Baked Cream Buns with Jam

Cream Buns with Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream and Raspberry Jam. A baked version of the New Zealand Classic Bakery jam doughnut. A fluffy soft brioche bun is filled with piped sweetened whipped cream and raspberry jam.

Baked Cream Buns with Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream

Hello! I hope you are keeping safe and healthy, and staying home if you can. Things are so weird and scary at the moment for everyone. It’s an extra weird time to be living in a country that you are not a citizen of, and it’s very strange knowing that I don’t have the backup option of hopping on a plane and going home to my family like I usually do. I have been coping the best way that I know how - with lots and lots of baking.

I made these Baked Cream Buns a wee bit ago, inspired by my trip back home. New Zealand has some amazing bakery classics - custard square, raspberry buns, and cream buns, which are usually in a doughnut form, filled with mock cream (which is basically a buttercream), and then dolloped with jam. I wanted to see if I could develop a baked version, and these come pretty damn close to the real deal.

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Jam Cream Buns - A New Zealand Bakery Classic

Doughnuts are great, but they do have one downside - you have to eat them on the same day that you make them, or things get super weird. The sugar on the outside makes them soggy, and they lose that beautiful crisp exterior from the frying and just don’t taste great. So while I love making them so, so much, we do get a little overwhelmed with them when I make them, so I wanted to develop a recipe for cream buns where the bun itself could be used for a few different things.

And ohhh man, these cream buns are good. I made a super super soft brioche dough, which I shaped into buns, brushed with egg wash and baked up into golden brown buns that kinda resemble potatoes, but in a good way. The bun itself can be used for a whole bunch of things (see notes) - we are having hot dogs in them tonight, but I gave these ones the cream bun treatment, and split them down the middle, dusted them aggressively with powdered sugar, and then filled them with a sweetened vanilla bean cream and some dollops of raspberry jam. The combination of soft and fluffy brioche bun, sweet vanilla cream and jam is so, so good. I hope you give these cream buns a go - they sure give a bakery cream bun a run for its money! x

A few wee tips for making Baked Cream Buns

• I prefer, for shaping purposes, to work with cold dough for these rolls. I find that they come out a bit neater. You can either do your rise overnight, or I have been playing around with a cold same day rise recently. Putting the dough in the fridge just slows things down a bit in terms of rising. Also, because this dough has butter in it too, it firms it up which can be helpful for rolling out and shaping.
• I have found 2 hours rise time in the fridge seems to be the minimum time that works. keep an eye on it, you need it to double in size. The cold rise is preferable because it means I can be a little more flexible with things in terms of timing. If I have to leave it for a few hours then I’m not worrying about over proofed dough etc. I often make the dough early in the morning. Then, I can pull it from the fridge when I’m ready to work with. You get the benefit of cold dough but don’t have to wait overnight.
• So there are three options now! Overnight in the fridge, same day but in the fridge, and a room temp rise. All of them work, but I do like working with cold dough a little more. I find that it is easier to shape.
• The recipe for the brioche makes 12 buns. The good thing about these is that they can be used for all kinds of things. I use the dough for hot dog buns, slider buns, etc etc. Rich eats them with just jam for what he calls ‘lunch dessert’. You can shape some into rounds too and use as burger buns - do whatever you like! My one recommendation is that you skip the vanilla in the dough if you want to use some for savoury. Just do extra in the cream!
• The buns freeze well too if you want to save some for another time. Just let them thaw and then freshen by quickly microwaving.
• I used raspberry jam for these, but anything you have on hand will work great.
• These are best served soon after you pipe in the cream. If you aren’t planning to eat them all in one day, keep the components separate and assemble as needed! Keep the rolls in an airtight container.
• If you don’t have a stand mixer for the brioche you can do it by hand but it will need some elbow grease. Put the butter in at the beginning with the rest of the ingredients and then mix from there. It will be a workout but so worth it!
• I baked two trays at once in my oven, switching half way through. If you like, you can do one at a time - I place the second tray into the fridge about 10 minutes before I start baking the first to let it finish off rising in the fridge so it doesn’t over proof at room temp.
• When you are whipping cream to pipe, stop the mixer before it gets to stiff peaks and finish by hand. You only want medium stiff peaks so that it doesn’t get gritty and pipes nicely.
• I filled these ‘bakery style’ with fancy looking piping. If you want to just fill with cream either with a spoon or just with a plain round piping tip that works great too! You do you here.

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For more New Zealand Recipes, check out:

• Hundreds and Thousands Biscuits
• No Bake Peppermint Slice
• Brown Butter Anzac Biscuits

Made this recipe and love it?

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A note on salt and oven temperature

It is important to note the type of salt that is called for in a recipe. I use Diamond Crystal salt throughout my recipes - if you use a different sort of kosher salt or regular table salt you will need to adjust accordingly as some salt is 'saltier' than others. Morton's salt is twice as salty, so you will need half the quantity. Same goes for a regular table salt. I am working to get gram measurements throughout my recipes for salt but still getting there.

All oven temperatures are conventional unless otherwise stated. If you are baking on fan / convection, you will need to adjust the temperature. An oven thermometer is a great investment to ensure that your oven is the correct temperature.

Using the double / triple function in the recipe card

You will notice that there is a '1X' '2X' '3X' button in my recipe card. This can be used for doubling or tripling a recipe. However, please note that this only doubles the ingredient quantities in the ingredients list and NOT in the method. If there are quantities or pan sizes in the method of the recipe (for example weigh out 150g brown butter), you will need to scale this number manually. It will also not change the baking time in the recipe so you will need to adjust this yourself too. It is always a good idea to read through a recipe fully before doubling it just to check this. If you would like to scale this recipe or convert for another pan size, use my calculator!

Tools and equipment

For a list of my go-to tools and equipment, I have a post you can refer to here.

Why is this recipe in grams?

I post my recipes in grams as it is the most accurate way to bake. Cups are not only inaccurate but they vary in volume worldwide. There is no way for me to provide one cup measure that works for everyone. However, posting in weight fixes this issue. If you would like the recipe in cups you are welcome to convert it yourself via google, but please do not ask me to do it for you as I am not comfortable providing a recipe using a method that I have not tested. Baking with a scale is easy, accurate, and also makes cleanup super simple. Here is the scale that I use if you would like a recommendation! Here's to accurate baking!

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