Well hello there! I feel like I have not been here for so long! Life has been a bit messy and hectic lately, so a break was very needed. I am now back and with many things to share, one of them being these lovely lemon buns which I am quite honestly addicted to.

Lemon has really grown on me lately, it’s not a flavour I used to love, in fact, I used to get very annoyed if anything sweet had a lemon flavour. Fast forward a few years later and here I am adding lemon to pretty much anything! I guess that is what being old is like?

Lately I have also really being into working on my kneading techniques and trying to improve them, so a lot of dough is going to be coming your way soon! But for now, let’s enjoy these lovely lemon buns…

This is how I made it

The dough of these buns is really similar to the one of the lovely Dark Chocolate & Pistachio Buns I shared a while ago, all you need is milk, butter, flour, yeast, sugar and a pinch of salt.

• The first thing to do is to warm up the milk with the butter, we want the butter to melt completely. While it’s heating up, mix the dry ingredients in a big bowl.
• After all the dry ingredients are mixed and the butter is melted, add the milk and butter mix to the dry ingredients and mix well, keep mixing until you obtain a dough. Leave the dough to proof during at least one hour until doubled in size.
• Once the dough has doubled, flour a surface and roll the dough into a rectangle (as you can see mine are never perfect, but they do the job!)

• Once shaped, spread the butter over the whole thing and then sprinkle the mix of sugar and lemon.

• Now fold the dough, first grab the bottom part of it and take it to the middle of the rectangle, then take the top part and place it above the already folded bottom one.

• 

• 

• After that, turn the dough 180 degrees so it will be vertical rather than horizontal, so the short side of the rectangle will be close to you rather than the long side. Roll it with a rolling pin until you have a long rectangle.

• Now start cutting strips of the dough horizontally. The strips should be about a finger’s wide.

• Now take 2 strips and twist them together. Then, hold them with your thumb and your index and move the dough around your fingers. After that, hide the end of the dough under the circle created around your index and thumb.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• All you have to do now is let them rise the buns for another hour and cook them in the oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes!

… and enjoy!

Lemon sweet buns

Ingredients (makes around 8 buns):

Please see the pictures above before making these.

For the dough:

• 250 ml of whole milk
• 60 gr of butter
• 500 gr of bread flour
• 15 gr of instant yeast
• 100 gr of sugar
• A pinch of salt

For the filling:

• The zest of 2 lemons
• 70 gr of sugar
• 50 gr of butter

1. Warm up the milk with the butter, we want the butter to melt completely. While it’s heating up, mix the dry ingredients in a big bowl.
2. After all the dry ingredients are mixed and the butter is melted, add the milk and butter mix to the dry ingredients and mix well, keep mixing until you obtain a dough. Leave the dough to proof during at least one hour until doubled in size.
3. Once the dough has doubled, flour a surface and roll the dough into a rectangle.
4. Once shaped, spread the butter over the whole thing and then sprinkle the mix of sugar and lemon.
5. Fold the dough, first grab the bottom part of it and take it to the middle of the rectangle, then take the top part and place it above the already folded bottom one.
6. Turn the dough 180 degrees so it will be vertical rather than horizontal, so the short side of the rectangle will be close to you rather than the long side. Roll it with a rolling pin until you have a long rectangle.
7. Cut the dough into horizontal strips. The strips should be about a finger’s wide.
8. Take 2 strips and twist them together. Then, hold them with your thumb and your index and move the dough around your fingers. After that, hide the end of the dough under the circle created around your index and thumb.
9. Let the buns proof for another hour and then cook them in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes. Half way through the cooking, beat and egg and coat the buns.