Health warning: these are just a little bit naughty and shockingly addictive!
‘Sticky buns’ – not normally a phrase that gets me all excited; cinnamon whirls, and Danish pastries, have never been my thing but when we got our first punnet of late summer blackberries I just wanted to encase them in a sticky dough cover them in sugary goodness and gobble them up for breakfast, lunch and pudding.
Now I understand why people love sticky buns so much! They just ooze naughtiness, their cute swirls and playful, and when they’re filled with fruit you can almost convince yourself all that sugar’s ok because one of your five a day balances it out.
They’re super versatile too. The night I made them we had one each nice and warm, straight from the oven. The next morning I gobbled one while getting ready for work, and soon found myself packing one for work! If you made them dainty enough, I bet they’d work for afternoon tea with friends too.
I may just replace all food substances with these delicious blackberry sticky buns now! That’s a balanced diet right?!
The best thing about these though is that they seem to be fool proof. The dough is simple and quick to make (minus rising time of course) and getting messy is just part of the fun! If you’ve not made a mess, you’re not doing it right that’s my motto.
So if you’re a fan of the cinnamon whirl, or a Danish pastry or two, I recommend you have a blackberry sticky bun, and see if you’re converted over to my side!
Ingredients
- 60ml warm water
- 7g dried yeast sachet
- 75g caster sugar
- 50ml milk
- 150g butter
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 tsp salt
- 550g all purpose flour
- 1 punnett of blackberries
- 3 tbsp icing sugar
- 5 tbsp honey
Instructions
- Dissolve 1 tsp of the caster sugar in warm water and add the yeast. Let this sit for 5mins until it starts to become frothy.
- In the meantime, rub 100g of the butter into the flour to form fine breadcrumbs.
- Once frothy, stir in the yeast along with the milk, sugar, yolks and salt, then mix until it forms dough.
- Bring the dough together with your hands and knead for 15mins.
- Place the dough in an oiled bowl and leave in a warm place for an hour or until doubled in size.
- Punch the dough down and then turn it out onto a lightly floured board and allow it to rest for a further 20mins.
- While the dough is resting, take your punnet of blackberries and give them a mash with a fork. You want them broken up enough so that they become saucy, but not so that they are completely runny.
- Sift in the icing sugar and stir to thicken the mix up.
- When ready, roll out the dough into a large rectangle about half a centimetre thick.
- Spread the blackberry mixture over the top evenly and then starting with the long side of the rectangle roll into a large log shape.
- Next turn your attention to the sticky glaze. In a pan, melt 50g of the butter and the honey together.
- Pour this into your tin and allow them to cool.
- Using a large knife, begin cutting your log into 12 equal pieces.
- Be as gentle as you can so as not to push the filling out of the swirls. Place them so that their swirl is facing up into the pan.
- Once in the pan, allow them to rise for a further 45mins before placing in the oven and baking at 30mins on gas mark 5.
- Once cooked turn out onto a wire rack to cool a little before eating.
- (Best served warm!)
