Ingredients

Step by step

1. Place the dates, honey, cinnamon, orange zest and juice in a saucepan and add 150ml water. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer gently for about15 minutes, uncovered, until you have a thick, soft paste. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
2. Beat together the butter and caster sugar, either by hand or with an electric whisk, until pale and creamy.
3. Sift in the flour with a pinch of salt and use a wooden spoon to mix to a soft dough. Shape into a disc, wrap and chill for 30 minutes until a little firmer.
4. Roll out on a floured surface to a 28cm square and evenly dollop the date mixture over the dough, spreading it out with the back of a spoon to cover. Roll up as tightlyas possible, keeping the date mixture evenly distributed in the roll. Wrap and chill for at least 1 hour.
5. Preheat the oven to 190°C, fan 170°C, gas 5. Unwrap the roll and use a serrated knife to cut it into 1cm-thick slices – you should get about 25. Place on lined baking trays, re-shaping into neat rounds if necessary, and bake for 23-25 minutes until lightly browned. Leave to coolon the trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add just enough water to give a thick drizzling consistency.
7. Pipe or drizzle lines back and forth over the cinnamon swirls and leave to set.