Sweet Cinnamon Berry Buns

Beautiful sweet cinnamony bun filled with raspberry jam and drizzled with an almond glaze - yum!

Today is our 11th wedding anniversary! Time sure flies, hard to believe it was all those years ago we were getting married in my hometown in British Columbia, Canada. Here we are now settled and living in Cork, Ireland, it's all been grand!

To be honest we usually don't ever go out for our anniversary. I always like to make a really nice meal and we just stay in with some champagne. This is partly down to not getting great vegan meals out but also simply down to my love of cooking fancy stuff! I'm thinking dinner tonight might be some sort of stuffed crepe with sauce....hmmm, watch this space, it'll get blogged if it turns out ;-)

I have never made anything nice for an anniversary breakfast though and was inspired to make these by a recipe in the latest BBC Garden Illustrated magazine. I know. You become a homeowner with land and suddenly turn into the kind of person who buys garden magazines. Blimey. Anyway, they sounded so nice and I had to try them, of course I made quite a few changes, me being me and all! First they needed veganizing, I swapped the butter for vegan marg, milk for coconut milk and just omitted the egg altogether. I've been doing that lately, just ignoring the eggs in things and you know what? Stuff has been turning out great! I also added cinnamon to the dough, and topped them off with a drizzle of almond glaze as they were just calling out for it. I also changed the fresh yeast to quick yeast. I actually have fresh yeast and love to bake with it but understand that it's hard to find and tricky to work with if you are not used to it. Everyone can buy and use quick yeast though ;-)

I also started making these about 7:30 last night so didn't get a lot of step by step photos, but they are really very easy, they just take time as yeast risen breads do. It was pretty tortuous waiting to the morning to scoff one of these but the wait was worth it. They are absolutely gorgeous! Keep in mind they are a bun or roll, bread dough, not like a cinnamon roll would be. They kind of reminded me of an iced bun but miles better. I could never understand those things as I always felt like I was eating a highly processed hot dog bun questionably covered in icing. These are how those should be, sweet cinnamony dough, just the right amount of jam and then a nice almond glaze. Perfect.

Sweet Cinnamon Berry Buns
Yields 12

75g vegan margarine (1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp)
250ml dairy free milk (1 cup)
1 sachet quick yeast, 7g
1/2 tsp salt
50g golden caster sugar (1/4 cup)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
500g plain flour (about 3 1/2 cups)
about 125g jam - whatever flavour you like
apricot jam - optional, to glaze

Almond Drizzle Glaze:

100g icing sugar
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 Tbsp dairy free milk

Place the margarine, milk and sugar in a saucepan and heat until the margarine melts and the sugar dissolves. If using caster sugar when the marg is melted the sugar will be dissolved. Pour into a small bowl to let cool. If you have a thermomenter you want it to be 45C if not you want to able to put your finger in comfortably, so still quite warm but not steaming hot.

In a large bowl whisk together 400g of the flour, salt, cinnamon and yeast. When the liquid is the right temperature pour it in and stir with a wooden spoon until a dough comes together. Now add the remaining 100g as you'll most likely need it. Tip mixture onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes. Keep adding small bits of flour if it's sticking. It should after 10 minutes not need any more flour and feel smooth and elastic.  Now place the ball in a greased warm bowl, cover with cling film and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

Punch the dough down, give it a couple of kneads and shape into a log. Using a knife cut this into 12 equal size pieces. Give each piece a little knead and shape into a ball, flatten slightly and place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. When all are done press and tear a large hole in the middle of them, making sure you don't go all the way through, just an indentation here. Fill the hole with your jam, when they are all done, cover with a sheet of baking paper and place back in a warm place for 20 minutes to rise a little more.

Please excuse the bad photo, this is why I don't usually work at night!

Preheat the oven to 220C, remove the top sheet of baking paper and bake for 10 - 15 minutes. It will depend on your oven, mine took 10 minutes. They will have risen again and be golden brown on top.

Now, this next step is entirely optional but I like to take some apricot jam, warm it up in the microwave, push it through a seive and add a few drops of water to make a glaze. I like to brush this on sweet yeast risen baked goods as it gives a really nice shiny glaze to them that you don't get without an egg wash. It really is just aesthetics though, so not necessary but they do look better for it.

Leave the buns to cool then make your glaze, simply stir everything together until smooth and runny enough to drizzle over but thick enough it'll stay on. Just add more milk and or icing sugar till you get the right consistency. Drizzle this over the buns and leave it to set. Then they are ready to serve, perfect with a steaming hot cup of coffee :-)

I actually wanted to call these "Anniversary Love Buns" but was outvoted :-(

♥

Nutritional Information: per bun

Calories: 263
Fat: 4.4g
Sat Fat: 1.3g
Protein: 4.7g
Carbs: 50.7g
Sugar: 18.3g
Fibre: 1.5g
Sodium: 145mg

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