Mince Pie Marzipan Swirl - Bakemas Day 15

This recipe is a mixture of three things I love, scones, mince pies and these sticky almond buns I made a few years ago.

I’ve always had a little bit of a fascination with scones and the numerous flavours you can put in them, flavour combinations, desserts, anything I fancy I’d put in a scone recipe which led me to cinnamon bun scones a few years back. I think that was probably one of the first recipes I created, tested and thought 'this is genius' and I was pretty chuffed with the outcome, I mean when you're craving cinnamon buns and you can whip them up in 30 minutes anybody would be chuffed with that! So here we are about three years later blending not one flavour but two into a massive scone.

Full disclosure...honestly I feel a little bit like I’m cheating saying this, like yesterdays recipe this was also made for last year’s bakemas. It’s silly really, I went back and forth on whether or not to share these recipes especially as my baking is a little healthier these days but I do love these recipes and if I hadn’t put them up this bakemas they probably never would have seen the light of day and like my mum said I still did the work I just didn’t do it in the month of December (still feels a little like cheating though).

ANYWAY

The rolling process for this bun is easiest with a wide workspace because it needs to be about a meter long, I found the best way to do this was roll it out into a long sausage and then flatten it out it makes it so simple. Rolling it up did give me a few layflat fire hose vibes but don’t let that put you off it is so worth it and it’s pretty satisfying slicing a big bun. IF you want to make it a smidge easier you can roll the scone mixture out like you’re making cinnamon buns, lay the marzipan over the top and spread the mincemeat over that, roll it up and slice it then place them on the tray to bake and they should take about 15 minutes.
You will need
335g/12oz/2¾ cup self raising flour
1½ tsp baking powder
75g/3oz/¾ stick butter/margarine
35g/1½oz/2½ tbsp caster sugar
150ml/¾ cup milk, I used almond but any will work
Drop of vanilla extract
About 200g marzipan
125g mincemeat (about ⅓ of a jar)
Flaked almonds

For the icing
½ tbsp water/milk
5 tbsp icing sugar
A drop of vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas mark 6 and line the bottom of an 8 inch tin with greaseproof paper.
Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl, add the butter/marg and rub with your finger tips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs then stir in the sugar.
Mix the milk and vanilla extract together, stir into the flour mixture with a knife until it makes a soft dough.
Turn on to a floured surface and knead very lightly.
Roll the dough out into a long strip about 1 metre/40 inches long, roll the marzipan out into the same length and lay it on top of the dough. Spread the mincemeat evenly on top of the marzipan then roll the mixture up into a big swirl.
Place the swirl into the 8 inch tin and bake for 20-25 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin.

While the scone is cooling mix the ingredients for the icing together. Once the scone is cool take it out of the tin, drizzle with the icing and top with sliced almonds.