Iced Buns / Fingers

These iced buns make the perfect afternoon treat. Beautifully fluffy sweet bread covered with lemon glacé icing. These iced buns can be made in advance and filled when serving, or enjoy as they are.

Hello friends? How was your weekend? I hope it was good?

Unfortunately for us, we’re having a hard time of things lately. Do you ever feel like sometimes you’re cursed because it just seems it’s one thing after another?

Well that’s us lately. Le sigh.

Earlier in March this year the giant man-baby bought a gently used van. We did all we could our end to ensure the vehicle itself was legit. We paid for a HPI check; where they check the registration number against a database to ensure it isn’t stolen or has remaining credit on it. Everything came back clear.

When the giant man-baby went to collect the van the current owner had the documents for the vehicle including 3 previous MoT test certificates and general previous history papers you’d get with a gently used cars/vans.

All had been fine, but trying to register the vehicle in his name with the DVLA had proved somewhat difficult. They asked for the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) twice, then asked us to send photos in of the VIN number. It seemed a bit odd, but we didn’t think much of it. I thought it might’ve been someone who couldn’t read the giant man-baby’s handwriting!

On Saturday morning two traffic police officers turned up at our door. They said the DVLA has asked them to check the vehicle. We started to worry, but did as they asked. Soon after, a mobile police vehicle ID van turned up, and it turns out that the van we paid around £5,000 (around $10,000) had been previously stolen then sold onto us.

The officer himself said that the criminals are so good at faking the documents that he himself had been in the same situation a few years back. If they can fool a traffic police officer that checks these cars and vans on a daily basis, what hope do we have?!

They’ve taken the van and all the documents away for further inspection and will be running fingerprint tests on everything. But as the documents and everything were faked, we’ve lost the van and everything we’ve paid for it. It’s absolutely disgusting that these criminals prey on people like this!

What’s worse is that we’re still paying for the van as we took out a loan to purchase it, and for what? An empty space on the driveway? There’s nothing we can do neither. I want to throw up!

But instead of wallowing in self-pity, I decided to head to the kitchen and take my mind off the impending hell that was unfolding before us…

I make some of these sweet, sticky iced buns instead. Iced buns (aka. iced fingers) are the perfect afternoon treat. Enjoy this deliciously fluffy iced sweet bread on its own, or fill with whipped cream and jam. The perfect partner to a nice cup of tea too.

Iced buns are so retro. I remember heading to the deli each week with my well earned paper-round wages and indulging in a sticky-fingered iced bun. Definitely worth shoving a gazillion papers through letterboxes, and almost losing my hands to postman/papergirl-hating dogs!

I hate posting anything negative, but sometimes life hands us lemons, and in our case blooming catering sized crates of lemons. Anyone for lemon meringue pie? 🙂

Has anything like this ever happened to you?

Print Recipe

Iced Buns Recipe

Prep Time: 2 hours

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Yield: 12 minutes

These iced buns make the perfect afternoon treat. Beautifully fluffy sweet bread covered with lemon glacé icing. These iced buns can be made in advance and filled when serving, or enjoy as they are.

Ingredients:

FOR THE DOUGH

• 500g (1lb 2 oz) strong bread flour
• 50g (1¾ oz) caster (superfine) sugar
• 40g (1½ oz) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 2x 7g (¼ oz) sachets instant yeast
• 150ml (5fl oz) warm milk
• 140ml (4½fl oz) water

FOR THE ICING

• 200g (7 oz) icing (confectioners’) sugar, sifted
• 5 tsp lemon juice

FOR THE FILLING

• 200ml (7fl oz) double (heavy) cream
• 100g (4 oz) strawberry jam
• icing (confectioners’) sugar, for dusting (optional)

Directions:

1. Line 2 large baking trays with parchment paper or silicone baking mats, set aside.
2. To make the dough, add all of the dough ingredients in a large bowl, holding back a quarter of the water. Stir with your hands or use a dough hook on low, then add the remaining water to form a dough and knead in the bowl for around 4 minutes.
3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for around 10 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with a damp towel and leave to rise in a warm environment for one hour.
4. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces, then roll into a ball and form into fingers around 13cm/5inches long.
5. Place the dough buns onto the prepared baking trays, 6 per tray, allowing room for the buns to double in size, then set aside in a warm place for 40 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas Mark 7.
6. Bake for 10 minutes, and allow to cool in the tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. For the glacé icing, sift the icing sugar into a large bowl then gradually add around 5 teaspoons of lemon juice to form a thick paste.
8. Either spoon or dip the top of the fingers into the icing, to ice the top of the buns. I spooned the icing on and used a palette knife to spread the icing. Allow the icing to set before serving.
9. Optional: Before serving, slice the buns horizontally and pipe a generous amount of whipped cream into each bun, followed by a thinner layer of jam. Dust the buns with icing sugar if required and serve immediately.

Paul Hollywood (aka the Bread master) from The Great British Bake Off

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