Iced buns are one of my childhood favourites but I always remember asking for the pink ones (which were rare!) rather than the ‘boring’ white ones! They taste amazing so why not make them look more appealing? Try a few different colours and top with sprinkles!
Ingredients
- 500g Strong Bread Flour
- 50g Caster Sugar
- 7g Fast Action Dried yeast
- 300ml Milk
- 25g Butter
- 2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
- Oil, for greasing
- 300g Icing Sugar
- Food Colouring, optional
- Cake Sprinkles
Directions
- In a medium sized saucepan, boil the milk, add the butter and vanilla extract, and stir until melted. Set aside to cool slightly.
- Stir together the flour, yeast and sugar in a large bowl. Pour in the milk and butter and use a cutlery knife to quickly stir into the flour to form a dough.
- Dust a clean work surface with flour. Bring the dough together in your hands and place on the work surface. Knead the bread dough until it is smooth and it springs back when you press it.
- Lightly oil a large bowl and place the dough inside. Cover with a lightly oiled piece of cling film and leave to rise for about an hour or until it has doubled size.
- Once it has risen, knock the dough back (knead it again) and then separate it into 10 even sized buns.
- Use your hands to smooth the buns and roll them into fat sausage shapes.
- Place the buns on a lightly oiled baking sheet, cover with oiled cling film and leave them to rise again for about 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180ᵒC.
- Check that the buns are ready by poking your little finger into the side of one. If the hole you make remains, then the bun is ready to be baked.
- Bake the buns in the oven for 5 minutes until the outer layer is no longer sticky and then cover with tinfoil to prevent further browning (due to the sugar content these will brown a lot faster than normal buns). Return to the oven for a further 15 minutes until they sound hollow when you tap them from underneath. Place the cooked buns onto a wire rack and cover with a tea towel to soften the crust.
- Meanwhile, sift the icing sugar into a medium sized bowl and add 3 tablespoons of water. Stir into a paste and add more water if necessary. You should have a thick glossy icing that just drops off a spoon. Colour now with a drop of food colouring if you fancy or separate into a few bowls and create as many colours as you like!
- Spread the icing over the buns, (once they have cooled) just covering the tops. Sprinkle your buns with your choice of decorations…
