Devonshire Splits

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large mixing bowl
• •Stand mixer with dough hook (optional)
• •Baking tray lined with parchment
• •Clean tea towel
• •Pastry brush
• •Wire cooling rack

Instructions

1. 1

   Mix the dough

   Tip the flour into a large bowl. Put the salt on one side, the sugar and yeast on the other. Salt knocks back yeast if they meet directly, so keep them apart for a moment longer than feels necessary. Pour in the warm milk, the melted butter, the beaten egg, and the vanilla. Bring it together with your hands into a shaggy, slightly sticky dough. It will feel softer than a bread dough should. That's right. Don't be tempted to add more flour.

   The milk should feel just warm against the inside of your wrist, the temperature of a baby's bath. Hot milk kills the yeast. Cold milk slows it to a crawl.
2. 2

   Knead until smooth

   Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for ten minutes. It will go from sticky and ragged to smooth and supple, springing back when you press it with a finger. If you have a stand mixer with a dough hook, six or seven minutes on a low speed does the same job. Trust your hands either way. The dough is ready when it feels alive.

3. 3

   First rise

   Put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a clean tea towel, and leave somewhere warm to rise until doubled. An hour to an hour and a half, depending on the kitchen. The top of the boiler, near a sunny window, on top of the oven while something else is cooking. The dough decides, not the clock. Press a fingertip in and if the dent stays, it's ready.

4. 4

   Shape the buns

   Knock the dough back gently, no need to be aggressive about it. Divide into twelve equal pieces. A scale helps if you want them uniform; eyes do fine if you don't mind a bit of variation. Roll each piece into a smooth round by cupping your hand over it and circling on an unfloured patch of work surface. The friction tightens the skin. Place them on a parchment-lined baking tray, leaving a finger's width between each. They'll close the gap as they prove.

5. 5

   Second rise

   Cover loosely with the tea towel and leave to prove for forty-five minutes or so, until the buns are puffed and pillowy and just touching their neighbours. Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan. Brush the tops gently with a little melted butter. No egg wash here. You want them pale and soft, not glossy and golden.

6. 6

   Bake until pale gold

   Bake for twelve to fifteen minutes. They should be barely coloured, the colour of pale honey on top, paler still where they've kissed each other. The bottoms should sound hollow when you tap them. This isn't a crusty bread. It's a bun, and it should stay soft. Pull them out the moment the colour is right.

   If they take on too much colour they cross over into something else. A Devon split should look almost shy in the oven. Pale and proud.
7. 7

   Cool and dust

   Lift the whole sheet of buns onto a cooling rack and brush again with melted butter while they're still warm. The butter sinks into the tops and keeps them tender. Leave to cool completely. Dust generously with icing sugar. Generously means more than you think.

8. 8

   Split and fill

   Now the part that matters. Cut each bun at an angle, almost halfway through, so it opens like a book. Spoon a thick wedge of clotted cream into the cut first. Cream first. This is Devon, and Devon puts the cream on first. Then top the cream with a heaped spoon of jam. Strawberry, raspberry, whatever you've got that's good. A final dusting of icing sugar over the lot. Eat at once, with tea, with the kettle still warm and someone you like sitting opposite.

Chef Tips

• •Clotted cream is non-negotiable. Whipped double cream is pleasant but it isn't the same thing. Clotted cream has a thickness and a faintly cooked flavour that belongs in this bun the way butter belongs on toast. Roddas if you can get it, or any proper Devon or Cornish dairy.
• •The jam should taste of fruit, not sugar. A homemade strawberry jam from June, when the strawberries are ripe and sweet, is the ideal. If you're buying, look for one with the fruit listed first on the label and as little else as possible. Splits are simple enough that everything in them is exposed.
• •Don't bake them dark. A Devonshire split should be the colour of pale honey, almost shy on top. If they brown like a dinner roll, they've gone too far. Soft and pale is the whole point.
• •Eat them the day they're made. Yeasted buns like this don't keep, and a day-old split is a sad thing. If you have leftovers, split them, butter them, and toast them under the grill the next morning. Different pleasure, still good.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough can be made the night before and left to rise slowly in the fridge overnight. Bring back to room temperature for thirty minutes before shaping.
• •Bake the buns in the morning if you're serving them in the afternoon. They are at their best within four or five hours of leaving the oven.
• •Don't fill them until you're ready to eat. Cream and jam in a bun that's been sitting around go sad quickly. Split and fill at the table if you can.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 122g)