Baked Cream Buns with Vanilla Bean Cream and 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.

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 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.

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 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 ones a go - they sure give a bakery cream bun a run for its money! x

A few wee tips:

• 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, but 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 seems to be the minimum time that works - keep an eye on it, you need it to double in size. I like the cold rise 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 it and 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 as 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 - hot dog buns, slider buns, etc etc. Rich eats them with just jam for what he calls ‘lunch dessert’ but 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, so 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, but 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, but 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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Baked Cream Buns with Vanilla Bean Cream and Jam

• Author: Erin
• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour plus rising and chilling time
• Yield: 12 buns 1x

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Description

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.

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Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

Brioche Buns

• 280g whole milk, lukewarm
• 50g (4 Tbsp) sugar
• 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
• 565g all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 90g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• Egg wash - 1 egg whisked with 1 tsp water

Whipped Cream Filling (this can easily be halved for 6 buns)

• 700g heavy cream
• 120g powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• pinch of salt
• Raspberry Jam or jam of your choice, to finish

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Instructions

BRIOCHE BUNS

1. Place the lukewarm milk, 2 Tbsp (25g) of the sugar, and the yeast in a medium sized bowl, and stir to combine. Leave for 10-15 minutes, or until foamy.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, place the remaining 2 Tbsp (25g) sugar, flour, salt, and vanilla, and mix well to combine.
3. Add the milk mixture and the egg to the dry ingredients, and mix on low for 2-3 minutes. Increase the speed of the mixer to medium, and mix for a further 10 minutes. Add the butter a little at a time, waiting until it is incorporated until adding the next piece. Mix for a further 10-15 minutes, until the dough is smooth and soft.
4. Shape the dough into a ball and place back in the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight or for minimum 3 hours. Alternatively you can do the first rise at room temperature - it will take about 45 minutes (see notes for tips on rising your dough)
5. Turn the dough out onto a surface (I try not to flour it if I don’t need to), and weigh the dough. Divide into 12 equal portions, then shape each into a ball and place a piece of plastic wrap or a tea towel over the top to help stop them drying out.
6. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
7. To shape the buns, take a ball of dough and flatten slightly, then roll into a sausage about 4” (10cm) long, making sure it is even and the ends are rounded. Place onto the baking sheet. Repeat the shaping with the remaining pieces of dough, spacing the rolls out well on the baking sheet.
8. Cover the baking sheets lightly with plastic wrap and leave to rise for 30 to 45 minutes (will be slightly longer if your dough is cold), or until puffy, and a small indentation is left when poked gently with your finger.
9. While the buns are rising, preheat your oven to 350°f / 180°c.
10. Brush the buns with the egg wash. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the trays half way through, until golden brown. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

FILLING AND ASSEMBLY

1. Place the heavy cream, powdered sugar, vanilla bean paste and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer or large bowl. Whip until medium peaks form. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a closed star tip (I used an ateco #856).
2. Cut each bun vertically down the centre, making sure not to cut the whole way through. Dust the tops of each with powdered sugar. Pipe the cream filling into the middle of each bun. Place some raspberry jam into a piping bag and pipe blobs onto the top of the cream, or dollop blobs using a spoon.
3. Best served the day that they are made (see notes).

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Keywords: cream bun, brioche bun, jam bun, new zealand, baked doughnut