BREADMAKER INSTRUCTIONS:
Place all ingredients in breadmaker and set for dough only. When ready, punch down, knead lightly and shape into 12 balls. Flatten each ball slightly, put a good dollop of jam in the centre, pull the edges together and seal by pinching firmly with your fingers. Place, sealed side down, on greased oven tray, with plenty of room between to allow for rising. If you have a convection or fan-assisted oven it might be an idea to use two trays. Prove for 20 minutes. Heat oven to about 200° C (450° F) or, if yours is a convection or fan-assisted oven, whatever the manufacturer recommends, and bake for 10-15 minutes. (I often find this is sufficient cooking, but ovens do vary.) Turn off oven and leave another 10 minutes or so if they are still not brown enough. You want them well browned. If you want mock doughnuts, brush top and bottom with butter while still hot and roll in sugar. Otherwise let the buns cool before splitting and filling with unsweetened and unflavoured cream and dusting with icing sugar. These buns aren’t particularly sweet, despite the third of a cup of sugar, so more jam can be added if liked. Or mock cream could be used in place of real cream. Recipes for mock cream usually contain sugar. If you want to eat them hot (which is how they taste best) let them cool a little first. Hot jam can burn ferociously.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR PREPARING BY HAND:
Gently melt the butter. Sift flour, add sugar, salt and yeast. Pour butter into the dry ingredients slowly, all the while stirring with a wire whisk, until the mixture looks like fine crumbs. (This is my lazy way of rubbing the butter into the flour.) Add the warm water and warm milk and mix into a soft dough. Knead for about eight minutes (or use your cake mixer if it has a dough hook). Place in a bowl (you can oil it if you like but I find this too much trouble) and leave, covered, in a warm, draught-free place until doubled in bulk. Punch down and knead again for about four minutes. From here follow the rest of the instructions for preparing in a breadmaker. The more you knead, the better bread products turn out. As an indication, it takes most breadmakers about an hour and a half to mix, knead and rise a dough to be cooked outside the breadmaker.