For the love of blueberries

I am always very greedy when it comes to fresh fruits and vegies. Last week during my visit to the farmers market, I bought a lot of seasonal produces, some of which has amazing flavour! I am trying to use them all up, so the focus of the next several posts will be fruits and vegies!

One of my great finds in the farmer market is those little organic blueberries from Moondara, Victoria. They have very beautiful flavour, juicy and mildly sweet. I have been snacking on them since last Saturday and still crave for some more!

Anyway, as most of us would agree, blueberries are great in baking. So, after my fresh blueberries craze had been somewhat satisfied, I finally (struggled to) saved some for baking. Blueberries are healthy food according to this link. I, however, matched them with something sweet, rich and buttery – Ricotta Blueberry Buns.

My buns turned out very nice thanks to a man named Peter Reinhart. The sweet dough recipe from his The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread is excellent. The dough is not as rich as the brioche dough I normally used for my Raisin Buns. Yet, it is soft and buttery (I used Lurpack Danish Butter. The Australian product called Girgar Danish style is good, too). Compared to brioche dough which normally has 50% fat, this enriched dough (17% fat) is a much healthier yet satisfying alternative. If you intend to make cinnamon or other sweet rolls soon, may I suggest you try this recipe at least for once?

Ricotta Blueberry Buns

The dough is based on recipe from this book. I have kept the American measurement used in the book here (My digital scale has several weighing systems so I just had to switch the mode). You can use the online conversion here. Note that instant yeast is used.

The buns according to this recipe are just lightly sweet since I eat them for breakfast. You may need to increase the quantity of sugar for the filling.

Dough (for 12-15 buns or rolls)

3.25 ounces granulated (castor) sugar

1 tsp salt

2.75 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 large egg, lightly beaten

16 ounces (3½ cup) unbleached bread or all-purpose flour

2 tsp instant yeast

1 1/8 to 1¼ cup of whole milk or buttermilk, at room temperature

Filling

Blueberries, around 7 ounces (200gram)

Ricotta Cheese, around 5 ounces (150g)

2 tbsp of honey

Vanilla sugar, as needed (I used about 2-3 tbsp)

Egg wash, optional

Direction

1. Cream together butter and sugar. Add egg, mix until smooth. Add flour, yeast & milk. Stir until the dough forms a ball.
2. Knead the dough until it is silky, supple but not sticky. You may need to add more flour or water. This should take about 12-15 mins by hand or 10 mins with a mixer with dough hook at medium speed.
3. Lightly oil a large bowl, transfer the dough to it. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
4. Ferment the dough at room temp. for appro. 2 hours or until doubled.
5. Midst the counter with spray oil, and transfer the dough to the counter. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin, lightly dust the pin with flour to prevent it from sticking. Roll into a 12x14 inch rectangular of 2/3 inch thick. Do not roll the dough too thin, otherwise the buns will be tough/chewy rather than soft and plump.
6. Filling: mix honey and ricotta cheese – taste if you want it to be sweeter. Spread thinly onto the dough. Sprinkle blueberries and vanilla sugar on top.
7. Roll the dough up into a log. With the seam side down, cut into 12 even pieces.
8. Place the dough on to baking tray, ½ inch apart. Midst them with spray oil, cover loosely with plastic wrap. Ferment at room temperature for 75-90 mins or until the dough is nearly doubled.
9. Preheat the oven to 350F. Apply egg wash and bake the buns at middle rack for 20-30 mins.
10. Cool the buns in the pan for 10 mins then transfer to cooling rack.

Tag: recipes food blog food and drink baking buns blueberries