Sticky Blueberry Blackcurrant and Lemon Buns Recipe

These fragrant, fruity sticky blueberry blackcurrant and lemon buns use a special ingredient in both the bun dough and icing.

I'm signed up to Great British Chefs' newsletter, and the moment their email about launching a competition hit my inbox, I dropped everything I was doing that weekend to write a recipe, get myself to a supermarket and get the right ingredients. The prize at stake? A KitchenAid.

Despite being a keen home baker for many years, I've never owned a stand mixer – meaning hours spent babysitting batter, icing and dough, hand-mixing, kneading (now more recently with the help of a hand mixer with dough hooks to save my back) and cleaning icing sugar dust off of surfaces.

A sturdy, reliable machine that could last for years would be a culinary lifesaver – but also a very big expense when rent and bills keep your 'fun money' funds at a sober level. So I've never splashed out. But a competition to win one through baking? Heck yes, that's my jam.

The challenge was to use any of Belvoir Farms' cordials in a bake that's my own original recipe. And since I'd already been fancying something with blueberries and lemon and was already on a breadmaking streak, I knew that Belvoir Farm Blueberry and Blackcurrant Cordial would be what I'd be working with.

My sticky blueberry blackcurrant and lemon buns use the cordial both in the dough and in the icing, which does two things apart from add flavour and sweetness: 1) it helps keep the bread moist and springy as syrups dry less easily than watery liquids, and 2) it gives the icing a vivid, gorgeous natural colour.

I usually write, film and edit my recipes a week or two before publishing to give myself a little breathing space. So I already had a different recipe lined up to post today – but I ended up creating these sticky blueberry lemon buns in an evening and a day and moving my original schedule up. I took an evening to write the recipe, and a day to bake/film, edit the long and short videos, and write the editorial.

I'm very happy with how these buns turned out: super fluffy and soft on the inside, golden brown on the outside, packed full of sweet and zingy berries and lemon zest and drizzled with that fruity icing. So even if I don't win, I still have these delicious buns to scoff and this lovely recipe to make again and again.

You can also watch me make these on my YouTube channel, Tashcakes:

Ready? Let's go.

(Makes six buns.)

Ingredients for Buns:

30g unsalted butter
100ml boiling water
80ml cold milk
20ml blueberry and blackcurrant cordial (I used Belvoir)
310g strong white bread flour
50g caster sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tsp easy bake (instant) yeast

Ingredients for Filling:

25g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
50g light muscovado sugar
150g frozen blueberries
Zest of 1 lemon

To Glaze:

A few tbsp of milk

Ingredients for Icing:

100g icing sugar
Blueberry and blackcurrant cordial (about 15ml)
A little extra lemon zest (optional)

Method:

1. To make the buns, pour the hot water over the butter in a small heatproof bowl or saucepan and stir until the butter has melted. Stir in the milk.

2. Add the dry ingredients into a big bowl and stir in the liquid mixture and cordial, forming a dough with your hands.

3. Knead on a lightly-floured surface for about fifteen minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Pop into a lightly-oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave to rise until doubled in size (30 minutes to two hours, depending on how warm your room is).

4. Grease a loaf tin with a little vegetable oil.

5. Punch your now-risen dough down and, on a lightly-floured surface, roll it out into a roughly 30x30cm square.

6. Spread the 'filling butter' evenly over the surface, sprinkle the muscovado sugar on top, and sprinkle the frozen blueberries and lemon zest.

7. Roll into a big sausage shape, cut into six equal portions (I use unflavored dental floss to cut and preserve the spiral shape), and place in your loaf tin. Cover with clingfilm and leave to rise again until doubled in size.

8. Halfway through the dough rising for the second and final time, preheat the oven to 180°C.

9. Once fully-risen, lightly brush the tops of the buns with a little milk and bake your rolls for about 20–25 minutes, or until golden brown and bubbling.

10. To make the icing, stir the icing sugar and cordial together. After you take the rolls out of the oven, let them cool a little for about 10 minutes before drizzling over the icing while they're still a bit warm. If you like, finish with an extra sprinkling of freshly-grated lemon zest while the icing's still a little wet, and leave to cool a little more before eating.

Enjoy, and have fun.