Soft and Fluffy Braided Lemon Buns

Hi hi! I am just popping in to share the recipe for these easy soft and fluffy lemon buns with you, AND to tell you about a very new addition to my kitchen - the Ooni Halo Pro Spiral Dough Mixer!

These lemon buns are really easy to make - a basic enriched dough, flavoured with a little lemon, is made and chilled down to make it easy to work with, then rolled out, filled with more lemon sugar, and rolled up into super beautiful and easier-than-they-look buns, which proof for a second time then are baked up into little balls of lemon deliciousness.

I used my brand new Ooni Halo Pro Spiral Mixer to make these buns. I have owned an Ooni Pizza oven for years now and it is one of my favourite things, so I was SO excited when they reached out about trying out their new mixer, which is truly a game changer, especially if you make a lot of dough! After playing around with it for a long time and really testing it out, I am so excited to tell you all about it!

This post is sponsored by Ooni. All opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the businesses which help keep Cloudy Kitchen running! I have been given affiliate links to use throughout the post, thank you for your support!

My New Favourite Thing: A Spiral Mixer!

If you've ever peeked into the back of a bakery, you've probably noticed a massive mixer with a huge spiral hook on it. That is a spiral mixer, and it is designed especially to mix dough in the most efficient way possible.

Ooni has recently released an at-home version of this mixer, which is an absolute game changer when it comes to mixing dough. I have owned a bowl lift mixer for years now and while it does a great job with the whisk and paddle attachment, it leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to the dough hook.

Enter the Ooni Halo Pro Spiral Mixer. Designed with dough in mind, the mixer is not only beautiful enough to live permanently on my bench, but the way that it mixes dough is so clever. I no longer have to stand and hold my mixer to stop it walking across the bench.

How a spiral mixer works

Unlike a planetary mixer which is what we are typically used to when we refer to a stand mixer, the Ooni Halo Pro Spiral Mixer differs in that both the mixing attachment and the bowl spin.

The Ooni Halo Pro Spiral Mixer comes with a dough hook, but the game changing part is that it has a breaker bar, which screws into the head of the mixer. The breaker bar does not move, and stops the dough from coiling up the dough hook as the dough mixes, which gives you a dual action kneading system. This gives you amazing bread dough, mixed efficiently and with an amazing finish. I tested it with sourdough, lower hydration dough, a cinnamon roll dough, my focaccia dough, and a really soft and sticky milk bread dough, and it was amazing for all of them, giving me dough with amazing gluten development and extensibility that is a dream to work with.

Features that I love

I have been playing around with the Ooni Spiral Mixer for a month or so now, to really put it through its paces when it came to being a workhorse in the kitchen, and it has passed every challenge I have set it. I expect my appliances to work hard, and I make a ton of dough. Here are a list of things that I love the most:

• Super Sturdy. A huge issue with a planetary style mixer is that it is not heavy duty enough to stand up to kneading bread without getting too hot or walking itself off the bench. I would have to stand and hold my planetary mixer down to keep it in place. The Ooni does not have any of those issues. I am able to easily carry it from room to room if needed, but once it is positioned on the counter, you can easily leave it there will full peace of mind that it won't be moving once you turn it on. I ran it at full speed with a relatively low hydration dough, and it didn't complain a single bit. If you have struggled with your mixer in the past you know how amazing this is!
• The control dial. I LOVE the control interface of the mixer. It has a single dial which you turn to either a % speed or you can set it to do a certain RPM depending on what you prefer. You turn the dial to the setting you want, and just tap it to stop the mixer. You also use the dial to set the timer. The interface is digital, so you have a ton of control over what you are doing.
• A Timer. This one is low key life changing for me. I am often multi tasking in the kitchen, and being able to set a timer for how long I want the mixer to go for is amazing, especially with a dough with multiple mixing stages or a long kneading cycle.
• The bowl is huge but in a good way. The Ooni Halo Pro Spiral Mixer bowl is 7 litres, which may seem large but it has straight sides, so it is very easy to work with. The bowl spins on the mixer, and there is enough space between the side of the bowl and the breaker bar to reach in with a spatula to scrape the side of the bowl without having to stop the mixer. Truly a dream.
• It has a light. Enough said. Stage lighting for your baking. The mixer also makes a delightful noise when you turn it on and off (which can be muted, but it makes me so happy)
• Easy to lift up and down. Whatever the opposite of clunky is, that is what that mixer is. There is a little button / catch on either side of the head of the mixer, which you lift to smoothly lift the head of the mixer up and down.
• The results are amazing. I caught myself standing and watching the mixer whenever I use it - it is absolutely fascinating to watch the dough develop, and the results are just amazing. It makes dough that is a dream to work with.
• Easy to wash. Everything comes off - both the dough hook and the breaker bar unscrew so I can just throw them into the dishwasher.
• Other attachments. While the Ooni Halo Pro Spiral Mixer is designed to make amazing dough, it also comes with a flexible beater and a geared whisk to make it versatile in the kitchen if you need it to be. While I will primarily be using this for dough, I also tested a triple batch of my brownie recipe using the whisk attachment and the mixer performed amazingly.

