Apple Strudel Chelsea Buns
You can’t tell me this isn’t a great idea! Apple strudel & custard all wrapped in a soft and pillow-y Brioche bun. I’m not going to lie, my husband and I may have eaten the whole tray of these to ourselves.
Yield: 12
Time: 3hours
Ingredients
Dough
4tsp Yeast
450g Strong flour
150mL water (cold)
150mL milk (cold)
1 egg
50g butter, diced into small pieces (cold)
Pastry Cream Layer
250mL Milk
1tsp vanilla essence
55g Caster sugar
40g Egg yolks (Yolk of 2 large eggs)
25g Corn flour
10g Butter
Filling
2 Apples, grated
1/4 c brown sugar
1 cup sultanas, soaked for 1 hour in warm water
Sugar Syrup (Optional)
50g caster sugar
50ml Water
Method
Dough
Place yeast, flour, milk and water (in that order) into a stand mixer with the hook attachment. Mix on low speed for 5 minutes until ingredients have started coming together. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Increase the mixing speed to medium for 5 minutes. Stopping to scrape down the sides when needed.
Add egg, continuing at medium speed. Once the egg is combined, add butter in small amounts (approx 4-5 additions total). Wait for all the butter to be incorporated before adding the next lot.
How to know when to stop mixing:
Take a piece of the dough (a ball approx. 3 cm in diameter). Slowly stretch the dough out from the centre. The aim is to get the dough as thin as possible - this is called the ‘windowspan’. If the dough looks smooth/slightly shiny and see through you are ready. If the dough gets a hole while you’re gently stretching it, or looks matte and streaky, it’s not ready. Mix again for 2 mins and check the windowspan again.
Once you have the see-though windowpane, place the dough in a lightly greased bowl. Cover with a damp clean cloth or clingwrap and place somewhere warm (25-28°C is ideal, but not higher as the butter will begin to melt). Allow to double in size.
Meanwhile, make the pastry cream and apple filling.
Pastry Cream
Bring milk and vanilla just to the boil.
While milk is heating, whisk the egg yolks, corn flour and sugar together. Make sure to whisk in the yolks as soon as you add the sugar to avoid the egg yolks ‘curing’. (Technically, if you leave yolks still in sugar the sugar will start curing them.)
Once milk is hot, quickly whisk 1/3 of it to the egg mixture. Followed by the second third. When fully incorporated, return back to the milk pan, onto a low heat, stirring constantly.
Over a low heat continue stirring (It can be easier to switch to a spatula as it is coming to the boil.) until the mixture begins to thicken and gently boils. Continue stirring while boiling for 1 minute.
Remove from the heat and add butter.
Pour into a clean bowl and cover with clingwrap and cool (clingwrap touching the surface of the pastry cream to stop a skin from forming).
Apple Filling
Soak sultanas for 1 hour.
Drain sultanas from water.
Combine grated apples, brown sugar and sultanas in a bowl
Putting it all together
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured bench to approx 20cm x 40cm.
Whisk up the cold pastry cream until just smooth. Spread over the dough, leaving 1 inch without filling along the 40cm edge.
Sprinkle apple, sultana mixture over the pastry cream. If the apple mixture has let out a lot of liquid then drain most of it off first.
Roll up the dough starting with the long side that has filling up to the edge. Give a gentle stretch to the dough as you’re rolling. When you reach the inch without filling, give a gentle stretch and stick the end of the dough to the roll.
Cut the roll into 12 slices. Place on a lined baking tray open side of the roll facing upwards.
Cover and place in a warm location until almost doubled in size (aprox 20-30mins). When you press on the dough the indent from your finger should gently spring back.
Preheat oven to 180°C bake
Bake for 25-30mins until lightly brown. If you have a probe thermometer the internal temperature of the bread should ready 93-95°C. Meanwhile, boil sugar and water together until sugar has dissolved.
Once baked, remove from the oven and baste with sugar syrup. Leave to cool for 10 mins in pan.
Remove from pan and let cool on a wire rack.
Icing
Combine icing sugar and water.
Drizzle over cooled chelsea buns.