Buns, Bath
INGREDIENTS for 1 dozen buns.-1¼ lb. of flour, 4 eggs, 1 oz. of German yeast, 1/4 lb. of butter, 1/4 lb. of sugar, 2 oz. of candied peel, some caraway comfits.
AVERAGE COST, 18.
Dissolve the yeast in 4 tablespoonfuls of water and mix it with the yolks of the eggs, 3 of the whites, and 1/4 lb. of flour.
Beat the mixture in a bowl and set it before the fire to rise. Rub the butter with the flour, add the peel sliced (reserv- BUNS, HOT CROSS. ing a few strips for the tops of the buns, and a few comfits). When the sponge has risen sufficiently, mix all together, and set to rise again with a cloth thrown over.
Form the buns, brush them over with the remaining white of egg, ornament them with the peel and a few comfits, and bake in a quick oven.
TIME to bake, 1/2 hour.
A Victorian enriched yeast dough built in two stages, closer to a light brioche than to the sticky sugar-topped bun sold in Bath today. The flour quantity as printed is unusable and has to be judged against the rest of the list.
- The flour figure"14 lb. of flour" cannot be right for a dozen buns with 1/4 lb each of butter and sugar and four eggs. The printed figure is almost certainly a mangled 1 1/4 lb.; read it as 1 to 1 1/4 lb., of which 1/4 lb. goes into the initial sponge and the remainder is rubbed with the butter.
- German yeastFresh compressed baker's yeast. One ounce is about 28 g; substitute roughly 1/3 oz (9-10 g) of instant dried yeast, or a 25 g block of fresh yeast if you can get it. The four tablespoonfuls of water should be lukewarm, not hot.
- Caraway comfitsCaraway seeds coated in hard white sugar, a common confectioner's line in the period and hard to find now. Sugar nibs or crushed sugar cubes give the look; a scant teaspoon of caraway seed worked into the dough gives the flavour. Modern Bath buns generally omit the caraway.
- The spongeYeast, egg yolks, three whites and a quarter of the flour make a very loose batter. "Set it before the fire" means a warm spot rather than any fixed temperature; expect 30-45 minutes until it is domed and bubbling. Reserve the fourth white for the glaze.
- A quick ovenGenerally taken as somewhere in the 400-450F range. Half an hour at that heat will scorch buns this rich and this small. Fifteen to eighteen minutes is closer to the mark, or bake at 400F for about 20 minutes and cover with foil if the peel starts to darken.
- Second riseThe cloth over the dough is there to stop a skin forming, which matters more with a butter-heavy dough. Shape the buns after this rise and give them a short prove on the tray before they go in, or they bake dense.
- Average cost"1s." - one shilling for the dozen, a Victorian price note rather than an ingredient.
- YieldTwelve buns of about 3 oz each. Best eaten the day they are made; the crumb stales quickly.
Bath buns take their name from the spa city, where a rich sweet bread was being sold to visitors by the later eighteenth century; the invention is often credited to Dr William Oliver, the Bath physician behind the Bath Oliver biscuit, though that attribution is traditional rather than documented. The Victorian version recorded here is a sponge-and-dough bun studded with candied peel and caraway comfits - the sugared seeds that turn up all over English baking of the period, from seed cake to Shrewsbury biscuits. The crushed-sugar topping and the plainer, sweeter bun most people now recognise came later. Mrs Beeton's book gives Bath buns alongside hot cross buns and a run of other yeast-raised teacakes.