Toffee Date Swirls

The Great British Bake Off is back!!! Wahoo!! So get ready for lots and lots of GBBO themed bakes. But first I have a few bakes I've made in the past week, which I need to share with you :)

Now I love a cinnamon swirl - they were actually one of the first things I ever baked for my partner, meaning they hold a special place in my heart.

One annoyance I have found with cinnamon swirls, however, is that the dough is yeasted, meaning it takes a long time to make the finished buns. This is fine when I have time, but on a busy weekend, sometimes I want a quick baking fix.

These buns use self-raising flour to give the buns a nice rise, and I think a much more even rise. In total, they take about an hour from start to finish :)

I also went a bit off-piece with the filling to my swirls. I just adore sticky toffee pudding and thought why not use the elements of a sticky pudding as a filling. And so I blitzed up tea-soaked dates, brown sugar and spices, and ended up with a lovely toffee paste. This didn't ooze out of the buns whilst baking either, so the end buns look pretty neat :)

To finish, I brushed the tops of the buns with a cinnamon spiced sugar syrup, which gives a lovely extra note of flavour and keeps the buns from being dry.

This recipe makes 9 buns.

Ingredients:

For the buns:

• 450g (3 cups) self-raising flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 100g (7 tbsp) butter (or margarine)
• 200ml (3/4 cup + 1 tbsp) whole milk, plus 1-2 tbsp for brushing
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the filling:

• 200g (1 & 1/3 cups) dried dates, roughly chopped
• 60ml (4 tbsp) strongly brewed tea
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• pinch of salt
• 50g (1/4 cup) dark soft brown sugar

For the topping:

• 60ml (4 tsp) water
• 60g (1/3 cup) caster sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c (160c fan)/355f/gas mark 3. Grease the base of a 20cm square cake tin, and lightly dust with flour.

2. Make the filling by heating the tea until lightly simmering. Add the chopped dates and bicarbonate of soda and leave to soak for 10 minutes.

3. Pour the dates/tea mixture into a food processor and add the brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger and salt. Blitz until the paste is smooth.

4. Make the dough by sifting the flour into a large mixing bowl, and adding the caster sugar and salt.

5. In a separate jug, pour the melted butter, egg yolks, milk and vanilla extract. Briefly whisk. Pour over the flour/sugar/salt and beat until a smooth dough is formed.

6. Cover a work surface with cling-film and tip out the dough onto the lined surface. Cover with another layer of cling-film, then roll out until the dough is around 30cm x 20cm in size.

7. Spread over the filling evenly, leaving about 1cm around the border free from filling. Along one of the long edges, roll up the dough.

8. Cut into 9 even pieces, then gently transfer to the prepared cake tin. Lightly press down each swirl.

9.  Brush the top of each swirl with the reserved milk, then bake for around 30 minutes, until golden.

10. Around 5 minutes before the swirls have finished baking, prepare the topping by pouring the sugar, water and cinnamon into a saucepan and placing on a medium heat. Heat until the sugar has dissolved then simmer for around 3 minutes.

11. When the swirls have been removed from the oven, brush the sugar syrup over each roll, and leave to cool before eating.

12. Enjoy!