I love beer, baking with it and drinking the stuff. It goes well with a host of cuisines and with so many breweries across the UK, there’s a wealth of beer styles to choose from. Expedia have teamed up with Melissa Cole to bring you an interactive map covering the UK & Ireland’s Best Regional Breweries and places to stay when you visit.
St Austell Brewery is based in Cornwall and they have a lovely light citrussy Cornish IPA called Proper Job, that is easily drinkable on its own, but it would go well with a curry or some fish and chips. I used the citrus notes in this beer to make delicious Cornish Saffron Buns. The raisins in the recipe are soaked in Proper Job and then more beer is used in the dough. After baking, the beer really sweetens the buns and imparts a lovely flavour.
I absolutely love Cornwall and I don’t visit anywhere near as often as I’d like, it’s quite a long way from Oxford, but well worth the trip. St Austell is a great destination and there is so much to do in the area, not to mention to eat, like lots of scones with clotted cream, pasties, fish and chips and of course Cornish Saffron Buns.
Saffron buns were historically made for special occasions like anniversary feasts, nowadays they can be found in lots of bakeries all year round. They can be individual buns or one large loaf. Here I shaped all of mine into rounds, but baked them so they were more like a tear apart loaf.
Beer really works in baking and these buns would be a great alternative to Hot Cross Buns this Easter. These buns don’t have a very long proving time, so they are a really easy bake, a nice touch is to glaze the warm buns with a sugar solution as soon as they come out of the oven. See the recipe below.
Proper Job Cornish Saffron Buns
Ingredients
- 220 g Raisins
- 100 ml Proper Job
- 575 g Strong White Bread Flour
- 60 g Caster Sugar
- 120 g Lard/Trex/Butter
- 7 g Fast Action Yeast
- 275 g Proper Job
- Large pinch of saffron
- Butter for greasing
- To glaze:
- 2 Tbsp Caster Sugar
- 2 Tbsp Boiling Water
Instructions
- Take the raisins and place them in a bowl, pour over the beer and stir to combine. Cover the raisins with clingfilm and leave them to soak.
- Dissolve the saffron strands in a tablespoon of boiling water and set to one side to cool.
- Put the flour, caster sugar, lard and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer. Combine the ingredients using the dough hook attached.
- Add the beer and saffron along with the liquid and mix until the dough has completely come together.
- Next take the raisins and drain off the liquid, put the drained raisins into the bowl and beat on low for 5 minutes until the raisins have been mixed into the dough.
- Continue to knead with the dough hook until it looks smooth and elastic.
- Place some clingfilm over the bowl and leave it to rest somewhere warm for 40 minutes.
- Take the risen dough from the bowl and divide it into 100g balls to make buns, shape the buns making sure any seams are on the bottom of the bun and place them on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper or in a 22cm cake tin, (if you want to cook them in two loaf tins, split the buns into 150g), that have been greased with butter and dusted with flour.
- Cover the tins and leave the buns to prove for 30 minutes or until they have risen by almost half.
- Preheat the oven to 170C Fan/190C and cook for 30 mins or until golden.
- Make the glaze by mixing the caster sugar with the boiling water and brush it over the warm buns.
- Leave the buns to cool, they are best eaten within 2 days, but you can split them, toast them and spread them with butter.
Use the Expedia UK & Ireland’s Best Regional Breweries Map to plan your next trip to Cornwall, you can even visit the St Austell Brewery, or try one of the many other great locations and breweries on the map.
Thanks for reading.
Angela
This post was sponsored by Expedia. All opinions expressed are my own.
Chantelle Colquhoun
Saffron buns are great for easter. We always used to have them at easter when we went on the tea treat! The churches used to organise a trip on the train to catbis bay where the kids would have fun on the beach and be searved a tea treat bun aka safron bun! I hope they still do it! I just made some for ” harmony day” in australia as my daughters kindy teacher wanted us to bring in our cultural bread to share with the students! No beer in mine though!
patisseriemakesperfect
Saffron buns are just lovely aren’t they? I have some saffron that a friend gave me which I need to use, I’m hoping to try another recipe though. I understand why you didn’t use beer.
I am glad these bring back memories for you.
MANDY LASHBROOK
Have lived in Cornwall all my life since being born in Redruth in 1964. I am ashamed to say I have never made saffron buns. These, though, are now definitely on my to do list 🙂
Jodie Dodd
I used to love making beer bread! These buns look delicious Angela, minus the raisins. 🙂 x
patisseriemakesperfect
Ah Jodie – for you, I’d remove the raisins 🙂 xx
choclette
ps, ale must be in the air. I’ve just posted a beer bake too!
patisseriemakesperfect
Ooh I’ll have to check it out. Thanks for letting me know.
choclette
What a brilliant idea to add some local beer to your Saffron buns. I might just have to try this. I too love Cornwall, but I guess that’s no surprise 🙂
patisseriemakesperfect
No surprise at all 🙂
These buns are really nice and sweet, the beer is so good when it’s baked. I’m craving them again already.
Kavey at Kavey Eats
We just came back from a long weekend in St Austell (or just outside it really) on Monday!! Lovely beer and yes we like to use beer in baking too. Love the look of these!
patisseriemakesperfect
What a coincidence, beer is such a great ingredient to bake with and to use in pies. It has such a wonderful distinctive flavour.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. x
Pretty
This is making me miss home! Will try making these for Easter but maybe with some German beer instead.
patisseriemakesperfect
German beer would be great, a hoppy lager or something similar with citrus flavours would work just as well.
Sorry for making you homesick, maybe the buns will help with that. x
Lizzie
The beer must really make these succulent! Brings back memories of our visit to the Minack theatre, they do a picnic tea with a saffron bun and a pasty.
patisseriemakesperfect
That sounds amazing, I am partial to a pasty 🙂
These are really sweet and moist from the beer, so, so good.
Platter Talk
Their texture appears to be a lot like hot cross buns plus I love the add on of beer.
patisseriemakesperfect
It’s really similar to a hot cross bun, but a little sweeter. They would be great toasted and spread with some salted butter. Mmmm.
Silvia
Oh my, these buns look divine!! I pinned this for later. Thanks for sharing it. 5 stars from me.
patisseriemakesperfect
Thanks Silvia, these are really good. If you make them, I really hope you enjoy them. x
Tina Dawson | Love is in my Tummy
You’re right! These would be awesome as Easter Buns! Ugh! I am drooling just at the thought!
patisseriemakesperfect
Make them! You won’t regret it!
kellie@foodtoglow
Angela, these are just lovely. I love Cornwall too and we always go for the local food options, including bakery visits to buy saffron buns. Your tweak is so good. And so are the gorgeous images
patisseriemakesperfect
Thank you Kellie – I’m so glad you like the pictures – aren’t saffron buns just amazing? I wish I was on holiday in Cornwall now! x