Orange and Poppy Seed Iced Buns

I was watching ‘The Great British Bake off’ recently and iced buns were one of the technical challenges. I have never been one for these traditional English Cakes but for some reason I found myself strangely drawn to their simple and nostalgic flavours. I tried to add a little modern twist by adding poppy seeds and orange zest just to vamp them up a little bit and I think they work. Great covered in cream and jam as part of an afternoon tea too! I have adapted this recipe from the BBC website.

For the Buns:

You will need

250g strong white flour, sifted

250g plain flour, sifted

125ml warm water

125ml warm milk

7g  fact-action dried yeast

2 tsp fine sea salt

50g caster sugar

1 orange, zest only

1  egg, beaten

50g butter, cut into cubes

1 tbsp poppy seeds

vegetable oil, for greasing

For the Icing

You will need:

50g icing sugar

2 tbsp orange juice

1 drop vanilla extract

With a fork mix together the flour, water, milk, poppy seeds, yeast, salt, sugar and orange zest in a large bowl and until all ingredients are incorporated. Next add the egg (beaten) and butter which should be at room temperature. Mix together until you get a sticky dough. Finally, knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, this takes about 5-10 mins by hand.  Place in an oiled bowl, cover with cling film and wait until it has doubled in size. After this time, knock back the dough by punching it one or two times and roll into about eight sausage shapes. Place quite close together on a greased baking tray and cover and leave to rise for a further half an hour. Once the buns have risen cook them in a preheated oven at 220 degrees C for 20-25 mins or until golden brown. Leave to cool completely on a wire cooling rack before icing.

To make the icing mix together  with the orange juice and vanilla essence. Stir together until the icing is smooth and spreadable but not to runny. Spread in a neat line using a knife over the iced buns as seen in the picture below. Serve with jam of your choice. This makes about 8 iced buns.

Nutritional Information 

For typical bun:

Calories: 270 kcal

Fat: 3.3g

Carbohydrates: 54.3g

Protein: 6.3g

Orange and Date Biscuits (Magrood)

Since I can remember my dad has always brought home these little date-filled treats after a trip to Saudi, but now he lives in England it has been a while since I’ve had one. Strangely I remember not being massively keen on dates when I was younger, probably because the ones that were always around were usually covered in a sticky sugar syrup which I am not to keen on.  Thankfully, my adult tastes are different and now I can’t get enough of dates in any form as well as other dried fruits common in middle eastern food such as figs and apricots(sometimes I think that it might be in my blood or something). Anyway, luckily my friend and I stumbled across some Magrood in a Lebanese Cafe and this trip down memory lane inspired me to make my own version of these yummy (and quite chrismassy tasting) biscuits with a fresh orange twist.

For the Magrood Pastry

You will need:

120g semolina

240 plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

125ml oil

a few tbsp warm water

zest 1 orange (finely zested)

For the Date Filling

You will need:

225g pitted dates

1tsp ground cinammon

1 and 1/2 tbsp olive oil

some water (about 1/4 cup water)

For the Sugar Syrup

You will need:

Juice of one orange

1 tbsp caster sugar

1/4 cup water

you may also need some icing sugar for decoration (optional)

First make the filling by adding the pitted dates to a saucepan with 1/4 cup of water. Simmer on a low heat until the dates began to break up and become soft. Stir the dates with a spoon frequently and they will begin to break up, once they begin to disintegrate you can use a fork to mash them up into a smooth paste. This process should take no longer than about 15mins. Leave the paste to one side to cool, if you would like a smoother paste you can use a food processor to blend the dates together once they are cool but this is not essential. Once the date paste is cool stir in 1 and 1/2 tbsp of oil and 1tsp of ground cinammon. Mix well and leave to one side.

Next make the pastry by adding the semolina, flour, orange zest and baking powder together in a large bowl. Next add in the 125 ml of oil and stir well. If you want the dough to be a little bit wetter add a splash of water or if the dough is too wet add some more flour. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and form into a smooth ball. Note that you might think that this pastry is quite crumbly and a bit tricky to work with but don’t worry it will still be ok once cooked.  Using a cupcake tin as a mould push some of the pastry into the tray to form the shape of the cupcake mould (If you do not have a cup cake tray don’t worry just push the pastry into a rough circle shape and fill it by hand).  Fill the pastry with about 1tsp of the date filling then push some more pastry over the top of the filling to close the biscuit. You should now have a filled circle shape. You can use the back of a fork to neaten the edges by pressing in and smoothing in the sides. Then use the pronged end of the fork to score a vertical line pattern around the biscuits for decoration (this is optional see picture below for guidance). Place the filled biscuits on a baking tray lined with grease proof paper then place them in a pre-heated oven (190 degrees C/fan oven 180 degrees C) for about 35-40 mins or until they are golden brown.

Meanwhile create the syrup by adding the orange jucie, sugar and  water in a pan and bring to the boil. Leave to one side on a very low heat until the biscuits are done. Once the magrood are out of the oven immediately pour 1 tbsp of the syrup over each biscuit. Leave to cool and then dust with icing sugar. Enjoy with some nice spicy tea such as cinnamon or mint. Makes around 12 biscuits.

Nutritional Information: 

Per Biscuit:

Calories: 158 kcal

Fat: 3.7g

Protein: 3.3g

Carbohydrates: 29.3