Take the raisins and place them in a bowl, pour over the beer and stir to combine. Cover the raisins with clingfilm and leave them to soak.

Dissolve the saffron strands in a tablespoon of boiling water and set to one side to cool.

Put the flour, caster sugar, lard and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer. Combine the ingredients using the dough hook attached.

Add the beer and saffron along with the liquid and mix until the dough has completely come together.

Next take the raisins and drain off the liquid, put the drained raisins into the bowl and beat on low for 5 minutes until the raisins have been mixed into the dough.

Continue to knead with the dough hook until it looks smooth and elastic.

Place some clingfilm over the bowl and leave it to rest somewhere warm for 40 minutes.

Take the risen dough from the bowl and divide it into 100g balls to make buns, shape the buns making sure any seams are on the bottom of the bun and place them on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper or in a 22cm cake tin, (if you want to cook them in two loaf tins, split the buns into 150g), that have been greased with butter and dusted with flour.

Cover the tins and leave the buns to prove for 30 minutes or until they have risen by almost half.

Preheat the oven to 170C Fan/190C and cook for 30 mins or until golden.

Make the glaze by mixing the caster sugar with the boiling water and brush it over the warm buns.

Leave the buns to cool, they are best eaten within 2 days, but you can split them, toast them and spread them with butter.