Apricot cheesecake buns

A tried-and-tested recipe for soft yeast buns with fruit, this time filled with sweet apricots and creamy cheesecake filling. The dough is wonderfully soft and reliable, making these seasonal buns perfect for packing into a picnic basket or taking on a trip to the seaside… I’ve already packed a few into my children’s school lunchboxes – the summer holidays in the UK don’t start until after 20 July ;).

Makes 10 buns.

Ingredients for the yeast dough:

• 2¼ cups strong white bread flour
• ¾ cup lukewarm milk
• 3 heaped tablespoons sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 egg yolk, from a large egg
• a pinch of salt
• 60 g butter, melted and cooled
• 14 g fresh yeast or 7 g dried yeast

Additionally:

• 5 large apricots, halved and stoned (or twice as many small apricots)
• 1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon milk or water, for brushing

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

Turn the risen dough out onto a lightly floured surface, knead briefly and divide into 10 equal portions. Shape into round buns and place them well apart on two baking trays lined with baking paper. Cover with cling film or a clean linen tea towel and leave in a warm place for about 30 minutes, or until doubled in size. Using the base of a drinking glass, press a deep well into the centre of each bun, almost down to the baking tray, so the dough is very thin at the bottom. Spoon a generous tablespoon of the cheesecake filling into each well, then place an apricot half on top, cut side up, pressing it gently into the filling. Brush the dough around the filling with the beaten egg and sprinkle with the crumble topping.

Bake at 190°C for 18–20 minutes, until golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Ingredients for the cheesecake filling:

• 250 g medium-fat or full-fat curd cheese, ground three times
• 1 egg yolk, from a large egg
• 2 tablespoons butter
• ¼ cup sugar
• 8 g vanillin sugar

All the ingredients should be at room temperature.

Place all the ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until smooth and well combined.

Ingredients for the crumble:

• ½ cup plain flour
• 5 tablespoons sugar
• 16 g vanillin sugar (omit if using vanilla sugar instead of vanillin sugar)
• 60 g butter, melted

Rub all the ingredients together with your fingertips until crumbly. If the crumble seems too wet, add a little more flour and rub again.

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!