St. Lucia Buns

St. Lucia has been and gone but nothing can stop from baking! These treasures are good all year long if you ask me 😀 They’re fluffy and full of flavour, perfect for breakfast or afternoon tea and they’re a slight adaptation of Paul Hollywood‘s recipe. We know he can bake and I promise with this recipe nothing can go wrong!

Ingredients for 12 buns

250 gr milk

Zest of one organic orange

25 gr grated fresh ginger

50g unsalted butter

500g spelt flour

1 tsp salt

1 cube of fresh yeast (42 gr.)

80g caster sugar

100g quark cheese

1 egg yolk, for glazing

24 raisins

Heat the milk in a small saucepan over a low heat until gently steaming. Remove the pan from the heat, add the grated ginger and orange zest and butter. Set aside for about 10 minutes. The ginger might cause the milk to split but it’s no problem at all. Tip the flour into a large mixing bowl, then add the salt to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other. Add the sugar. Pour the milk in the bowl of flour, then add the quark. Stir the mixture using your fingers until it comes together as a soft dough and the sides of the bowl are clean. Knead for 5-6 minutes, or until the dough is no longer sticky and has a smooth, silky exterior. Cover the bowl with cling film and set aside in a warm place for 1½-2 hours, or until the dough has doubled in size.

When the dough has proved, knock it back, then divide into 12 equally-sized pieces. Roll the pieces of dough into 30cm long sausage shapes. Bend four of the pieces of dough into S-shapes, coiling each end of the S-shape tightly like a scroll. Place onto the prepared baking tray with baking paper.

Cover the dough shapes loosely with cling film and set aside to prove again for 30-45 minutes, or until they have doubled in size. I didn’t bother with cling film, I put the tray in the oven while still off. Preheat the oven to 200C. Brush the dough shapes all over with a little of the beaten egg yolk, then garnish each shape with two raisins the centre of each coil of dough. Bake the buns in the oven for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly golden-brown and cooked through. Set aside to cool on a wire rack.