Chelsea Buns

Thought I would give Chelsea buns a go and was quite pleased with the result. The recipe is adapted from one on Recipesmadeeasy.co.uk. Whenever dried fruit is called for I tend to use freeze dried unsweetened cranberries, soaked in enough water to cover and quite a lot of sweetener, then after about 20 minutes squeezed to get rid of the juice. If you aren’t too concerned about the carbs then just use any dried fruit you like. I have said this before but be careful with dried cranberries as it often says unsweetened on the packet but they have been sweetened with pineapple juice. The ones I use are 5.8g carbs per 10g grammes. When rehydrated this is the equivalent of 100g of fruit. I use in the mince pies recipe on this forum and they work a treat. INGREDIENTS 500 g of fibre flour (I used about 350g ultrafine and about 150g ordinary fibre flour) 1/2 tsp salt (I didn’t use any salt though) 50 g butter 3 tbsp sweetener 10g yeast 1 large egg 235 ml lukewarm milk plus a bit extra if too dry FILLING 50 g butter 150 g dried fruit but to keep down carbs I used 12g unsweetened freeze dried cranberries and 20g sultanas (please read paragraph at start of post) 50 g sukrin gold or mix of sukrin gold and sweetener Small amount of honey or sukrin gold fibre syrup METHOD • Place the flour in a large mixing bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumb, stir in the yeast and sugar.
 • Beat the egg and milk together and add to the bowl, mix to form a soft slightly wet dough (add a splash more milk if required).
 • Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for about 10 minutes. If you have a stand mixer you can let that do the hard work instead. As the gluten develops it will lose some of its stickiness.
 • Melt the butter for the filling and use a little to grease a 23cm (9in) square cake tin. • Roll out the dough into a 14 x 10 inch rectangle. Brush liberally with melted butter, then scatter the fruit evenly over the surface, then scatter the sweetener over the fruit, pour over most of the remaining melted butter. • From the long side roll up like a swiss roll then cut into 9 equal slices, try not to squash when cutting. Place in a 9 inch square tin. Brush with melted butter. Cover or place in a bin bag and allow to rise in a warm place for about 40 to 45 minutes until well risen and sort of squashing each other in the pan. • Cook for 20 mins at gas mark 6, turn down to mark 4 and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes to ensure the centre is cooked. When browned remove from oven, take buns out of pan and place on a cooling rack. Brush with a little sugar free fibre syrup