Sweet Buns Topped with Homemade Blackberry Jam
This recipe for sweet buns topped with homemade blackberry jam first appeared on my former blog, The Culinary Jumble, in 2017. The images have been updated and the recipe has been amended to include spelt flour.
It’s no secret that I love bread. Love the stuff. Doesn’t matter if it is chocolate, healthy and seeded, swirled with cinnamon, stuffed with cheddar cheese and garlic, or naan to dunk into your favourite curry. There is nothing not to like about it.
I am particularly fond of a bread and berry combo. Soft, sweet, luscious bread coupled up with tart berries is my kind of heaven. Just like this recipe for sweet buns topped with homemade blackberry jam. The dough was made in my bread machine, but don’t panic if you don’t have one. I’ve included directions for making the dough in a stand mixer, too. Don’t want anyone missing out on these beauties, do we?
I was looking for a way to use up some fresh blackberries I’d picked with my son, and decided on a scrumptious Saturday morning brunch. Blackberries are not only delicious, but they are so pretty. When you cook them up to make blackberry curd, or use it to make a frosting for iced finger buns, it creates a stunning dark pink hue. There’s no need for artificial colours when blackberries are in town. That’s for sure.
These buns were amazingly soft and fluffy with a delicate sweetness. The homemade blackberry jam was to die for, adding a tart element to contrast with the sweet softness of the bread. To finish off, I drizzled over a little icing for good measure. Because, well, why not?
The recipe made six lovely-sized buns but you could easily double the recipe to make more (they disappear fast).
Sweet Buns filled with Homemade Blackberry Jam
Ingredients
Jam:
- 100g (3½ oz) blackberries (fresh or frozen)
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon water
Dough:
- 250ml (1 cup) milk
- 1 egg (medium)
- 50g (3½ tbs) butter
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 400-450g (3⅓ - 3¾ cups) flour (see note 1)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 7g (2 tsp) yeast (see note 2)
Drizzle:
- 1 teaspoon milk
- icing/confectioners'/powdered sugar (as much as needed to make a thick drizzle)
- extra blackberries for garnishing (optional)
Instructions
Jam:
- Heat the jam ingredients together in a pan for around 10 minutes, just until the berries break down a little and the liquid thickens. Leave to cool.
Dough (see note 3):
Bread machine method:
- Add the milk, egg, butter and honey to your bread machine pan.
- Then add 400g (3⅓ cups) of flour, and the remaining dough ingredients, taking care to keep the yeast and salt separate as much as possible. Set your machine to make dough.
- On a very well-floured surface (the dough will be very sticky) work in just as much flour as you need to make a soft, pliable, but still a little tacky, dough.
Stand Mixer:
- Add the milk, egg, butter and honey to your stand mixer, and mix together. If the butter is straight out of the fridge, it won't combine with the other wet ingredients too much, but that's okay.
- Add 420g (3½ cups) of flour, and the remaining ingredients. Gradually add as much flour as needed, a little at a time. Be careful: too much flour will result in dry bread.
- Switch to a dough hook (if you have one) and allow the mixer to knead the dough for around 5 minutes, just until soft. The dough will still feel a little tacky to the touch, but will be able to slowly drop off the hook.
- Cover the dough and leave to proof (until it has doubled in size - usually about an hour).
- When the dough is ready, knock it back. On a floured surface, shape into a rough ball.
Both methods:
- Divide into six or eight roughly equal balls (see note 4).
- Flatten and then using your thumb or the back of a small spoon, make fairly large indentations in each bun.
- Gently spoon in some of the jam. Don't overfill (although some of the juice will spill out when baking, but that just adds to the charm).
- Cover and let the buns rise for around 30 minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC (400ºF).
- Bake for around 17 minutes until nice and golden.
- Leave to cool a little while you prepare the drizzle.
Drizzle:
- Add your milk to a bowl and gradually add as much icing sugar as needed. You want to end up with a fairly thick paste, but you can make it as thick as you like.
- Pour over, pop a blackberry on top, and eat while still warm. Enjoy!
Notes
- This recipe was originally made with bread flour. However, I've since made identical bread using spelt flour. Although I see no reason why you can't use spelt or regular flour, with the same results, for the sake of transparency, I have not made this exact recipe with anything other than bread flour.
- In Sweden we have something called dried yeast. It is used both in warm liquid and allowed to proof, and it is also added directly to flour. I am aware that the US has two options for dried yeast, and I believe dry active yeast is the most similar to our dried yeast.
- I have made the dough using both a stand mixer and bread machine with identical results. I have not made the dough by hand, but I see no reason why you couldn't do so.
- You can either make six large, or eight smaller buns. If you make them a little smaller, the baking time will need to be reduced slightly.
Your ingredient list says, “300g (2½ cups) flour (see note 1)” but your directions say, “Add 450g (3¾cups) of flour”.
This does not make sense.
Can you please correct this?
Thank you.
Oops! That’s a typo! Thank you for letting me know (recipe has now been amended).