Fruit and Spice Bun Ring

Fruit and Spice Bun Ring, with currants, cinnamon, and a maple syrup glaze, looks impressive.

But, as I’ll show you in this post, the pull-apart bun ring is easily made AND baked in little more than half an hour.

It’s so quick because, unlike most fruit buns, this is made with self-raising flour instead of yeast.

With no kneading and no proofing time, Fruit and Spice Bun Ring is a simple, easy treat.

Pull apart the bun ring while still warm and enjoy with a cuppa, as part of an afternoon tea or lazy weekend breakfast.

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BRITAIN’S GOT STICKY BUNS!

Fruity and/or spicy sticky buns come in all shapes and sizes. And especially here in Britain.

Just a few that come to mind are Chelsea buns, Bath buns, Belgian buns, lardy cake, teacakes and saffron buns. Not forgetting of course, our famous Hot Cross Buns.

Besides fruit and/or spice, what they all have in common is yeast as the raising agent. The same is true of the American cinnamon rolls that are becoming more popular here too.

Now, I love a yeasted sweet goodie as much as the next glutton. But making them does take some planning due to the proofing required.

So, when I want a nice fruity treat at short notice, I’ll often turn to my Classic Sultana Scones. However, I’ve now found something just as quick and easy as fruit scones but feels a little bit special.

Say hello to your new favourite quick bake: Fruit and Spice Bun Ring.

FRUIT & SPICE BUN RING

I think of the fruity, spicy little buns that make up this bun ring as a cross between the British Chelsea bun and American style cinnamon rolls.

The big difference though is that this dough is much simpler. In fact, it’s more like a scone dough than a yeasted, sweetened bread.

You’ll find a detailed recipe card at the end of this post, but here’s a brief outline.

You start by rubbing butter into flour then adding milk to form a soft dough.

With scones, you’d normally roll out, cut out, then gather the scraps and roll again. But here you only need to roll out one rectangle of dough.

The rectangle is then brushed with melted butter before a mix of currants, sugar and cinnamon is sprinkled over.

Then the whole thing is rolled up, just like a Swiss roll, before you cut it into 12 pieces.

Place the pieces, as evenly spaced as you can, in a round cake or deep sandwich tin.

It doesn’t matter if there are gaps between the pieces. As the buns expand and rise in the oven, they’ll form one lovely fruity, spicy ring.

The bun ring will take just 15 – 20 minutes to bake.

Doesn’t that sound easy and fuss-free?

GLAZE

A sticky bun worthy of the name must have a shiny, sticky glaze on top.

So, as soon as the Fruit and Spice Bun Ring is out of the oven, I brush over a generous amount of maple syrup.

You could use honey if you prefer or even warmed jam.

Or substitute almost any syrupy sweetener such as homemade Dandelion Syrup.

If you can bear it, leave the ring for a few minutes until warm rather than hot.

Then pull apart the soft buns and enjoy!

Like scones, these buns are best eaten on the day of making.

Otherwise, they can be frozen and reheated in a microwave or low oven.

Also like scones, one of the joys of the bun ring is that you can adapt it to include other flavours.

• swap in other dried fruit for the currants e.g. sultanas, raisins, dried blueberries, mixed peel
• use mixed spice, chai spices, ginger or cardamom instead of cinnamon
• replace some of the dried fruit with chopped nuts like pecans or walnuts

Lightly crusty on the outside, tender within, I think this quick, sweet and fruity treat flavoured with cinnamon and maple will be a hit in your house too!

HAVE YOU MADE FRUIT AND SPICE BUN RING?

LEAVE A COMMENT & DON’T FORGET TO RATE THE RECIPE!

5 from 1 vote

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Fruit and Spice Bun Ring

Pull-apart buns with currants, flavoured with cinnamon and maple, are quick and easy thanks to self-raising flour rather than the usual yeast.

Course Snack, Cake

Cuisine British, World

Keyword buns, no yeast buns

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Servings 12 small buns

Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

• 60 g butter divided into 40g and 20g
• 50 g currants other dried fruit can be used instead
• 50 g caster sugar
• 1 rounded tsp ground cinnamon
• 200 g self raising flour plus extra for rolling out
• 1 pinch salt
• 125 ml milk
• 1 tbsp maple syrup or honey/other syrupy sweetener

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 220C / 200 Fan / Gas 7.

2. Melt 20 grams of the butter and use some of it to grease a 20cm cake tin or deep sandwich tin. Set both aside.

3. In a medium sized bowl, mix together the currants, sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.

4. Take a large mixing bowl and sift in the flour and salt.

   Rub in the remaining 40 grams of butter.

   Pour in all the milk and stir to create a soft dough.

   Dust your work surface with flour then scrape the dough onto it.

   Lightly knead the dough for a few seconds to bring it into a smooth ball.

5. Brush a rolling pin with flour and roll the dough into a rectangle 30 x 20 cm.

   Tip: use a ruler on its edge to occasionally push the dough into a neat rectangle as you roll it out.

   Place the rectangle so that one of the long edges is facing you.

6. Brush the remaining melted butter over the rectangle, leaving 1cm bare around the edges.

   Sprinkle the currant, sugar and cinnamon mix over the butter.

   Moisten the bare edges with water.

   Starting from the long edge facing you, roll up the dough as for a Swiss roll.

   Pinch together the join, then place so the join is underneath.

   Cut into 12 equal pieces: using a sawing motion with your knife rather than a straight cut down is less likely to squash the buns.

7. Transfer the buns to the prepared tin, each with a cut side facing up: start with a ring of 9 buns around the edge of the tin then put the final 3 in the middle. Try to space them as evenly as possible.

8. Put the tin in the oven and bake until the buns are risen and golden brown (15-20 min).

9. Remove the bun ring from the tin and place it on a cooling rack.

   Brush with the maple syrup or other sweetener then leave until just warm.

10. Pull the ring apart into separate buns and serve.

    Best eaten on the day of making or can be frozen.

    Reheat in a low oven or microwave on high.

Recipe Notes

Adapted from a recipe in The Dairy Book of Home Cookery (1978)

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