Blueberry buns with cheesecake filling and crumble

These blueberry buns are filled with juicy blueberries and a delicious vanilla cheesecake filling. If you’d like to try a slightly different take on traditional blueberry buns, this recipe is well worth making :).

Makes 12 buns.

Ingredients for the yeast dough:

• 550 g strong white bread flour
• 15 g dried yeast or 30 g fresh yeast
• 1 large egg
• 3 egg yolks, from large eggs
• 90 g sugar
• 250 ml milk
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 80 g butter, melted

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.

Line two baking trays (or one large baking tray) with baking paper.

Turn the risen dough out onto a lightly floured surface, knead briefly and divide into 12 equal portions (about 85–90 g each). Shape into balls and place them well apart on the prepared baking trays. If using one large tray, the buns will touch as they bake. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to rise for about 40 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. Brush the dough around each well with 1 beaten egg mixed with 1 tablespoon of water. Fill each well with the cheesecake filling, then top generously with the blueberries, pressing them down gently so that as many as possible fit. Divide the filling evenly between the buns, then sprinkle with the crumble topping.

Bake at 190°C for about 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool, then drizzle with icing.

Ingredients for the cheesecake filling:

• 300 g full-fat or medium-fat curd cheese, ground three times
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 18 g vanillin sugar
• 50 g butter, melted

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix with a spoon until smooth.

Ingredients for the blueberry filling:

• 400 g blueberries
• 1 tablespoon potato starch (or cornflour)

Mix the blueberries with the starch and set aside.

Ingredients for the crumble:

• 50 g butter, melted
• 90 g plain flour
• 50 g sugar

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until crumbly.

Additionally:

• 1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon of water, for brushing

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!