Lemon and poppy seed buns with lemon icing
Today I'm sharing a recipe for incredibly soft and fluffy lemon and poppy seed rolls with lemon glaze. They are really zesty and fresh, perfect for Easter breakfast. I love these spring pastel sprinkles.
It feels a bit strange to share Easter recipes with all this snow falling down... Somehow a gingerbread recipe would feel more appropriate! Have you also had snow lately?
ingredients
for the dough:
240 ml whole milk
135g granulated sugar
14g easy bake fast action/ instant dried yeast
2 medium free range eggs (at room temperature)
115g soft unsalted butter
1/2 tsp salt
560g plain flour plus extra for dusting
3 tablespoons poppy seeds
for the filling:
90g unsalted butter (very soft)
100g granulated sugar
grated zest of two medium lemons
for the icing:
around 150g icing sugar
a few tablespoons of lemon juice
Easter sprinkles to decorate (available here)
a baking tray, greased with butter and lined with baking parchment (like this one)
instructions
for the dough:
1. Gently heat the milk in the microwave (1 minute on high power) or on the stove until it is warm but not hot.
2. Stir in the yeast to the warm milk.
3. Transfer to a larger bowl and add the softened butter. The batter will look lumpy at this stage.
4. Add the eggs to the mixture, one at the time and mix until incorporated.
5. Slowly add the flour and salt.
6. Mix with hand until all a soft and sticky dough forms.
7. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead for around 10 minutes by hand (if using an electric mixture - 5 minutes).
8. The dough should become elastic and no longer stick to hand.
9. Shape into a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl.
10. Cover with a plastic lid or a damp tea towel and let the dough raise in a warm temperature for about an hour until almost doubled in size.
11. After the dough has risen, take it out to a lightly floured surface and knead for a few seconds.
12. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough to around 33x45 cm (13x18 inches) rectangle, taking care to roll it out to an even thickness.
for the filling:
1. In a small bowl, mix together the sugar and lemon zest.
2. Rub the entire rectangle with the softened butter.
3. Sprinkle the sugar and lemon mixture evenly over the butter.
- starting from the longer side of the rectangle, roll up the dough so that you are left with a 45 cm (18 inch) long dough
- divide the dough to 12 equal pieces. To ensure the buns are uniform, divide the lenght of the dough by 12 and using a ruler mark equal distances on the dough
- using a sharp knife, cut the dough into 12 pieces
- grease a a pan (rectangle/square/circle) with butter or oil (alternatively line with baking paper or both)
- arrange buns on a pan, making sure you leave around 1-2 cm gap between buns
- if resting the buns overnight - cover with a damp tea towel/aluminium foil/ baking parchment and place in the fridge
- if baking on the same day skip the fridge part and proceed to next point
- cover with a damp tea towel/aluminium foil/ baking parchment and place in a warm place for around 1 -1 1/2 hours or until doubled in size
- meanwhile preheat the oven to 190° C (375° F)
- bake the buns until golden for around 25 minutes but keep an eye on them in case they turn too brown - cover with a sheet of alluminium foil and continue baking
for the glaze:
1. Sift the icing sugar into a medium bowl.
2. Add the lemon juice, one tablesoon at a time, until you have a desired consistency.
3. Drizzle over the buns and top with sprinkles.
delicious!
I modified a dough recipe from sallysbakingaddiction.com