the dough fingers onto a greased baking tray, leaving space for them to double in size, then set aside in a warm place for 40 minutes. They should just touch each other when they've risen. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes then set them aside to cool.

• For the icing, sift the icing sugar in a wide bowl and gradually stir in the cold water to form a thick paste.

• The advise I received was to dip the top of the fingers into the icing when cool, then smooth with your finger but I used a desert spoon to spread mine. Be careful not to make the icing too thin as it will run down the sides (and thicker icing tastes best) then leave to set on a wire rack.