Apple curd cheese buns

These soft, fluffy yeast buns are filled with creamy cheese and tender, cinnamon-spiced apples, then finished with a buttery crumble topping. They’re a perfect autumn bake, combining three classic flavours that work beautifully together. Absolutely delicious and well worth trying!

Makes 12 buns.

Ingredients for the yeast dough:

• 540 g strong white bread flour
• 20 g fresh yeast or 10 g dried yeast
• 80 g caster sugar
• 250 ml milk
• 3 egg yolks, from large eggs
• 1 large egg
• 80 g butter, melted and cooled
• ¾ tsp salt

Mix the flour with the dried yeast (if using fresh yeast, first prepare a yeast starter). Add the remaining ingredients and knead, adding the melted butter towards the end. Knead for long enough to make a soft, elastic dough. Place in a lightly floured bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 1½ hours.

Line two baking trays, or one large tray, with baking paper. Turn the risen dough out onto a lightly floured surface, knead briefly and divide into 12 equal pieces, about 85 g each. Arrange the buns on the prepared trays, leaving plenty of space between them. If you use one large tray, the buns will touch as they bake. Cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place for about 40 minutes, until the dough has doubled in size again. Use the base of a glass to press a deep well into the centre of each bun, almost down to the baking tray. Spoon the cheese filling into it, dividing it evenly between the 12 buns. Top with the apple filling. Brush the dough around the edges with the beaten egg and sprinkle with the crumble topping.

Bake the apple and cheese buns at 180°C for about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Ingredients for the curd cheese filling:

• 400 g full-fat or semi-skimmed curd cheese, passed through a fine sieve three times
• 1 egg yolk, from a large egg
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• 8 g vanilla sugar

All the ingredients should be at room temperature.

Place the curd cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat with the egg yolk, caster sugar and vanilla sugar until combined.

Ingredients for the apple filling:

• 700 g apples
• 20 g butter
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 70 g caster sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp potato starch

Peel and core the apples, then cut them into small cubes. Melt the butter in a frying pan, add the apples, lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon, and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until the apples begin to soften but do not break down. Sift the potato starch over the apples and stir in immediately. Cook for another minute or so, until the juices thicken and are bound by the starch. Set aside to cool.

Additionally:

• 1 egg, beaten with 1 tbsp water, for brushing

Ingredients for the crumble topping:

• 60 g butter, melted
• 100 g plain flour
• 50 g caster sugar

Place all the ingredients in a small bowl and rub together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles crumble.

Method for bread machine users:

Place all the yeast dough ingredients into the bread machine in the following order: liquid ingredients first, then dry ingredients, and finally the yeast. Select the ‘dough’ programme (kneading and first rise). Once the programme has finished, remove the dough, knead it lightly, and continue according to the main recipe above.

Enjoy!