Sally Lunns

Where does the name Sally Lunn come from? All the popular legends are variations on the story of Solange Luyon, a Huguenot girl who fled to Bath in the 18th century. She worked in a bakery and sold her buns on the street from a basket on her arm. When the baker discovered that Solange had a gift for baking light, luxurious brioche, he had her bake these buns and named them Sally Lunns. The first known recipe for these also comes from this century and appeared as a poem in 1796 in The Monthly Magazine.

In The Cook’s Oracle of 1830, William Kitchiner tells us that the buns must be baked in tins. As a result, they have a pale band at the bottom and a golden-brown top, just as they still look today in the Sally Lunn’s Eating House in Bath.

In the US, recipes with the name Sally Lunn appeared in the 19th century, but these were rich butter cakes, a corruption of a French pastry that Marie-Antoine Carême gives in his book, The Royal Parisian Pastrycook and Confectioner, called ‘Gateau au Beurre’ or ‘Solilemne’. In the US, ‘Solilemne’ has grown to become ‘Sally Lunn’, probably because people had heard of this cake in Bath and assumed it would be the same.

In 1937, a woman bought the house in Bath where today Sally Lunn’s Eating House is located. During a renovation, she found not only an old baking oven, but also a recipe for Sally Lunn buns hidden in a cabinet behind a panel in the wall.

For 10 buns

15 g (½ oz) dried yeast

150 ml (5 fl oz) lukewarm full-fat milk

500 g (1 lb 2 oz) strong white bread flour

60 g (2¼ oz) raw (demerara) sugar or white sugar

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

50 g (1¾ oz) butter, at room temperature, cubed

150 ml (5 fl oz) cream with at least 40% fat

2 eggs

5 g (¹/₈ oz) fine sea salt

1 egg yolk + 1 tbsp milk, for egg wash

butter, for greasing

flour, for dusting

Grease ten 8–10 cm (3¼–4 inch) crumpet rings with butter and dust with flour.

Add the yeast to the lukewarm milk and stir briefly and gently to activate it. The yeast will start to foam up in clusters, which means it is ready for use. Combine the flour, sugar and nutmeg in a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook and put the butter on top. Pour half of the yeast mixture over the butter and start kneading. When the milk and butter are completely absorbed, add the rest of the yeast mixture, followed by the cream and eggs. Knead the dough for 5 minutes, then let it stand for a few minutes (at this point the dough will be very wet). Add the salt and knead for 10 minutes, scraping the dough off the dough hook and side of the bowl if needed, until it has come together in a smooth and elastic dough that is not too dry but also not terribly wet. Cover the dough and set aside for 1 hour until it has doubled in quantity.

Line a baking tray with baking paper and place the crumpet rings on top. Briefly knead the dough and divide it into 10 equal pieces. Take a piece of dough and lightly flatten it on your work surface, then pull the outer parts in like a purse and gently squeeze together like a dumpling so that the dough can no longer split open while rising. Turn the dough over so the squeezed ends are on the bottom. It should be nice and smooth on top – if not, flatten it and start again. Place each bun in a crumpet ring on the baking tray.

Cover the tray of buns with a light cotton cloth and wrap it in a large plastic bag (I keep one especially for this purpose). Rest the dough for 1 hour or until the buns have doubled in size. Towards the end of the resting time, preheat the oven to 210°C (410°F).

Brush the buns with the egg wash and bake in the middle of the oven for about 15 minutes until golden brown. The buns are best eaten on the day they’re made. At Sally Lunn’s Eating House, the buns are served halved and toasted, with savoury toppings on the bottom pale halves and sweet toppings on the top golden halves.