Nutella yeast buns

Perfect yeast buns for brunch or afternoon tea, with beautifully twisted Nutella filling. Soft, delicate and lightly glazed. I’m sure you’ll enjoy coming back to this recipe again and again – I promise!

Makes 13.

Ingredients for the yeast dough:

• 540 g strong white bread flour
• 80 g caster sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 10 g dried yeast or 20 g fresh yeast
• 75 g butter, melted
• 250 ml milk
• 2 large eggs

Additionally:

• Nutella – 1 small 400 g jar, not all will be used
• 1 egg, beaten with 1 tbsp milk, for brushing

Mix the flour with the dried yeast (if using fresh yeast, make a yeast starter first). Add the remaining ingredients and knead the dough, adding the melted butter towards the end. Knead until the dough is soft and elastic. Place it in a lightly floured bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place until doubled in size (about 1½ hours).

Warm the Nutella briefly in the microwave – it will become softer and easier to spread.

Knead the risen dough briefly and divide it into 13 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball. Roll each ball into a round and spread with 1 heaped tablespoon of Nutella. Roll it up tightly. Cut the roll lengthways in half with a sharp knife, leaving about 1 cm uncut at the top. Twist the two pieces together and join the ends. Roll the twisted dough into a spiral and tuck the end underneath the bun. Place the buns on a baking tray greased with butter and dusted with flour, or lined with baking paper. Cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place for about 30–40 minutes, until they rise again. Brush with the beaten egg and milk.

Bake the buns in an oven preheated to 180°C for about 18–20 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly. Ice the buns while still warm.

Ingredients for the icing:

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 3 tbsp boiling water

Mix the icing sugar with the boiling water using the back of a spoon or a mixer. If the icing is too thick, add a little more water. If it is too thin, add more icing sugar.

Method for bread machine users:

Place all the yeast dough ingredients into the bread machine in the following order: liquid ingredients first, then dry ingredients, and finally the yeast. Select the ‘dough’ programme (kneading and first rise). Once the programme has finished, remove the dough, knead it lightly, and continue according to the main recipe above.

Enjoy!