The most indulgent bun we have ever made. Our favorite!
This recipe is a variation on the cinnamon bun recipe. It is hard to choose which one we prefer. The combination of good quality cherries and real almond flavor in the pastry cream is heavenly. These buns make us smile as soon as we bite into them!
For the dough we use French type 45 flour which works really well if you like your buns to be light and fluffy. We love to use fresh yeast for these buns, the smell of the proofing dough is a treat in itself.
As a final touch we add a vanilla sugar glaze on top for an extra hint of sweetness. We apply a very thin, almost translucent layer. It also gives the buns some extra texture to bite into before you reach the softness and creaminess of the bun.
Ingredients for the buns
900 g flour (we use French type 45 for this)
16 g salt
12 g instant yeast or 36 g fresh yeast
300 g milk at room temperature
230 g water
50 g butter softened
50 g sugar
400 g pastry cream, flavored with 1 tsp almond extract (see recipe here)
150 g dried cherries
25 g slivered almonds
100 g icing sugar, water plus 1/2 tsp vanilla extract for the glaze
What to make in advance
You can prepare the pastry cream in advance so it will be ready the next morning. You can find our favorite recipe for pastry cream here. We added 1 tsp of our real almond extract to the cream and left out the vanilla.
Making the dough
In the bowl of a standing mixer combine flour, salt, yeast, water, milk (if you use fresh yeast first dissolve it in some of the water, instant yeast can be added straight to the flour), butter, and sugar and knead for 7 minutes. Kneading by hand will take about 15 minutes, depending on your technique. The dough should be silky and bouncy. Leave to rest for 1 hour at room temperature.
Making the buns
With a pastry roller roll out the dough to a rectangle of about 60 x 50 cm / 23 x 20 inches. Take the prepared almond pastry cream from the fridge and give it a good beating with a whisk to loosen it and spread an even layer onto the dough rectangle. Sprinkle the cherries on top. Roll up the dough (the long, 60 cm side facing you and then roll away from you) and cut it into 4 cm / 1.6 inch size rolls (15 in total) and place them, cut side up, in a nonstick or greased baking pan (the one we use in the picture is 30 x 40 cm / 11.8 x 15.7 inches). Leave to proof for 60 to 75 minutes.
Baking the buns
Preheat your oven at 200 ºC / 392 ºF or around 190 ºC/ 375 ºF convection oven. We find the convection setting works best for us with this recipe.
Sprinkle on the slivered almonds and bake the proofed buns in the oven for 22 to 25 minutes (depending on your oven of course).
Leave to cool slightly. Prepare the glaze by mixing icing sugar, vanilla and water to form a smooth paste and brush on top of the buns. You can add lemon juice or other flavors to the glaze if you want to.
The ‘day in advance’ dough way
Optionally you can prepare the dough the evening before baking day, however for this you need to add 2 g instant or 6 g fresh yeast to the dough instead of the full amount. Leave the dough after kneading to develop for 10 to 12 hours at cool room temperature. You can roll out the dough the next morning and continue from there.
Jesse says
Would fresh or frozen blueberries work in this recipe?
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Jesse,
We have not done this with this recipe but we would probably use fresh blueberries if we did. The flavor combination is great too of course.
Noelle says
Thank you so much for this recipe, it was well explained and inspired me to try creme pat in a dough bun for the first time. I made dough as well as the creme patissiere which were refrigerated overnight, and this morning rolled out and formed the buns. I used flame raisins soaked in Marsala wine, and your vanilla infused cream. The buns are superb. Have today found some dried cherries, so it won’t be long before we enjoy your original buns.
Weekend Bakers says
Thank you Noelle for sharing your experience, so glad you liked it and enjoyed both the baking and the result.
The raisins work great too of course, but since we found the dries cherries, we have been using them more and more, we just love them.
Now you’ve got them too, we can highly recommend using them in this way too: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…-cherries/
Enjoy the coming Holiday period!
Lenna says
Is it possible that you could put the recipe Ingredients in cups and spoons that would be very good it looks delicious I really would like to make this and everything else that you make thank you
Weekend Bakers says
Thank you Lenna,
May we refer you to our conversion tools for this:
www.weekendbakery.com/cooki…nversions/
Happy baking!
Note:
If possible, we very much recommend weighing your ingredients. Professional bakers use scales (also in the US) and in Europe home bakers do too. A scale will give you the exact same weight every time. Which is absolutely needed if you consistently want to make good bread and especially good pastry. Measuring will give deviations of 10 to even 20% from one bake to the next. You can get a scale for the same price as a few sacks of good flour and less than a lot of baking tools you already own, so if possible, go and get one!
Aisha says
Hi
Is it really just only 2g of instant yeast for this recipe if doing the overnight process?
(it seems very little compared to the 12g on the original recipe)
Also is there an alternative to the dried cherries (can I use glace cherries?)
Thank you
Aisha
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Aisha,
Yes, that is correct, it is only 2 grams for the overnight process. Depending on the fridge temp, the development time and ‘enthusiasm’ can differ, but you can better choose the safe side and have dough that is slightly under-proofed than over-proofed. The slight under-proofing will be corrected with the final proof. If you find in your case you do not see enough development, you can of course increase the yeast amount.
