Iced Fingers

This week me and my sister started a healthy campaign, planned healthy meals and planned our exercise regime. So, naturally I picked to bake some cream iced buns which most definitely do not fit in the with above! Having said that whilst by dough was proving I did go to the gym....

I have made these once before as part of the welcome home family shin dig for my sister and brother in law after they returned from their round the world adventure. However I was so busy taking pictures of the croquembouche I made that I didn't document these. So here goes second time around!

This recipe comes from one of my many Great British Bake Off books.

To make 12 cream buns you will need:

For the dough:

• 500g strong white flour
• 14g fast action yeast
• 50g caster sugar
• 8g sea salt
• 2 large eggs
• 150ml lukewarm milk

For the filling

•  600ml whipped double cream
• 3 table spoons of strawberry jam (or your preferred flavour)

For the topping

• 300g icing sugar
• Water

To make the dough:

• Put all the dough ingredients in a large bowl adding 100ml of water. Mix them all together and if you think it is needed add another 40ml of water. I didn't as I felt the dough was wet enough.
• You now need to work the dough in the bowl for a good few minutes. It will be very wet and sticky but preserve as it will eventually start to form a dough. I did had a little extra flour at the stage to take away from of the stickiness. It is fine to do this just be cautious about adding too much as it will change the end result.
• Tip your dough onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes before returning to the bowl, covering with a damp towel and leaving to prove for 1 hour.

At this stage I went to the gym and was gone longer than an hour. In some recipes an every few minutes proving won't make huge amounts of difference but with this it did. My dough was on the edge of being over proved. I could tell this as when cooked and cut open the texture was inconsistent.

• When proved, tip it out and dived into 12 equal portions before shaping into fingers and placing on a baking tray to prove for another 40 minutes. Towards the end of this time set your oven to heat up to 220 fan.
• Cook your fingers for 10 minutes until golden brown. If you tap the bottom they will sound hollow. They really take no time at all to bake!
• Let your fingers cool completely.

No to prepare the filling:

• Whip the cream and set aside
• Heat the jam, sieve it and allow it to cool. Put it in a piping bag and set it aside until you're ready to assemble.
• Mix the icing sugar with a small amount of water until your icing is at the consistency you want it. It needs to be relatively thick to make sure it doesn't run off the top of your buns.

To assemble:

• Slice each finger open on the side - don't cut all the way through
• Dip each finger in the icing to cover the top. Use your finger to smooth off any excess
• Fill with cream and pipe some jam into each to finish.

These are truly delicious and are one of my favourite things to eat that I have made. They are best eaten on the day that you make them as after this the bread starts to lose its softeness. Of course, you could change the jam flavour or substitute it for a caramel sauce instead. You could also colour the icing if you wanted to.

I took a cheeky snap of my sister tucking into her 3rd iced finger! Bad start to the healthy eating regime!

And that's all there is to it - let me know how you get on!

Happy baking - Rach x