Cinnamon and Cranberry Buns

I love cinnamon buns but is there anything better than fresh, warm homemade ones? I think not, these are certainly worth the effort!

Part 1- Dough

300ml whole milk

40g unsalted butter

500g strong white bread flour

10g salt

10g instant yeast

1 medium egg, beaten.

Part 2- Filling

25g unsalted butter, melted

75g soft brown sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

100g dried cranberries

100g chopped dried apricots

Part 3- Finishing

75g apricot jam

100g icing sugar

1 tbsp water

zest of half a lemon

Warm the milk and butter gently in a saucepan. The butter needs to melt but don't allow the milk to become too warm, lukewarm is about right.

Meanwhile, add the flour to your mixing bowl. Add the salt to one side and the yeast to the other. Add the egg.

Then add the warm milk mixture.

Mix. I used an electric mixer with a dough hook and let it mix for a few minutes on medium speed until the dough was nice and soft.

Transfer the dough into a large, lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a tea towel and leave in warm place for 1-3 hours.

As you can see, my bowl was only just big enough! This was after 90 minutes.

Mix the dried fruit, sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl.

Turn out the dough onto a well floured surface. It's a bit sticky and likes to spring back so be patient!

Roll out the dough to a rectangle about 5mm thick. Mine was about 30 cm long but kept springing! Try not to knock the air out by overhandling it.

Brush the melted butter over the dough, then sprinkle the fruit mixture over.

Roll the dough into a tight sausage. Mine was all going a bit wrong at this point but I kept going. My dough wasn't behaving the way it has previously.

Slice the roll into about 9 slices, about 3-4 cms per slice. I ended up with 12 as my roll kept getting longer as I was rolling it up!

Place the slices into a deep baking tray that has been lined with baking parchment.

At this point, they don't look too pretty and I did wonder whether they would turn out as well as previous batches, but they smell so good so I persevered.

Cover with a tea towel and leave for 30 minutes.

Bake for 20-25 mins at 190 degree celsius.

Resist the temptation to eat one as soon as it comes out of the oven and proceed to glazing.

Mix the apricot jam with a little warm water and, leaving the buns in the tray, brush the jam over the buns to glaze them.

Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool for as long as you can.

Mix the icing sugar, water and lemon zest together and drizzle over the buns. They look pretty good in the end.

Serve with a nice hot cuppa and enjoy.