By Modern Buns with Raisins, Pine Nuts, and Apple
“[Jon] took two buns himself. The nuts were pine nuts, and besides the raisins there were bits of dried apple.” – A Storm of Swords
These buns take a really long time, and are definitely best eaten the day of. 
This modern version tastes very similar to cinnamon buns so I’d like to recommend them for breakfast, but given the amount of time it takes to make them they’re really better off being served as a snack or dessert later in the day. Unless you wake up really early already anyway!
As usual, we start with making the dough. First milk and butter were melted together, and then the flour, sugar, eggs, yeast, and salt were added in and combined.
The recipe calls for about 4 cups of flour, but after adding 3.5 cups I found the dough to be too stiff and very tough to work with.
While the dough was rising, I chopped up the apple and pine nuts, and mixed them with raisins, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
When the dough was done, it was rolled out to a very large rectangle – 22 x 11 inches! Because the dough was so tough from adding too much flour, it took a lot of time and muscle to get it rolled out flat enough.
Once I finally had the dough rolled out, butter was spread over the entire thing, followed by the apple mixture being “sprinkled” over the dough. I would say “plopped” was really more like it!
The dough was then rolled up with the butter/apple mixture inside, sliced crosswise into individual buns, and then arranged on a baking sheet.
They rose for another 40 minutes, and then were tossed in the oven for 20 minutes until browned.
There was an optional icing to go with this recipe as well, which I didn’t make, but I think including the icing would have made this a full 10/10!
Taste: 9/10
As mentioned, this “modern” version tastes very similar to a cinnamon bun, but with pine nuts, apples and raisins in there as well. It’s very good! I think with the optional icing sugar, this would be a perfect 10/10.
Difficulty: Average
You’re working with dough, so there’s going to be a little more effort than with most recipes, but it’s not any more difficult than other baking recipes that involve yeast.
Cost: Cheap/Average
Cost will depend on what you already have on-hand. You’ll probably need to purchase yeast, an apple, raisins, and pine nuts, none of which are very expensive. But you may also need to purchase milk, flour, brown sugar, and/or cinnamon.
Suggestion:
If you’re going to save some of these for the next day, pop them in the microwave for about 15 seconds to soften them up before eating.
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