Pistachio swirl buns

Pistachio swirl buns made with the best sweet yeast dough, the same dough I use for my famous cinnamon buns. Deliciously pistachio-rich, generously filled with nuts and finished with an orange glaze :). Instead of pistachio cream, you can use 100% pistachio paste for the filling, but remember to sweeten the filling if you do. They are green, spring-like, beautiful to look at and absolutely delicious!

Makes 12.

Ingredients for the sweet yeast dough:

• 540 g strong white bread flour
• 80 g caster sugar
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 10 g dried yeast or 20 g fresh yeast
• 75 g butter, melted
• 250 ml milk
• 2 large eggs

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

Roll the risen dough out into a 40 x 30 cm rectangle, lightly dusting the work surface and rolling pin with flour if necessary to prevent sticking. Spread the pistachio cream over the dough, sprinkle with the chopped pistachios and grate the orange zest evenly over the top. Roll the dough tightly along the longer side to form a long log. Using a sharp knife, cut into approximately 3–3.5 cm pieces, dividing the log into 12 equal portions. Arrange the buns in a 23 x 33 cm baking tin lined with baking paper. The buns will touch as they rise. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise again for about 30 minutes, until doubled in size.

Bake the risen pistachio buns in an oven preheated to 180°C for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly. While still slightly warm, drizzle with the orange glaze and sprinkle with ground pistachios.

Ingredients for the pistachio filling:

• 250 g pistachio cream
• 150 g pistachios, finely chopped
• finely grated zest of 1 orange

Ingredients for the orange glaze:

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 3 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice

Place the icing sugar and orange juice in a bowl and mix with the back of a spoon until smooth and lump-free. If the glaze is too thin, add a little more icing sugar; if it is too thick, add a little more orange juice and mix again.

To finish:

• ground pistachios, for sprinkling

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.

* Another useful trick is to use a piece of thread: place it underneath the rolled dough and pull the ends together to cut neatly through the dough.

Enjoy!