All that is virtuous or spartan about bread quickly disappears when butter, sugar and eggs are kneaded into the sticky dough. Enriched dough requires a little more work than normal bread might, and takes longer to rise, but it's well worth the effort. The addition of fat and sugar lend the bread a tender, yellow crumb, and a soft, deeply coloured crust.
A couple of things to bear in mind when working with enriched dough: it's imperative that you take the time to knead the dough thoroughly. Resist the temptation to add more flour to it. It will be heavy, it will be sticky, it will weld itself to the work surface and to your hands. Be patient with it – put onsome music and knead for a good 10‑15minutes. You'll find that with a little work, the dough will begin to lose its stickiness and become smoother andmore elastic.
You can swap the first rise for a far longer stint in the fridge. At a cooler temperature the yeast's activity will slow even more, but the bread will taste better for it. Just mix and knead as specified, tightly cover its container with clingfilm and leave in the fridge for 8-10 hours.
Basic sweet dough
This dough can be adapted to play host to any combination of guest flavours. Add spices, stud the dough with candied peel, chocolate chips, nuts ordried fruit, layer or plait it, roll it up or just drizzle it with water icing. Simple iced fingers, Bath buns as big as your head, toffee cinnamon swirls and even doughnuts can all be created from the same basic sweet dough recipe. Simply follow the steps below, adding any spices into the flour before adding liquid, and kneading in anything else.
Makes 12
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
500g strong white flour
1 x 7g sachet of instant yeast
7g salt
40g caster sugar
230ml milk
2 large eggs
1 Crumb the butter into the flour, rubbing it in with your fingertips untilintegrated.
2 Add the yeast, stir, then add the salt and sugar. Heat the milk very gently until luke-warm, whisk in the eggs, andpour this into the dry mixture. No point messing around with a spatula here – use your hands to mix the dough so that it comes together in the bowl.
3 Tip the dough on to a clean work surface and knead well. For a wet dough like this, I like to knead by using both hands to gently stretch the dough out, then turn it over, slap it back down on to the surface, and fold both ends back into the centre. Rotate the dough by 90 degrees and repeat. You'll feel the dough gain elasticity: that's the gluten developing that will underpin the crumb structure of your bread.
4 Once kneaded, let the dough rise in alarge, covered bowl until doubled insize (about an hour, but up to two). Gently push down the dough, turn out of its bowl, and divide into 12.
5 Shape each piece into a little ball, rolling in circles under a cupped palm on an unfloured surface.
6 Arrange in a large, deep tray or roasting dish (dimensions roughly 20x30cm) so each bun sits a little apart from its neighbour. Let it rise for 30-45 minutes, or until nearly twice their original volume. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Bake for 30 minutes, though adjust cooking time to dough quantity.
Semlor (Scandinavian cardamom cream buns)
If you don't like cardamom you can omit it, but its citrussy fragrance really does offset the sweetness of the filling.
Makes 12
1 batch of basic sweet dough
8 cardamom pods, seeds only, finelycrushed
60g almond flakes (or ground almonds)
50g unsalted butter, very soft
60g caster sugar
250ml double cream
1 Make a batch of a dozen sweet buns as before, adding the crushed cardamom to the flour along with the salt and sugar.
2 While they're baking, toast the almond flakes in the oven for 10minutes, then grind them in a coffeegrinder or food processor. Alternatively, use ready-ground almonds but, if so, add a little almond essence to boost the flavour.
3 Beat the butter and sugar, then add the cooled almonds.
4 In a separate bowl, whip the cream tosoft peaks. Slacken the almond mixture a little by beating in some of the cream, and then gently fold in athird of the remaining cream.
5 Once the buns are cool, halve them, add a little almond cream, spoon on some whipped cream, sandwich, and enjoy. A scattering of flaked almonds inthe middle would be nice, too.