Super Easy Lemon Buns

While I made a ton of different things to test out my new mixer, these lemon buns are super delicious, easy to make, and I know that you will love them. They start with a super easy dough which is the same one that I use to make my cinnamon rolls - it is a demi brioche style enriched dough, and I like to make it the day before or earlier in the day to give it time to firm up slightly as it rises, so that it is easy to roll out. This can be done up to two days ahead and will still work fine. The Ooni mixer made light work of the dough, even when I bumped the butter content up slightly.

If you have made my cinnamon bun twists before - these are the same format but a larger batch - this recipe makes 16 buns. I rolled mine out into one large piece of dough but if you are new ish to rolling dough out and worried it might go a bit wonky you can absolutely divide the dough into two pieces to make eight buns per piece of dough.

Double Lemon in one easy step

To make things easy, I flavoured these lemon buns with a really easy lemon sugar. You make one big batch at the start of the process and use this to both flavour the dough and fill the buns.

Shaping Lemon Buns

While these buns look fancy, they are really just dough rolled out, filled, then folded up into thirds, letter style. I found that when I was testing, it worked best to brush the dough with melted butter and then sprinkle with the lemon sugar rather than make a paste to spread on like you would with cinnamon rolls. A little of the sugar comes out when you are shaping them but this is fine!

Make sure that your dough has had enough time to chill down before you roll it out. It means that the butter firms up, and makes the dough easier to roll. I like to use a ruler and keep squaring off my edges with a bench scraper while I am rolling to help keep things nice and straight.

The dough is then cut into strips and placed onto a sheet pan. At this point I like to pop it into the fridge to make the next part a little easier.

The shaping looks fancy, but it is super simple - it is just a simple braid. Rising and baking the buns in a muffin pan means that everything stays contained and the slightly messy bottom all gets baked into one dough mass and the pretty top is exposed, giving you beautiful braided buns!

You can see in the images below how I braid the buns:

Rising and baking Lemon Buns

I like to make these in two muffin pans, and do 8 buns in each. I tried them on a baking sheet and it looked like a big tangle of spaghetti as they unrolled as they baked.

Place each rolled up bun into the cavity of a muffin pan, nestling them in nicely. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to proof again. If you have chilled the strips to help with shaping, the dough will need a little longer for the second proof - it is winter here in NZ at the moment and they took about 90 minutes to rise.

You know the buns are done when the dough leaves a small indentation that slightly springs back when pressed with a finger.

Bake in the pans until golden brown, then leave to stand for about 5 minutes before removing from the pans. Do not leave them too long as the lemon sugar mixture will cause them to stick.

I like to store my buns in an airtight container at room temperature. If you are eating them after the day you made them, I briefly warm them in the microwave to help freshen them up.

For more information on the mixer please head to Ooni's website to learn more about the Ooni Halo Pro Spiral Mixer! If you are in the US, please use this link