Nadiya Hussain’s Mocha Swirls
Nadiya Hussain's easy recipe for chocolate, coffee and vanilla buns with sticky coffee icing, as seen on her BBC series, Nadiya's Family Favourites, are a delicious breakfast treat or perfect with your afternoon tea.
From the book
Nadiya’s Family Favourites
Tasty midweek meal ideas
Easy ideas to feed a crowd
Showstopping cakes and bakes
Introduction
It's almost as easy to make these as it is to buy them from that well-known Swedish furniture store that drains the life from your feet! Very like cinnamon swirls, but with coffee and chocolate instead, mine are topped with a sticky espresso icing. I’m a tea drinker – I have tried to drink coffee, but it never ends well. Put coffee in a sweet pastry, however, and I’m good to go!
Ingredients
| For the filling: | |
| 1 tbsp | unsalted butter, melted |
| 2 tsp | cocoa powder |
| 2 tsp | instant espresso powder (or coffee granules) |
| 65g | soft brown sugar |
| 100g | dark chocolate, finely chopped (or chocolate chips) |
| For the dough: | |
| 450g | self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting |
| ¼ tsp | salt |
| 2 tbsp | caster sugar |
| 100g | unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing |
| 1 tsp | vanilla bean paste |
| 2 | medium egg yolks |
| 200ml | whole milk, plus extra for glazing |
| For the icing: | |
| 2 tbsp | boiling water |
| 2 tsp | instant espresso powder (or coffee granules) |
| 1 tbsp | unsalted butter, softened |
| 2 tbsp | full-fat cream cheese |
| 125g | icing sugar, sifted |
Essential kit
You will need: a 20cm round loose-bottomed cake tin.
Method
Make the filling first by mixing together the melted butter, cocoa, espresso powder, brown sugar and chocolate.
Grease a 20cm round loose-bottomed cake tin. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas mark 4.
Put the self-raising flour, salt and sugar into a bowl and give it a quick mix. Put the melted butter, vanilla paste, egg yolks and milk into a smaller bowl, and whisk until combined.
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Use a palette knife to mix it all in, then get your hands in and bring everything together until you have a smooth dough.
Throw a little flour on a work surface and roll out the dough to a rectangle about 30 x 25cm. Spread the filling evenly all over the dough, right to the edges. Then roll the dough up, starting from the long edge of the rectangle.
Cut the roll into 9 equal pieces and turn them on to their sides so you can see those beautiful swirls. Using the chubby part of your hands, give each a little push – this will encourage the rolls to stick together and reduce gaps. Place them on their sides in the prepared tin, making sure those swirls are on show. Brush with milk and bake for 30–35 minutes. They are ready when golden on top and the rolls are coming away from one another.
Leave to cool completely in the tin. This will help the icing to set better on top and not simply run off. You can eat these warm, but be warned, you will chase the icing, (which is not an awful thing, I suppose).
Make the icing by mixing together the boiling water and espresso powder. Give the mixture a few minutes to cool, then add the butter, cream cheese and icing sugar and mix until you have a thick coffee-flavoured icing. Drizzle the icing all over the top of the cooled swirls.
Take the swirls out of the tin and they are ready to serve. Now it’s a case of identifying the biggest one and trying to tear it out of the bundle as politely as possible!
