Kitty and Al say: “Every Christmas the most disappointing present would be a panettone. It feels really Christmassy, it normally comes in a beautiful, big box, it looks like some strange fairy cake on steroids, but then you cut it open and it’s nearly always a stale, rather dry cake with an occasional mouthful of fruit. I was determined to capture the flavour I thought it should have. So I came up with these.”

Makes 12 buns

Ingredients

For the dough:

500g strong white bread flour
50g golden caster sugar
7g instant dried yeast (2 tsp or a whole sachet)
10g fine sea salt
Zest of 1 orange
2 eggs
1 egg yolk (save the white for the topping)
150ml warm whole milk
1 tbsp rum, brandy or amaretto (optional)
100g soft unsalted butter
100g raisins or dark chocolate chips
50g mixed peel
50g dried cranberries

For the topping:

40g ground almonds
70g caster sugar
1 egg white
A handful of flaked almonds
Icing sugar, for dusting (optional)

Method

First, make the dough. In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, yeast, salt and orange zest. Make a well in the flour and crack in the eggs and egg yolk, then add the milk and rum, brandy or amaretto, if using. Mix until there are no visible patches of dry flour. Spoon in the butter, raisins or chocolate chips, mixed peel and cranberries.

Next, knead the dough. We recommend using a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook as it’s a sticky dough. Mix for a good 8 to 10 minutes or until the dough comes clean away from the sides of the bowl. Leave in a warm place to prove for one and a half hours or in the fridge overnight (this’ll give it a much richer depth of flavour).

Tip your dough onto a lightly floured work surface and chop it into 12 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a little round and place on one or two baking trays lined with parchment paper, spacing them 5cm apart. Pop a damp tea towel over the top and prove in a warm, cosy place for at least two hours or until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan.

Meanwhile, make the topping. In a small bowl, whisk together the ground almonds, sugar and egg white. Brush a thick layer of the topping over your buns and then scatter the flaked almonds on top. (You can freeze any leftover topping for the next time you bake these buns.)

Bake in the hot oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden and crisp. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool. Dust with icing sugar, if you want.

Breadsong by Kitty & Al Tait (£20, Bloomsbury Publishing UK) is out now

Breadsong: 3 sweet baking recipes to make over the long weekend