Pour the tin of sweetened condensed milk into a cake tin and season liberally with salt, cover tightly with foil and place into a roasting tray with water.

Place the tray into the oven (fan forced) @ 220˚C for 90 minutes, check after 70.

Once cooked you should be left with a rich caramel, pour the caramel into a bowl or container and whisk till smooth, keep in the fridge until required.

For the Cross Mixture:

In a mixing bowl mix together flour, oil and water (you may need extra water) until you get a sticky stringy paste, transfer to a piping bag fitted with a straight nozzle and set aside until required.
Cooking With Steam Recipes (CODE: 0337)

For the glaze:

Mix water and sugar in a small pot and place on the stove over high heat and bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer and cook for 4 minutes, remove and set aside to cool.

For the dough:

Roughly chop the dates and place them in a large mixing bowl, sprinkle over bi-carb and pour over boiling water. Set aside to steep for 20 minutes.

In the bowl of a stand mixer mix together flours, spices, salt, yeast and sugar and set aside.
Pour milk into a saucepan and add butter, place over medium heat on the stovetop, cook until the butter has melted but don’t boil.

Once the butter has melted remove from the heat and set aside.

Once cool crack the egg into the milk and whisk well to combine, pour the milk into the flour mix and place a hook in the stand mixer, mix on medium speed for 10 minutes.

Remove the dough from the mixer and knead briefly by hand for 2 minutes, return the dough to the bowl and place the bowl in the oven, steam setting 40˚C for 30 minutes to prove.

Once proved remove from the oven and portion the dough into 65gm-70gm portions, roll each portion into a ball.

Turn each dough portion upside down and poke a large deep hole in the base of the dough, pipe in a generous amount of caramel and seal the dough, re roll into a ball and place on a perforated baking tray lined with baking paper.

Once all the dough has been filled place the baking trays of dough back into the oven to prove again for another 30 minutes, 40˚c steam setting.

After the second prove remove the dough from the oven and change the oven setting to 185˚C Combi Mode (25% Steam) pipe the cross mixture on top of the dough and once the oven is up to temperature place the buns in the oven and set a timer for 14 minutes.

After the first 14 minutes remove the buns from the oven and brush over the glaze, return the buns to the oven and bake with the same setting for another 8-10 minutes until golden brown.

Remove the buns from the oven and set aside to cool for a further 10 minutes, serve warm with a little extra Dulce de Leche on the side.