Commemorated by authors such as Charles Dickens and Lewis Carroll, this traditional currant bun was created around 1700, at the Chelsea Bun House. They were so popular that there was once a near-riot over supply!
Tamsin learned the tricks of the trade from cookery legend Delia Smith. A trusted recipe writer for the magazine for over 25 years, she is now our Senior Food Producer, overseeing testing and editing to ensure that every recipe tastes great, is straightforward to follow and works without fail. In her home kitchen, Tamsin creates fuss-free flavour-packed food for friends and family, with baking being her ultimate form of comfort cooking
See more of Tamsin Burnett-Hall’s recipes
Tamsin Burnett-Hall
Tamsin learned the tricks of the trade from cookery legend Delia Smith. A trusted recipe writer for the magazine for over 25 years, she is now our Senior Food Producer, overseeing testing and editing to ensure that every recipe tastes great, is straightforward to follow and works without fail. In her home kitchen, Tamsin creates fuss-free flavour-packed food for friends and family, with baking being her ultimate form of comfort cooking
See more of Tamsin Burnett-Hall’s recipes
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Ingredients
For the dough
50g butter
200ml milk, plus extra if needed
500g strong bread flour, plus extra to dust
1 x 7g fast-action dried yeast
50g caster sugar
1 tsp fine sea salt
zest of 1 lemon
1 large egg, beaten
For the filling
50g soft butter, plus extra to grease
100g light brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon or mixed spice
200g currants or mixed dried fruit
For the glaze
50g caster sugar
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Best eaten on the day of baking, but can be frozen.
Melt the butter for the dough in a saucepan, remove from the heat and add the milk. This will take the chill off the milk, without making it too hot. In a large mixing bowl (or stand mixer), combine the flour, yeast, caster sugar, salt and lemon zest. Make a well in the centre and add the beaten egg and the buttery milk. Mix together until you have a soft dough (add extra milk if needed), then knead for 10 minutes by hand on a floured surface (or 5 minutes on low speed in a stand mixer). When the dough is stretchy and springy, return it to the bowl, cover and leave to rise for 2 hours or until doubled in size.
Knock the dough down then roll out to about 34cm x 48cm on a floured surface. Spread with the soft butter (leave a border along one long edge). Mix the sugar, cinnamon or mixed spice and currants or dried fruit together. Scatter evenly over the dough and press in gently.
Dampen the long border with a little water, then roll up like a Swiss roll towards this side, pinching the seam closed. Trim off the ends, then cut the roll into 12 fat slices. Grease and line a 20cm x 30cm baking tin and add the buns; they should be spaced about 1cm apart. Cover the tray and leave to prove for about 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4.
Bake the Chelsea buns for about 25 minutes until golden and cooked through. Dissolve the sugar in 3 tablespoons water in a small pan and simmer for 1 minute, then leave to cool. Brush the buns with the mixture as soon as they come out of the oven; as the water evaporates, you will be left with a sticky glaze.
Let them cool for at least half an hour before tearing apart and eating.
Belgian buns are round in shape, filled with lemon curd and sultanas and finished with glacé icing and a cherry, while Chelsea buns have a distinctive square shape, are filled with cinnamon butter and dried fruit, and topped with a simple sugar glaze.
The bun is made of a rich yeast dough flavoured with lemon peel, cinnamon or mixed spice. The dough is rolled out, spread with a mixture of currants, brown sugar and butter, then formed into a square-sided log. The process of making this bun is very similar to that involved in producing the cinnamon roll.
These currant-studded cinnamon buns (known as Chelsea buns) are an 18th-century recipe whose origin is said to trace back to a London bakery called the Chelsea Bun House. This version comes from Historic Williamsburg's online recipe database—a great source if you're interested in early American cooking.
A hot-cross bun is essentially what the English call a Chelsea bun, a confection sold all year. The difference is that for Good Friday, a cross is traced on the top of the bun. English bakers create the cross by slashing the dough or by laying strips of pastry across the top of the bun.
The Bath bun is a sweet roll made from a milk-based yeast dough with crushed sugar sprinkled on top after baking. Variations in ingredients include enclosing a lump of sugar in the bun or adding candied fruit peel, currants, raisins or sultanas.
Bakers began to add cinnamon to their already-sugary fritters, creating an early version of the cinnamon roll—including the English Chelsea Bun—which quickly spread to bakeries across the continent as a breakfast treat.
Commemorated by authors such as Charles Dickens and Lewis Carroll, this traditional currant bun was created around 1700, at the Chelsea Bun House. They were so popular that there was once a near-riot over supply!
"Roll" crops up everywhere, but it's most common in the south, with "bun", which also shows up throughout the country, being the favoured word in the North East. "Barm" is very localised to the Manchester area, and "batch" is incredibly specific: this is used just by residents of Liverpool and Coventry.
With the signature dusting of semolina flour on top, these buns are crusty on the outside, soft yet chewy on the inside and have a light taste. Since most Italian breads are meant to be eaten along with other foods, the Calabrese bun is an ideal complement to lunches, entrees, main dishes and other fare.
Fitzbillies café is known for serving good coffee. Their most famous product, however, is their sticky Chelsea bun, baked daily in their on-site bakery.
France and Italy love to hog the limelight when it comes to bread making, but Belgians can hold their own and this loaf is proof. It's made with unbleached, untreated, enriched wheat flour, water, sea salt, yeast and malted barley.
Amazingly, and contrary to its names, the Belgian bun cannot be traced back to Belgium. Although it is believed that it was inspired by the popular finger-shaped Belgian pastry couque Suisse, which doesn't have as much icing on it.
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Prep time: 40 mins
