Vegan Blueberry Buns
Pillowy orange blossom dough packed with a wild blueberry filling and light enough to want to eat all of them.
Ingredients
Blueberry filling
- 280 g fresh blueberries
- 35 g white granulated sugar, make sure it’s vegan
- 7 g tapioca starch
- 1/2 lemon, zested
- 1 tbsp water
- pinch of salt
Dough
- 400 g all-purpose flour
- 40 g white granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 220 g lukewarm water, around 37C/98F, but no more than 48C/120F
- 2 tsp instant yeast or active dry yeast
- 50 g neutral oil, (grapeseed, canola, vegetable...)
- 1/2 tbsp orange blossom water
Instructions
Blueberry filling
- In a saucepan, combine all the ingredients and bring to a boil.
- Let it boil a few minutes until thickened, stirring constantly to avoid it sticking.
- Pour into a wide container (the thinner the filling is spread the faster it will cool) and cover directly with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming.
- Stick it in the fridge so it cools while you make the dough.
Dough
- Combine the lukewarm water, yeast and 10g of the sugar and set it aside to let the yeast foam.
- In a large(ish) bowl, whisk together the flour, the rest of the sugar and the salt.
- Once the yeast has lightly foamed, pour it into the dry ingredients along with the oil and orange blossom water.
- Stir everything together until a rough dough forms then tip it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times, about 5 minutes, just until it forms a nice smooth ball and doesn’t feel sticky.
- Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover it with a damp tea towel and place it in a warm place to proof for an hour or until doubled in size.
- Prepare a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
- Once proofed, roll or pat the dough out on a floured surface to form a 50cmx30cm rectangle.
- Spread the blueberry filling as evenly as possible all over the dough, then grab the 30cm side and fold it a bit further than the center. Do the same thing with the other 30cm side. Like folding a paper to put in an envelope.
- Once the dough is folded, place the longest side in front of you and cut 8 equal strips. To make it easier, cut the dough in half, then those halves in halves and those halves/quarters into halves.
- With each strip, grab both ends and pull lightly to extend it. Then with one hand twist towards yourself and with the other twist away. Spiral that twisted shape on itself and tuck the end underneath.
- Place them on the baking sheet with some space in between and let them rest for 20 to 30 minutes or until they’ve lightly expanded.
- In the meantime, preheat your oven to 190°C or 375°F and when the buns are ready, bake them for 18 to 20 minutes.
- Let them cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes to let the filling set, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- *Disclaimer: I have a tiny not-so-great oven, so your bake time may vary from mine.
- I strongly suggest making recipes by weight, if you make them by cups I can’t guarantee that you’ll get the same results.
- You can use frozen blueberries and boil the filling a few minutes longer to get rid of the excess water.
- You can replace the tapioca starch with cornstarch, your filling just might not be as set since tapioca starch thickens at a lower temperatue. But they’ll still be good!
- For something extra, you can drizzle the lemon glaze from the lemon cake recipe over these!
- If you want less of a mess, you can bake these as rolls like cinnamon buns.
- These are best enjoyed the same day, but they will keep up to 2 days at room temperature. Or you can keep them in the fridge for at least a week and pop one in the microwave for about 20 seconds when you want to.