Even if you've never made bread before, you'll love this spiced fruit buns recipe. The dough is flavoured with cinnamon, orange and vanilla, enriched with butter and milk and studded with plump mixed fruit to give a beautifully soft and aromatic crumb.
Place your milk, orange peel, cinnamon stick and vanilla pod in a small saucepan over a low-medium heat.
Bring it almost to boiling point, with steam starting to form and bubbles appearing around the edge of the pan, then take off the heat. Scalding is an important step as milk contains an enzyme that can stop your gluten from developing but you don’t want to boil it as you’ll start to lose liquid.
Add the butter to the milk and leave to cool. It mustn’t be too hot when it goes into the dough or it will kill the yeast. “Blood temperature” is ideal, so no more than 37C (98.6F).
Strain through a sieve to remove the additions.
Make your dough
Put the flour, sugar, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Stir together.
Pour in two thirds of the milk mixture and stir together. Keep adding the milk little by little to any patches of loose flour until the dough comes together in a clump on the spoon with no loose flour on the bottom. You might not need all the milk mixture.
Tip the dough on a very lightly floured surface and knead for about 8 minutes, stretching and folding the dough until you have a smooth, elastic texture that springs back when pressed.
Form the dough into a ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover and leave to prove in a warm place for 1-2 hours until doubled in size.
Shape your rolls
Put the mixed fruit in a small bowl and add freshly boiled water to just cover the contents. Soak for 5 minutes, then drain away any excess. Soaking in this way makes the fruit less prone to burning in the oven.
Line two trays with baking paper and place clean tea towels on top.
Tip the dough onto a clean surface, press out to about 2.5cm (1 inch) think and then sprinkle the mixed fruit on top. Knead a few times until the fruit is incorporated - try not to overwork the dough more than necessary.
Weigh the dough, then divide into 10 equal pieces - mine were 105g (3.7oz) each but it will depend how much liquid you added when making the dough.
Cover the pieces with a tea towel and let them rest for 10 minutes.
Take a piece of dough and bring the sides up into the middle, pinching to hold. Flip the dough to reveal the smooth side and now press your palms together underneath the dough to create more tension on top. Place on a lined tray under the tea towel.
Repeat for all the rolls
Leave for in a warm place for about 45 minutes - 1 hour until doubled in size. You can test if they’re fully proved by pressing a finger into one roll in an inconspicuous spot. If it stays dented, the bread has proved.
Bake your rolls
Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan, 350F), then remove the tea towels and brush each roll gently with beaten egg. Avoid getting too much on the brush so that you don’t end up with drips that will show up after baking.
Bake in the oven for 25 minutes until the rolls turn a gorgeous, golden brown on top and sound hollow when tapped underneath. The rolls on the lower shelf may need a minute or two longer than the ones on the top shelf.
Transfer the rolls to a wire rack to cool completely.