Warming cardamom plus golden apricots equal autumn in a bun

Makes 10

300ml milk
40g butter
500g strong white flour
1 tsp salt
7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
1 egg, beaten
20 cardamom pods
60ml runny honey
250g dried apricots, chopped
100g almonds, roughly chopped For the glaze
2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp caster sugar

For the icing
2 tbsp icing sugar

1 Gently warm the milk and butter in a pan until the butter has melted. Set aside to cool a little. Put the flour, salt and yeast in a bowl. Pour in the warm milk mixture and beaten egg, and mix to a dough with your hands.

2 Start kneading in the bowl to bring the dough together, then transfer to a floured surface and knead for a further 5–10 minutes. Return the dough to the bowl and set aside to rise for 20 minutes.

3 Knead the dough again briefly in the bowl to knock it back to its original size, then tip it onto a floured surface. Stretch and push it into a rectangle, pulling and pushing until the dough is about 1cm thick all over.

4 Using a pestle and mortar, lightly bash the cardamom pods until they crack and release the seeds. Remove the papery cases and grind the seeds to a powder.

5 Turn the rectangle so the long edges lie widthways. Drizzle honey over the rectangle of dough, then sprinkle over the cardamom, apricots and almonds evenly.

6 Put both hands at the bottom of the longer side and roll away from you. Cut the roll into ten even pieces with a sharp knife, and place on a baking tray, space a little apart. Cover with
a tea towel and leave to rise for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 190C/Fan 170C/375F. Bake the buns for 20–25 minutes, until golden brown.

7 Meanwhile, make the glaze by heating the milk and sugar in a pan until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is starting to bubble. Paint the buns with the glaze as soon as they come out of the oven, then leave to cool.

8 To make the icing, mix the icing sugar with 1 tbsp water. Drizzle over the cooled buns and tear apart to eat.

For the rest of our afternoon tea menu – including Lapsang souchong tea bread, Crumpets, Smoked cheddar and chocolate stout rarebits, Coffee and walnut cake, and Orange and lemon battenberg – turn to page 24 of November's The Simple Things.