In this week’s Great British Bake Off we watched the bakers tackle sweet dough recipes, and I decided to try a former technical challenge – Paul’s iced fingers from season 2. I took the recipe from here (halving the quantities as I felt 6 buns would be enough for me and the boyfriend), and I also watched the Masterclass episodes from season 2 of the Bake Off, where Mary and Paul show you how to do the technical bakes step by step – handy!
It’s actually a pretty simple recipe, as everything gets mixed together at the same time, and apart from the kneading it doesn’t take up much of your time.
As it is an enriched dough, the addition of off egg and butter etc. can make it harder for the dough to rise, so I made sure I did a couple of things to try and make sure it wasn’t a massive disaster!
- The recipe includes both salt and yeast, but you should add these at opposite sides of the bowl as salt can retard the yeast.
- Using lukewarm milk rather than cold milk helps to activate the yeast.
- I kneaded energetically for over ten minutes just to be doubly sure it would rise!
After the first proving you shape the dough into a long sausage shape and cut into even pieces. You then roll into balls and then finger shapes and place on a greased baking tray to prove a second time. They should rise again and end up fairly close together (ideally touching) so that they keep their shape when baked and have soft edges when broken apart.
They take just 10 minutes in the oven, and they came out perfectly baked.
The water icing should be thick enough so that it only drips once but then stays – if it is too runny the buns will be pretty messy! And I used the dipping technique, which gave a nice smooth finish.
We didn’t serve with the suggested jam and whipped cream as they were tasty (and calorific!) enough as they were. This is a really nice recipe actually – I’ve always thought iced buns were a bit boring but these were really soft, rich and very filling! The boyfriend loved them too (he’s a big fan of an iced finger) so I would definitely make this recipe again.
English Rose from Manchester's Blog 