Honey & Orange Filled Iced Buns

Well, that's it, no more bake off on a Wednesday night now that Nadiya has been crowned as the winner, and what a worthy winner she was too. She definitely improved as the series went on, and created some amazing bakes, especially her wedding cake and delicious looking filled iced buns. 

It's been a while since I've had the time to bake along with the show, but I managed to squeeze in some buns this week. I made a sweet enriched dough flavoured with orange zest, and piped in a cream & mascarpone filling, flavoured with honey and orange, with icing on the top and a sticky honey and orange sauce drizzled over (phew). I kept a few of the buns simple, with just icing, as I knew 2/3 of the kids wouldn't like the creamy filling.

Honey & Orange Filled Iced Buns - makes 12

500g Strong white bread flour

1/2 tsp salt

100g caster sugar

50g butter, softened

1 tsp dried yeast
1 egg

finely grated zest of 1 orange

225ml milk (room temperature)

filling
250g mascarpone
100ml double cream
juice & finely grated zest of 1 orange
1 tbsp honey

icing
200g icing sugar
water

honey & orange sauce
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp butter
juice of 1 orange

• add the bread flour to a bowl
• add the salt, sugar, butter, yeast, egg & orange zest
• add approx 200ml of milk & start mixing everything together, adding more milk if necessary
• once the dough has come together, take it out of the bowl & knead for 10 minutes, until smooth & elastic
• place in a large bowl & cover with clingfilm
• leave in a warm place to double in size
• once the dough has proved, turn out onto a lightly floured surface
• divide the dough into 12 equal pieces
• roll each piece into a ball and shape into a finger
• place into a buttered baking tin, approx 1.5cm apart
• cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm place to double in size again
• remove clingfilm & bake in a preheated 200C oven for 15-20 minutes
• leave to cool on a wire rack

filling

• whisk all the ingredients together until it's thick enough to pipe
• slice the cooled buns across the top, but not all the way through
• pipe the filling into the buns

icing

• mix a little water into the icing sugar, until a thick (but fluid) icing is reached
• pipe the icing onto the top of the buns, on either side of the filling

honey & orange sauce

• add the ingredients to a small saucepan
• bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes until thick and sticky
• allow to cool before drizzling over the buns