Fig, blackberry and fennel spelt soda bread buns

As promised back in one of my earlier posts about my first foray into competitive baking, here are the details of one of my more successful entries. I baked these for the flavoured bread category using a recipe from Ruby Tandoh, published in the Guardian's Cook supplement, adapting the original to suit my own tastes. I've made these a few times now and as well as being very easy and are also rather tasty indeed.

I swopped the suggested blueberries for the surplus seasonal fruit I had hanging around the house (with a keen gardening father, I have loads of red currants stashed in the freezer, as well as foraged blackberries) and I love the combination of figs and fennel (try it in a jam, divine, the fennel adds a aniseed savouriness that is perfect with these fruits). As well as being rather seasonal this fruity trio looks very pretty, all jewel shades of scarlet, mauve and violet and has a sharpness thats cuts through the sugar. These buns have become a favourite recipe, surely that says enough.

Fig, blackberry & fennel spelt soda bread buns

300g plain spelt flour
75g wholemeal plain spelt flour
125g golden castor sugar
1½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp fennel seeds
pinch of sea salt
50g poppy seeds
zest of 2 lemons
300ml buttermilk*
2-3 figs
100g frozen blackberries
200g frozen redcurrants
3-4 tbsp golden icing sugar
lemon juice

*the most commonly available brand of buttermilk comes in 284ml cartons, just rinse it out with a little water to make 300ml

Heat the oven to 180℃ and line two large baking trays with parchment. Mix together the flours, salt, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, poppy seeds, fennel seeds and lemon zest in a large bowl. Add 100g of the caster sugar, reserving 25g for later, mix well. Make a well in the centre of this mixture and pour in the buttermilk. Using your fingers pull together to make a light sticky dough. Flour a working surface and rolling pin and roll out to a rectangle shape about a 1cm thick and twice as long as it's wide, roughly 30cm by 15cm. Add the fruit and the remaining 25g caster sugar and press a little into the dough. Roll up long side to long side (carefully, it will be quite sticky), pressing the edges together to seal. Slice the roll in half and each half into six, so you have 12 rounds.

Place the rounds on the baking trays giving each enough room to rise and cook for 25-30 minutes until firm. The juice from the berries will leak out but don't worry (and don't resist the urge to dip a finger into these violet juices when removing from the oven either). Mix the icing sugar with enough of the lemon juice to make a pourable glaze and brush over the buns whilst still hot. Now the only thing left is to resist the urge to scoff at least three before putting the kettle on and revealing to anyone else in the house that the source of those lovely smells is now out of the oven.