Here’s a lovely Christmas breakfast treat for the whole family. These tasty tear and share buns are sweet and sticky, soft and chewy.

My inspiration came from a recipe by Martha Collison, but I’ve personalised it quite a bit, changed the method a little and added a few extras including white chocolate.

Makes: 12 large buns

Time: Initial hands on 30 min then up to 90 min. proving time. Second hands on 25 min. then another 45 min. proving. Bake for about 20 – 25 min.

Level: Slightly challenging maybe

Need: A large baking tray

Ingredients for the dough

75g unsalted butter, cubed
200ml whole milk
500g strong white flour
1 tsp salt
7g instant yeast
50g caster sugar
2 eggs

Ingredients for the filling

410g jar of mince meat
50g dried cranberries
50g caster sugar
100g marzipan, chopped into small pieces
1 large orange (just the zest)
1 egg, beaten
50g marmalade or apricot jam or ginger preserve
75g white chocolate
Some glace cherries
Some pistachios

Method

1. Put the butter into a small saucepan with the milk and heat on a low heat until the butter has fully melted. Set aside to cool slightly.

2. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl (or stand mixer bowl). Stir in the salt. Add the yeast and sugar and mix well.

3. Beat the eggs into the lukewarm milk mixture. Gradually add this liquid to the dry ingredients, stirring all the time, until a sticky but not wet dough is formed. (You may not need all the milk.)

4. Knead, either by hand (12 – 15 minutes) or use the dough hook in your stand mixer (7 – 10 minutes) until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place it in an oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise until doubled in volume.

5. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a rectangle about 45cm long.

6. Spread the mincemeat evenly over the dough then sprinkle over the dried cranberries and sugar. Dot with pieces of marzipan then grate over the orange zest.

7. With the long end facing, roll the dough towards you into an even sausage shape. Neaten the ends then cut into 12 equal pieces. Place these on a lined baking sheet in a tree shape. From the bottom: 1-1-4-3-2-1. It may be necessary to form it diagonally on a large baking tray. Cover or place in a proving bag for the second prove.

8. Heat the oven to 200°C / fan 180°C / 400°F / Gas 6.

9. Brush the buns with beaten egg then bake for around 20 min. (It may be necessary to turn the tray around after 12 – 15 min or to cover any dark areas with foil.

NB I discovered too late that it’s a good idea to arrange the buns so that the ends – the “tails” – are pushed up against other buns. That way, they are less likely to unravel while baking. Rather than move the buns I fastened them with cocktail sticks which worked OK. (See photo below)

10. Warm the marmalade/jam until runny and brush over the buns.

11. Melt the white chocolate over a bain marie. Drizzle or pipe it over the buns to emphasise the tree shape then add cherry halves and pistachios.

For many more lovely recipes click this link. If you’d like to make a comment or ask a question that would be great, just go to the contact page. Click here for the home page. In the meantime, below is a selection of some of my favourite bakes that you could try.

Rolo Caramel Cheesecake