Fig & Honey Mascarpone Cardamom Buns

If there's one fruit that every year I wait for with baited breath to come into season, its figs. They’re not only in my top 3 favourite fruits, but they also signal the beginning of my favourite time of the year. The autumn months are when I feel excited for the festivities and cosy evenings to come. They're short season makes it even more important to celebrate them.

I've put together my dream pastry. Its a cardamom milk bun, rolled in sugar and filled with fig jam and a honey mascarpone cream. I honestly couldn’t think of anything better than hunkering down with one of these and a hot coffee as the days turn colder.

The fig jam recipe is a hybrid between jam and compote. The recipe will make you two jars but you'll only need one for the buns, so you have plenty to spread on your toast or dollop into a creamy yoghurt. Its full of flavour and just sweet enough to enhance the fig.

Milk buns are my go to recipe for a dough that is enriched with butter and milk but doesn’t feel heavy. I added freshly ground cardamom into the dough for a lovely earthy warmth.

The honey mascarpone cream is so dreamy. It’s rich from the mascarpone and being only sweetened with honey, the flavour carries through really well and marries with the sweet figs perfectly.

So, if you’re like me and cant wait to see the first peak of purple figs adorning the supermarket shelves; I highly recommend spending your weekend creating a batch of these fig & honey mascarpone cardamom buns to share with the other fig lovers in your life. 

Ingredients - Makes 8
Please note: the fig jam recipe makes more than you’ll need for the buns as it’s difficult to make such a small batch of jam. Any leftover can be spread on toast or enjoyed with yoghurt.
Milk Bun Dough:
Tangzhong:
25g strong flour
55ml whole milk
55ml water
Dough:
340g strong flour
7g active dried yeast
25g caster sugar
5g salt
8 x crushed cardamom pods (or 1/2 tsp ground cardamom)
1 egg
100ml whole milk
55g unsalted butter, room temp
1 egg, to egg wash
milk, to brush after baking
caster sugar, to dip after baking

Fig Jam:
530g fresh figs, tops cut off and quartered (plus 3-4 figs to garnish)
180g caster sugar
50ml fresh orange juice
70ml water

Honey Mascarpone Cream:
600ml double cream
150g mascarpone
120g runny honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method
The day before
For the milk bun dough; you’re going to start with the Tangzhong. Place all the Tangzhong ingredients into a saucepan over low heat. Stir everything together and continue to cook until a paste has formed. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Into the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a dough hook, place all of the milk bun dough ingredients apart from the butter. Add in the cooled Tangzhong. Mix on medium speed until the dough has come together. Continue to knead on medium-high for 5 minutes. The dough should be smooth and elastic. On low speed, gradually add in the butter a few small pieces at a time. Once all the butter has been added, scrape down the bowl if needed and knead on medium-high for 5-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and slapping the sides of the bowl.

Shape the dough into a ball and transfer it to a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave to prove for 1 hour at room temperature or until doubled in size. Knock back the dough, recover and refrigerate overnight.

For the fig jam; toss the quartered figs with the sugar and leave to sit for 1 hour or up to overnight. Place the figs and sugar into a saucepan and simmer on medium-low for 15-20 minutes until the sugar has dissolved. Add the orange juice and water. Simmer for a further 20 minutes. Once the figs are softened, blend them into a puree using a hand blender. You can also use a food processor, just let the jam cool a little before blending. Pour the jam into sterilised jars and cool at room temperature before refrigerating.

The next day
Prepare two baking trays lined with baking paper. Take the dough from the fridge and tip it out onto a lightly floured surface. Weigh the dough and divide it into eight equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and put onto your prepared baking trays. Make sure they are well spaced apart as they will grow a lot during proving and baking. Cover and leave to prove for 40 minutes - 1hour, at room temperature, or until doubled in size.

When the buns are nearly proved, pre-heat the oven to 170°C. Once the oven is preheated, gently brush each bun with beaten egg and bake for 15-18 minutes. They should be golden brown. Leave to cool.

Once the buns have cooled, you can make the honey mascarpone cream. Place all of the ingredients into a bowl and whisk to soft peaks. Place the cream into a piping bag fitted with a medium-sized plain nozzle (I used a no.13 size nozzle.) Fill another piping bag with some of the fig jam. Put some caster sugar into a bowl; brush the buns with a little milk, and then dip the top of each into the sugar. Poke a hole in the top of each bun and fill it about 3/4 full with the cream, leaving some space for the fig jam. Pipe in the fig jam. Using the cream, pipe a flower on top (or any design you like) and scoop a hole in the middle using the back of a spoon. Pipe fig jam into the hole and garnish with fig segments.