Saffron Buns revisited

This is the second try at the Saffron Buns from The Book of Buns.  This recipe is on our baking challenge for the second half of September 2016....and my friend was arriving on Saturday, so what could be nicer that having saffron buns, clotted cream, and preserves after our walk around Kenilworth Castle.  I had the apricot and pistachio, and Jayne, having tasted the blackcurrant jam...even had a new jar to take home with her, together with a helping of cream and buns to share with G on Sunday.

I was going to bake these on Friday evening...but felt they were just not rising in line with my experience with other buns...I even left them overnight for a slow rise in the conservatory, and even in the morning, they did not seem to have risen significantly.  They went in the oven...and they were reasonably light, but not as fluffy as I would have expected.  For 300g flour, there is 90g sugar, and I wonder whether the high level of sugar retards the yeast growth, which also has 60g of mixed lard and butter to struggle against!  I also wonder whether the saffron also affects the yeast.  Next time I would reduce the amount of sugar, activate the yeast in a little of the milk and sugar, then add the rest of the milk in which the saffron has been infused etc.  For more details here is the link to my previous attempt.

Khorasan Breakfast Buns

Its quite some time since my recipe for Khorasan Breakfast buns was first published on Shipton Mill's site.  Today I just felt like baking them again...but I had to cycle out to Mick Smith's to get half a dozen jars of honey.  The buns don't need that much, its just that I like to have a little stash in my cupboard, as we have a little each day, and we did not have any runny honey left.

I had another set back when making these...I ran out of fennel seeds so had to go out and get some more.  For the final trial, I was faced with having to throw out all the ingredients as I cracked an egg over the whole of the ingredients including the honey, and the egg was off!  

Usually I crack the eggs one at a time into a dish, then decant them or separate them as required by the recipe.  Recently I had been watching all the chefs and Mary Berry just crack the eggs straight in, and was beginning to think I was far behind the times.  I shall go back to my old ways again.  The free range eggs were bought from Sainsbury's and were well within date...but I guess one bad egg over many years isn't too bad.  The whole lot went into the recycling bin, and everything washed down thoroughly..with a little bleach before I started up again.

Here are the buns cooling on my new cooling rack...its larger than my very old ones, has a finer grid, and cost just £3 from Sainsbury's this week.