If you do not have dried cherries, we would suggest amarena cherries before glace cherries for this recipe, because of the taste, but that is a personal choice too. Another alternative would be cranberries, currents, and sultana’s.
Hope it will be delicious!
Pedro says
Do you think it’s possible to make the dough 24 hours before? What would be the amount of yeast in this case? Could I keep the dough in the fridge? I ask this because I like to cook when I get home from work at night 🙂
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Pedro,
Yes that is possible. If you want to keep the dough in the fridge we would also advice to start with the same amount of yeast as the 12 hours at cool room temp (so 2 grams) and see how this goes. Maybe it needs a little adjustment depending on your fridge temp and yeast enthusiasm.
Hope it will be great and enjoy your bun baking!
Sallie says
Hi
I’m from Ghana. I honestly do not know where I can get French flour type 45. Kindly suggest a substitute or can I use a mixture of cake and bread flour.
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Sallie,
That would be a good idea, we are sure the result will be fine. Just make sure the cake flour does not contain any rising agents. We have a post on flour types flour types that might be useful to you: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…our-types/
Happy baking!
Stephan says
Hello Ed & Marieke,
thank you so much for that wonderful recepi. I took some shredded coconut instead almonds. The taste is delicious. By the time I bake all your recipes. When I was a child my grandma lives in Emmerich and we went by bike to s-Heerenberg to get coffee and all the sweet baking stuff. Good memorys came back. Please go ahead. Stephan
Weekend Bakers says
Thank you Stephan,
That is so wonderful to hear. Sweet bakery memories.
We recently visited the area of ‘s-Heerenberg, it is a very nice, green part of Holland, not so typically flat. We liked it a lot. A lot of our travel and holiday memories are related to food and baked goods and visits to bakeries. The best!
Love the idea of the coconut too. Glad the recipe is to your liking.
Ed & Marieke
Charles says
I plan to try these because the pastry cream idea intrigues me. I have made a lot of cinnamon rolls for large groups in advance of the time desired by rolling and cutting them and then putting them in the baking pan and covering with plastic film and refrigerating (about 37F) overnight. The next day, when the crowd gathers, I bake them off about an hour before hand and they are still a little warm when eaten. This last rise works fine and I think gives a better flavor because of the slow rise. I am not sure if the pastry cream will interfere with that last rise or if it will compromise the dough, but I will let you know.
I am so glad I found your site. My mother was born in Overveen (nee Bijvoet), grandmother was from Schiedam, and I have relations that I don’t know very well in the Netherlands to this day.
Charles
Athens, GA USA
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Charles,
Thank you for your comment. So nice to hear about the Dutch roots of your family. We have lived for quite some years in Haarlem, which is very close to Overveen. It is a lovely area.
We have not tried your method with these buns, but we think it will be fine. We would love to hear about your results with this recipe.
Good luck with all your baking activities.
Groeten uit Holland,
Ed & Marieke
Petra Woods-Groen says
These look wonderful, two questions: can I replace dried cherries by fresh cranberries? And should I reduce the amount of fluids.
next: can these be frozen regarding the pastry cream?
Happy holidays and until 2015!
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Petra, we do not think you need to change the amount of fluids within the dough. However there is a taste difference between fresh and dried. The dried ones will behave like raisins and stay whole, but the fresh cranberries will probably turn a bit jam like. We freeze these buns all the time as we can not eat them all in one go. We blast them on high power in the micro wave directly from the freezer to slightly warm so they taste almost like fresh again! Happy baking!
Anna says
Hi Ed en Marieke,
This recipe looks great! I would love to make this buns, but where can I buy the dried cherries, here in the Netherlands?
Regards, Anna
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Anna,
We buy the dried cherries from Jan Gotjé in Amsterdam. You can also buy from them online: jangotje.nl/index…38;lang=nl
They are also wonderful to eat as a snack.
Happy baking!
Marieke
Anna says
Thanks!
Selina says
Hi Ed and Marieke,
This is a great recipe! I made this for some friends I was visiting and it was a great success! I substituted the cherries for fresh blueberries (which are in season here in Australia) and forgot to change the vanilla for almond in the crème patisserie and the end result was delicious. I tried the method of making the day before which worked out very well. This was my first attempt at a crème patisserie and I had no problems. I’m looking forward to making some more!
Thank you for all your great recipes – I’ve tried a few now and they always work!
Many thanks!
Selina
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Selina, great to hear. We often play around with the ingredients, you can change the fruit with the seasons, the flavoring and still use this recipe as a guide line. With xmas we will be using cinnamon flavored crème patisserie and perhaps add some cranberries! Happy baking!
Mrs Karen Aslett says
Dear Ed and Marieke
This new recipe of yours looks and sounds lovely.Just by coincidence I’m doing an experiment today-making cherry
and almond “currant buns” but with a sourdough starter! I’ve never used or made creme pat before and am assuming that it is quite thick and doesn’t run out the bottom when the buns are baking.Anyway I shall definitely look forward to making your recipe very soon,please keep up the great recipes and tips
Regards Karen Aslett
Weekend Bakers says
We really love the taste of the almond, cherries and creme pat. It is heaven. The creme pat is very thick, when hold the bowl upside down it should not run out of the bowl. This way it stays really nice within the buns. Give it a try you will like it, there is no substitute for home made creme pat with eggs and butter! Happy baking!