Today I’ve got for you another chocolate overload recipe. My Nanny (not the posh type but the grandmother type) and Mum have passed on a key life skill for any young girl growing up in the savvy modern world.
To make and savour a good Chelsea Bun. Here’s the secret, hush….plenty of butter, sugar and spice. And if in doubt add chocolate. This has kept me in good moral standing for the last 26 years.
I like using this recipe to make cinnamon buns as well. The butter and sugar melt down to caramelise at the bottom of the bun to give them a crunchy base. Divine. These buns are super easy to make and look so good on a Sunday lunch table after a roast so give them a go.
Easter Chocolate Chelsea Buns
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
Ingredients
Scale
- 250ml Semi-Skimmed Milk
- 50g Unsalted Butter
- 1 Vanilla Pod (or 2 tsp Vanilla Extract or Paste)
- 500g Plain Flour
- 1 tsp Dried Yeast
- 50g Caster Sugar
- 2 Egg Yolks (reserve the whites to glaze the buns)
- 100g Unsalted Butter, extra
- 75g Caster Sugar, extra
- 75g Chocolate Chips (I used a mixture of white and milk chocolate chips)
- 75g Dried Fruit of your choice (raisins, mixed peel, dried sour cherries)
- 1/4 tsp Mixed Spice
Instructions
- Place the milk and butter into a medium saucepan and bring up to just under a boil.
- Split the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds, and add them to the pan along with the pod. Set aside to infuse for 10 minutes. (If using extract, added it to the milk mixture when cooled slightly)
- Meanwhile, place the flour, yeast and sugar into the bowl of a KitchenAid mixer fitted with the dough hook.
- Fish out the vanilla bean from the milk, and add it to the mixer (it should be only just warm by now – if it’s still too hot, leave it for longer), along with the egg yolks and begin mixing on low speed until the dough comes together and looks smooth.
- Cover the dough with cling flim, and set aside for an hour or until doubled in size. This dough proved happily just on the counter, didn’t have to put it anywhere particularly warm.
- Roll out the dough to a large rectangle until 0.5 cm thick. Similar to buttering bread, butter all over the dough with the softened extra butter. Sprinkle over the sugar, mixed spice then the dried fruit and chocolate chips all over bar a narrow border as it the extras will spill out.
- From the short left edge, tightly roll the dough up until you have something that looks like a swiss roll with the seam on the bottom. Slice the roll into even pieces (depends how big you want your buns, 6 or 12)
- In a large round tin, place the buns cut edge upwards with 1/2″ gap around to expand.
- Set aside for 45 minutes to prove. Again mine doubled just on the countertop.
- Preheat the oven to 220C. Brush the buns with the reserved egg whites and turning the temperature to 200C and baking for 25 minutes, or until golden brown and hollow sounding when tapped on the base.
- Just get your face into it and scoff down on these sexy buns
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Buns, Chocolate
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: British
