Hallonbullar: Raspberry Buns
Mid to late summer is raspberry season here in Sweden, and one of my favorite things to make this time of year is Hallonbullar, Swedish raspberry buns! They do take a bit of work, and yes, you do need to turn your oven on, but they are so worth it!
Vetedeg
As with all my other Swedish-style buns, these are made with vetedeg, or wheat dough. This sweet yeasted dough is easy to work with, as long as you have a sturdy stand mixer. It would be really difficult to mix this dough by hand.
Raspberries
You can use fresh or frozen. I like working with frozen because I like to crush them and sprinkle them over the rolled-out dough. I think it makes for a nice, even layer of raspberry. You could also mix the berries into a paste and spread that over the butter filling, or just sprinkle fresh whole raspberries over the butter filling.
Shaping
You can shape these pretty much any way you want. You could shape them like a cardamom bun or like a cinnamon bun. I chose this twisty shape just because I felt like it. I think it shows off the raspberry nicely.
Topping
I brushed the hallonbullar (raspberry buns) with egg wash as soon as they came out of the oven and then immediately sprinkled them with pearl sugar. I like to brush them with egg wash after they bake (while they are still screaming hot from the oven!!) because it helps soften the crust and gives the buns a beautiful shine. The egg gets cooked almost on contact with the hot buns. If you don’t want to do this, you can either brush with egg wash and top with pearl sugar (or regular sugar) before they go in the oven or brush them with simple syrup after baking. Whatever floats your boat!
Hallonbullar: Raspberry Buns
Ingredients
Dough:
- 500 g nonfat milk
- 1100 g All purpose flour
- 200 g sugar
- 200 g unsalted room temp butter
- 23 g ground cardamom optional
- 70 g fresh yeast OR 23g dry yeast
- 15 g 2 ½ tsp salt
Filling:
- 300 g unsalted room temp butter
- 250 g sugar
- 3 g vanilla sugar OR extract
- 3 g salt
- 250 g raspberries fresh or frozen
Topping:
- 2 eggs beaten
- Pearl Sugar
Instructions
Dough:
- Add all ingredients to the bowl of your stand mixer.
- Using the hook attachment mix on low for 5 minutes, until the ingredients are all incorporated.
- Turn the speed up to like a medium to medium fast for 30 minutes. You want to work up as much gluten as you can.
- When your dough is smooth and pliable, it needs to rest.
- Take the dough out of the bowl and flatten into a large thin rectangle. Wrap the whole thing in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
Filling:
- While the dough is resting, mix together the butter, sugar, vanilla and salt.
Buns:
- Once the dough is cold, take it out of the fridge.
- Roll the dough into a large rectangle, it should end up being about 1cm (⅓ inch) thick.
- Spread the filling onto the dough.
- Sprinkle on the raspberries.
- Fold into thirds.
- Roll out the dough until it is about 2.5 cm (1 inch) thick.
- Cut into strips that weigh between 80 and 90 grams, we are shooting for 85g buns.
- Shape as desired
- Place on a baking tray, I did 12 to a tray, cover, and let rise until doubled in size. This can take anywhere from 1 hour in the summer to 4 hours in the winter. It just depends on how cold your environment is.
- Bake at 200C (400F) for about 9 minutes or until golden brown. Because these buns in particular are so juicy they often take a bit longer than expected.
- I like to check mine and rotate the tray at the 5 or 6 minute mark so they don’t get overbrown.
- Brush with egg wash or simple syrup as soon as they come out of the oven.
- Immediately sprinkle them with pearl sugar.
- Let cool (if you can wait that long) and enjoy!