Cheese & marmite buns

This is my tear & share version of the delicious hot cross buns that used to be sold in Marks and Spencer.

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These buns have a real umami kick and, like hot cross buns, are at their best when split in half, toasted and eaten with butter. They will keep for a couple of days if wrapped up, but they can also be frozen.

It is probably worth saying that if you don’t like Marmite, you might not like these buns. That being said, the Marmite flavour is not “in your face”: I served one to a friend who claims to be in the “hate Marmite” camp, and he ended up wolfing down several!

A big shout out to the cheese here: a mixture of mature Cheddar and Red Leicester works particularly well. If you can get hold of smoked Cheddar, even better!

A very soft, enriched dough

This is an enriched dough with the cheese, butter, milk and egg yolk in there. As a result, you have a very soft and fairly sticky dough initially, but once the dough has proofed it will be easier to handle and shape.

It will still be slightly sticky when it comes to shaping, so lightly floured hands are the way to go when it comes to shaping them – that said, I have made these previously and simply taken a heaped tablespoon or the dough, dolloped it onto the tray and let them prove and then bake: they might have looked a touch rough on top, but they tasted great.

The high fat content means the gluten development in the flour is hindered, but it will develop enough to give you an effective dough structure ie) one that holds it shape enough. The fat content also means the dough will rise more slowly – but that is also fine as a slow rise always gives a better depth of flavour.

Baking from a cold oven

For enriched doughs such as this I have come around to the benefits of baking in a cold oven: the risen dough goes into a non-preheated oven and then the temperature is set. This doesn’t work for all bakes (cakes and some pastries, for example), but it is excellent for bread.

This approach is more energy efficient – especially for those of us who have been known to have preheated oven waiting empty for ages before we pop things into it!.

It also allows the dough to rise a little further: as the oven warms up, the yeast continues to multiply for a short while until the oven gets too hot and kills off the yeast.

Recipe: Cheese & Marmite buns – makes 12

For the main dough:

• 300g strong plain flour
• 5g caster sugar
• 5g instant yeast
• 50g Marmite
• 40g mature Cheddar, finely grated
• 60g Red Leicester, finely grated
• 1 rounded teaspoon made-up English mustard
• 30g unsalted butter, melted
• 1 egg yolk
• 150-160ml milk

To finish:

• 1 egg white
• 1 teaspoon made-up English mustard (or even warmed up Marmite), optional
• a sprinkling of seeds such as onion, poppy, sunflower…

(1) Put the dough ingredients into a bowl, starting with about 150ml of the milk, and mix together loosely. Add a splash more milk if there are any dry patches of flour.

(2) Knead for 10-15 minutes in a food mixer with the dough hook, with the setting on medium.

(3) Cover the bowl and leave to prove until about double in size. This could take several hours at room temperature because of the fat content in the dough, which slows down the fermentation of the yeast.

(4) Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and split into 12 equal pieces: you do not need to deflate the dough, it it is fine if you do. Shape each piece into a ball: this is easiest folding over the dough to the centre, rotating as you go and using minimal flour: but they do not need to look perfect.

(5) Place one in the centre of a circular baking tin lined with greaseproof. Place the others around this, a little apart. As the dough proves and expands, the balls will support each other. Alternatively, arrange in 3 rows of 4 in a lined rectangular tin.

(6) Cover – I normally pop a bin liner over the tray – and leave to prove until well risen and the dough balls are gently nudging into each other.

(7) Whisk the egg white with the mustard, if using. Brush all over the risen balls of dough.
NB: the mustard adds a lovely colour to the glaze when baked and also a very slight mustardy heat.

(8) Sprinkle over the seeds and place into the cold oven. Turn on the oven, setting the temperature to 190°C (fan) and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until golden-brown.

(9) Leave to cool in the tin.