pink finger buns

pink finger buns

• 22 May 2017

Growing up, a finger bun slathered with butter and topped with icing (and the icing had to be pink) was one of my favourite treats. Sure you could get ones with plain icing (boring) and ones topped with coconut, which I thought was and still think is an abomination. 



When I was last home in Brisbane I went through my old recipe file and returned to Sydney with this finger bun recipe that I'd cut out from the Australian Women's Weekly. It's yellowed and faded and must be at least 30 years old.



I haven't had a finger bun in ages so I pulled out the recipe and stuck it to the fridge with a fridge magnet and went to work. I changed the recipe ever so slightly by adding some dried apricots and soaking the fruit first in hot tea. I just used an English Breakfast tea bag but I'm sure any other flavour would do just as well.



I shouldn't cook when tired so there were a few disasters along the way. I forgot to grease the tin so the cooked buns stuck a bit to the tray. 



Once I glazed the buns, I managed to rip the tops off half the buns while trying to get them out of the tin. Memo to self - don't bake when tired. I also ran short of icing but couldn't be bothered making any more.

Am I the only one that makes silly decisions when over tired? Thankfully I still had 4 left that were suitable to photograph and the pink icing covered a multitude of sins in the remaining buns.



I already had some natural pink food colouring in the cupboard so used a few drops to tint the icing. The finger buns looked exactly as I remembered so once they were photographed, I slathered one with butter and enjoyed it with a cup of tea. 


It tasted pretty good but honestly the finger bun would be nothing without that pink icing. If you'd like to make a batch at home here's the recipe for you which will make 8 buns. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. If you need to feed a crowd then just double everything. 

Pink Finger Buns – makes 8

Ingredients

¼ cup sultanas

2 tbs each dried currants and coarsely chopped dried apricots

1 tea bag

½ cup boiling water

2 tsp (7 g) dry yeast

25g caster sugar

2/3 cup warm milk

2 cups (300g) plain flour

30 g (1 ounce) butter, chopped

1 egg, beaten lightly

Glaze

2 tsp caster sugar

½ tsp powdered gelatine

2 tsp hot water

Icing

1 cup icing sugar

2 tsp butter, melted

1 tbl milk, approximately

Pink food colouring

Method

In a small bowl combine the dried fruits, add the tea bag and cover with boiling water. Leave to one side to steep for at least an hour. Drain well before using.

Grease a 20 cm x 30 cm (8-inch x 12-inch) lamington pan. Combine yeast, sugar and milk in small bowl. Cover; stand in warm place about 10 minutes or until frothy. Sift flour into large bowl, rub in butter. Stir in yeast mixture, the beaten egg and the well-drained fruit and mix to a soft dough. Cover; stand in warm place about 45 minutes or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 220°C/425°F. Knead dough on floured surface about 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Divide dough into 8 portions; shape into buns 15 cm (6-inches) long. Place eight buns into the pan; cover loosely with lightly oiled plastic wrap, stand in a warm place until buns are well risen. Bake buns 8 minutes; cover loosely with foil, bake a further 5 minutes or until golden brown.

For glaze, combine ingredients in small pan; stir over heat, without boiling, until sugar and gelatine have dissolved. Turn buns, top-side up, onto wire rack; brush with hot glaze, cool.

For icing, sift icing sugar into small heatproof bowl, stir in butter and enough milk to make a firm paste; tint pink with colouring. Stir over hot water until spreadable. Spread icing over top of cold buns.



My junior taste testers gave the buns the seal of approval as did the adults. I can't wait to make them again.


See you all again next week with some more baking.

Bye for now,

Jillian