Date stuffed Buns

Mr S and I have a thing for dates....the sweet ones, and enjoy our brazil nut stuffed dates as our lunch time sweetmeat after dinner.  Since moving I have been buying them from Persepolis, but lately very similar dates were on sale up at Rocky Mountain twice weekly fruit and veg market.  Sadly they ran out and stated that they would supply them seasonally.  By that I understood to be around Christmas.

Anyway, as we are about to be without, I was researching the different types of dates, and came across 'Komaj Buns'.  To think there could be buns stuffed with dates for breakfast got me thinking.  We were out of breakfast buns, and I decided to make some date stuffed ones.

For my bun dough I revisited Jane Mason's Sfoof recipe, which I adapted in a number of ways.  I omitted the mahlab and the orange blossom water, and reduced the butter to 75g.  Half Spelt and half wheat flour was used, as was the anise seeds and ground turmeric.

For the filling I decided to chop up the dates together with some juicy candied orange peel.  For half the batch I followed the Komaj Buns technique using a cutter.  Finding it quite tricky to get each bun the same weight, I reverted to one of the techniques learnt in the Book of Buns, and stuffed buns with the filling.

Friday Bun Day was moved to Wednesday! With our afternoon drink it was the two smallest buns, one each.  The rest are in the freezer. 

The bun is as light as a feather, the golden colour from turmeric, and taste combinations of the date, orange and anise seeds delicious.  We have six wonderful breakfasts to look forward to in the coming month.  We love sitting together in the conservatory having our breakfasts and watching the birds and the clouds.  We have a rolling menu but always a boiled egg each on Saturday, and a special bun each on Sunday, with great coffee and tea, and a fruit platter selection.