Phil Vickery's iced cinnamon buns

Friday 28 February at 3:11pm

Despite reports this week that baking is proven to help reduce stress, Tesco have announced that they are axing a number of their bakeries due to a falling demand for baked goods.

Phil Vickery’s on a mission to put the bang back into baking with his easy homemade cinnamon buns.

Iced cinnamon buns

Serves: 9

Ingredients

For the dough

350g plain flour

250g strong bread flour

A pinch or 2 salt

80g caster sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

10g dried yeast

80g melted salted butter

300ml warm full cream milk (approx)

For the cinnamon sugar topping

125g dark brown sugar

4 tsp cinnamon

For the icing

6-8 tbsp fondant icing sugar

Water

Method

Place the flours, salt, sugar, cinnamon and yeast into a bowl and mix well. Add the melted butter and ¾ of the milk and mix to a soft dough (add more milk if needed to ensure the dough isn’t dry).
Knead well for 2-3 minutes, then place in a warmed bowl. Cover with clingfilm and leave to prove until it’s roughly doubled in size.
When the dough is ready, gently turn it onto a floured work top, and roll it out. Stretch it carefully until you have a square (roughly 30cm). Don’t go mad here or the gluten will tighten and the dough will not stretch out.
Now for the cinnamon sugar topping - mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle over the dough right to the edges
When covered, roll the dough into a long sausage shape. Cut into 9 pieces and place onto a lightly greased round pizza tray (about 30cm diameter), cut side up. When laying them out, leave a little space for them to expand. Cover lightly with cling film and leave to prove until double the size.
Preheat the oven to 220c, gas mark 7
Once the dough has proved, carefully remove the cling film and pop into the hot oven. Cook for 10 minutes to get the initial lift to the buns, then reduce the oven temperature to 200c, gas mark 6. Cook for a further 15-20 minutes or until browned.
Once cooked remove from the oven and leave on a wire rack to cool
When cooled, mix together the fondant sugar and enough water to make a thin icing, then paint the finished buns all over. Don’t be shy, add lots and let it drizzle down the sides. The icing needs to be nice and thin so you can see the lovely circles of the cut face to the buns. Leave to set and tear and share!