Interested in two tasty dessert for the effort of one? Check out this Chelsea bun recipe and enjoy the unlimited love!

Chelsea bun is type of enriched sweet bun that contains, nowadays, mostly raisins but originally some sort of currant. There are many types of buns that fall into this category from the Easter favorite hot cross bun, through simple raisin breads to cinnamon rolls.

Although these breads have different names, most of the time there is only a slight difference in the ingredients used for their making. With the only differentiating factors being restricted to the technique of the dough’s shaping, there is no surprise about the many similarities these pastries share.

Some doesn’t even bother looking for a new technique or differentiate itself from others by anything special other than its name. Cinnamon roll and Chelsea bun look, feel and taste so much alike that apart from their name and some sweet glaze on top for the latter, we couldn’t really tell which one we are having with our five o’ clock tea.

Also, Chelsea buns sometimes shun cinnamon and go with raisins only, which can be equally satisfying, as leaving out the raisins from the cinnamon rolls and save ourselves the trouble of listening to someone whining about them.

The name itself comes from the bun house in Chelsea that first sold this type of currant bread to the public in the 18^th century’s London. In its heyday, the shop sold 24.000 hot cross buns on its busiest Good Friday but since then, due to lack of ownership, the business was closed and the prestigious building was demolished.

Luckily, Chelsea buns survived and, through enthusiastic bun lovers, kept alive through the decades with little to no real change in the recipe, except that many of us simply call it cinnamon rolls nowadays.

When it comes to the form factor, square shaped buns is a really popular option for the Chelsea buns and a fantastic opportunity for us to show off our awesome baking skills to the less educated in pastry lore.

After all, who wouldn’t be awed by the opportunity to choose from various homemade desserts, instead of just one. Our authority will instantly grow into domains that are overshadowed only by favorite grandmothers, and our influence in our social circles will be felt for years to come.

Give people food and they’ll love; give people choice and they will do as they are told.

There are no rules of how the buns should look like though, and the square shape is just the unintended result of the rolls being placed a bit too close to each other in a rectangle shaped baking tray. If we leave enough space between the rolls, they’ll have room enough to grow and they won’t touch each other during the raising process.

Some like the crust that is being created by the oven’s hot air which has direct contact with the surface of the dough, others prefer the softness of the closed dough. There is no good or bad method here only preference of crustiness over softness or vice-versa.

The best thing of all that we can easily make one tray of both and offer the illusion of choice to anyone who’s love is up for grabbing a mouthful of joy.

Ingredients

(makes 34 from 2 dough)

Dough

(makes 2 dough)

1 tablespoon / 5g Fresh yeast
1 cup / 250g Milk
5 cups / 600g Flour
3 medium / 150g Eggs
4 tablespoons / 50g Butter

Filling

(for 2 dough)

2 sticks / 200g Butter (room temperature)
2 tablespoons / 10g Cinnamon (ground)
3 tablespoons / 60g Honey or sweetener of choice
2 oz / 50g Raisins

Topping

1 medium / 30g Egg white
2 tablespoons / 30g Water
Honey or sweetener of choice to taste (optional)
½ teaspoon / 2.5g Vanilla extract

How to make Chelsea bun

Dough

Measure flour, eggs, butter and milk into a large bowl. Sprinkle yeast on top. Knead the mixture until a soft dough forms.
Cover top with the lid or a plastic wrap and place in a 68°F – 81°F /20°C – 27°C spot until it doubles for about 60 -90 minutes. Check out how to bake with fresh yeast.

Filling

With and electric whisk, cream butter, sweetener and cinnamon. Divide the filling by the number of dough we make.

Assembly

Halve the dough.
Roll one of the dough out on a mildly floured surface to ⅛” / 3mm thick, 17″ x 12″ / 45cm x 30cm rectangle. Flouring underneath the dough is important otherwise the dough will stick down and we can’t roll it up nicely.
Spread the buttery cinnamon filling on top.
Sprinkle raisins on top then roll the dough up. We may need to use a spatula to pry the dough up. Sprinkle flour under and over the spatula to make it easier to slide between the dough and the worktop.
Cut crosswise into 1″ / 2cm wide pieces. (Clean knife after each slice to make it easier to cut.)
Place the pieces onto a parchment lined baking tray. Chelsea buns can touch each other so don’t need to leave big gaps between them.
Cover and at a 68°F – 81°F /20°C – 27°C spot let them rise for 45 – 60 minutes. Do the same with the other dough.
Once they doubled, whisk egg whites with water, optional honey or sweetener of choice and vanilla then brush the Chelsea buns.
Bake the Chelsea buns in a preheated 350°F / 180°C oven until golden brown, about 25 minutes.