Apple, Date and Cardamom Buns

On to the second in my trilogy, and my favourite. Apple, date and cardamom buns. I love the sweet/sour taste of cooking apples so decided to add them to my bun recipe. Cardamom is a seriously underrated spice with a fragrant kick. These are perfect for rainy nights in London.

Ingredients

60g chopped dates

140g cubed Bramley apple (sprinkled with lemon juice and caster sugar)

2 tbsp dark muscavado sugar

1 tbsp mollasses sugar

1 cinnamon stick

300ml almond milk

1 beaten egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

55g butter 

1 tsp Cardamom

pinch of salt

10 wheatgerm

250g Spelt flour

300g Strong white flour

11/2 tsp fast rising yeast

Glaze

250ml cider

1/4 tsp ginger

3 tbsp apricot jam

Directions

**1**

Gently heat the almond milk, sugar, cinnamon stick and vanilla. Turn the heat off once the sugar has dissolved. Meanwhile rub the butter into the flour and wheatgerm in a large bowl, adding the cardamom and salt.

**2**

Add the yeast to the cooling milk and pour into the flour bowl. Add the egg and mix lightly with your hands - keep the four handy incase you need more. Kneed energetically for ten minutes then add the chopped apple and date and kneed until incorporated into the dough. Leave the dough to rise in a warm place covered by a wet tea cloth for 1 hour.

**3**

Knock the dough down by patting it lightly, then tear off small (between a golf and tennis ball) pieces and shape into rough buns before laying them out onto greaseproof paper. Leave in a warm place for 1 hour. Meanwhile put the glaze ingredients into a pan and reduce until syrup thick. 

**4**

Glaze the buns with a brush and bake for around 14-16 mins (until golden) at 190 degrees centigrade. Re-glaze the buns and allow them to cool. Serve sliced in half with butter.