Christmas Spiced Buns

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 2 organic eggs
• 100 g coconut sugar
• 1 teaspoon Chai spice mix
• 25 g honey
• 80 g finely chopped candied yuzu and iyokan
• 90 g sunflower seeds
• 100 g all-purpose flour (T55)
• 50 g rye flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  OR
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 50 g powdered sugar
• Lemon juice
• Royal icing

🍳Preparation:

The Dough:

1. Grind 45 g of sunflower seeds into a fine powder and coarsely crush the remaining seeds.
2. Whisk the eggs and coconut sugar until pale and frothy.
3. Add the finely chopped candied citrus zest, warmed honey, the crushed and powdered sunflower seeds, the Chai spice mix, the flours, and the baking soda or baking powder.
4. You will get a sticky dough. Let it rest in the fridge for 4 hours to ferment.

Before Baking:

1. Use a disposable piping bag or latex gloves lightly oiled with neutral oil (e.g., canola, sunflower) if you don't have a piping bag.
2. Either:
   • Fill the piping bag fitted with a large round tip (or just cut the end off) and pipe small mounds (the size of a walnut) onto parchment-lined baking sheets.
     OR
   • Form small balls of dough (the size of a walnut) with your oiled gloves and place them spaced apart on parchment-lined baking sheets.
3. Let the dough balls dry overnight at room temperature.

Baking:

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C (320°F) and bake the biscuits for about 10 minutes.
2. While the biscuits bake, prepare the royal icing by mixing lemon juice with powdered sugar in a bowl until you achieve a smooth, creamy consistency.
3. Remove the biscuits from the oven and let them cool completely.
4. Dip the tops of the biscuits into the royal icing one by one, then place them on a tray and let them dry for 15 minutes before serving with tea or hot chocolate.

Recipe by Philippe, Chef at The Popote