White Chocolate & Raspberry Buns Recipe

I wanted to do a take on cinnamon buns but with a different filling and you can’t go wrong with white chocolate and raspberry. You can get white chocolate and raspberry cake, white chocolate and raspberry cookies and so I was thinking the marriage between the two flavours work so well, I thought why not make a sweet bread where everything can compliment each other. The raspberries stop the bread being overpowered by the white chocolate to create these soft, moreish, yummy rolls. These are perfect for lots of things whether you have guests coming round, it’s your turn to bring in something for work or a book club, or maybe you just fancy something sweet to have for at home. If it’s a carby, sweet, chocolate treat you want, then these are perfect, and nothing quite beats something homemade, especially with a recipe as simple as this!

I have put vanilla extract in the dough, but you can put lemon, orange whatever you like in it or you could just leave it out. I know making bread can seem like a lot of effort and a bit of a faff, however most of it is just down to resting time in-between to allow to rise, and when you have the finished product, it is definitely worth the time it takes. When you learn this recipe you will be trying all sorts of different combinations! You could even if you wanted to, split the dough in half and make two seperate fillings to fill in the dough, and then you have two different options to serve to save you from making two doughs! Although this recipe makes 12, it really does depend on how big or small you want them, just remember that these will get bigger in the oven! When cutting them into the size you want, do expect some filling to come out. This is probably the messiest part of the process however, once place on the tray, I just scrape up the bits that came out and pop back in the rolls again. If you find an easier way to do this part of the process, do let me know!

Although in the recipe I stated that I used frozen raspberries, fresh raspberries are absolutely fine to use too. The perks to using frozen are that you can put them in the freezer and don’t have to worry about them going off, but also whilst the frozen ones thaw in the oven, they make this lovely sauce. You could even change what berries you use depending on the seasons. I’ve never tried blackberries and white chocolate, but it could be something that could work. You could even switch out white chocolate for something like Nutella, now that is something I bet would taste really good! Of course you don’t have to do everything by hand either, you can use your standard mixer, however I understand that not everyone has one of these, and one method is no better than the other, providing you knead the dough long enough! It’s very important that you don’t cut down the time you knead.

I’ve decided to banish how long from start to finish the process should take, as I feel like most people like to bake within their own time and pace and I know because I like doing that myself, so I’ve no longer included how long, below. One thing I will say though, there is 2 hours worth of resting time, but I always find I end up just doing jobs in-between and also the washing up from baking! You could even split this recipe into two days by making the dough the day before and baking the rolls the next day if you wanted. Another decoration idea if you like things sweet is you could make some icing, mixing some icing sugar and water together and coat the buns when they have come out of the oven, as to be more like cinnamon rolls.

I would suggest storing the rolls in an airtight container where they will keep for around 5 days. They taste best when warm, so I’d pop them in microwave as the warm dough with the filling is delicious, but even at room temperature they are equally as divine.

Now what you all came here for, see below for the mouth watering recipe!

Ingredients

600g Strong white bread flour (plus extra to dust surface for kneading)
14g Dried yeast
150g Caster sugar
135g Butter
1 tsp Vanilla extract
275ml Milk
1 Egg
175g Frozen raspberries.
175g White chocolate chips
Icing sugar for dusting (optional)

Method

Mix the flour, 75g of caster sugar and yeast in a bowl until combined.
Rub 90g of the butter in with your fingers, until it resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the vanilla extract and mix well.
Add the egg.
Pour in the milk a bit at a time. If you feel the mixture is becoming too wet then stop.
Pour some flour onto the surface and knead the mixture for approximately 10 minutes. The dough should no longer be sticky.
Put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and leave in a warm place for an hour until doubled in size.
Once the dough has risen, remove from the bowl and roll out onto a lightly floured surface into a large rectangle.
Melt the remaining 45g butter and brush the rolled out dough,
Sprinkle over the remaining caster sugar, raspberries and white chocolate chips.
Roll the dough up from the long end to the other long end tightly.
Cut the dough into 12 equal sized pieces and put into a rectangular dish. Leave to rise for another hour.
Heat the oven to 180 degrees towards the end of the hour and once full risen bake for 20 minutes.
One baked, leave to cool and dust over some icing sugar if you wish.
Enjoy!