Fluffy, golden Belgian Buns swirled with tangy lemon curd and juicy sultanas, then finished with a sticky icing and glacé cherry. These homemade buns bring a bakery-quality favourite to your kitchen. Perfect for teatime or weekend baking,
If there’s one bake that reminds me of my Dad (our Papa), it’s Belgian Buns. Whether it’s following a lunch at Greggs or buying them by the tray-full at Costco, he just can’t resist them. And who can blame him?!
Lovely, sweet, doughy swirls, filled with plump sultanas and lemon curd, topped with a generous share of icing and lovingly crowned with a glacé cherry! What better accompaniment is there to a cup of tea?
It’s taken me a good few attempts to make this as soft and doughy as they deserve to be, and the filling is always best when you go the extra mile with a homemade lemon curd. Don’t worry, though, they still taste fantastic even with a store-bought curd.
When you do make these Belgian Buns, don’t expect them to stick around for long. If you only manage to eat one, you’re a stronger person than I am. What can I say? I’m my father’s daughter!
Top Tips for Belgian Bun Success:
• Don’t Rush the Rise: Give your Belgian Bun dough time to prove properly, both the first and second rise. It helps develop the best flavour and gives your buns a lighter texture.
• Keep Your Lemon Curd in Check: It’s good to be generous, but don’t go overboard. Too much curd will spill out when rolling or baking. A thin, even layer works best here.
• Roll Tightly, But Not Too Tight: You want a neat swirl without squishing out the filling or tearing the dough. Aim for snug but remain gentle.
• Space Out Your Buns: Leave a little room between each bun on the tray, as they’ll expand during the second rise, and further again while baking.
• Cool Before Icing: Make sure your buns are completely cool before adding the icing, or it’ll melt and slide right off, making them stickier than normal Belgian Buns.
• Best Enjoyed Fresh: As with most homemade buns, these Belgium Buns are at their best the same day they’re made, but they can be kept for a day or two in an airtight container.
More Buns You'll Love:
Belgian Buns
EQUIPMENT
INGREDIENTS
- 120 ml Milk
- 275 g Plain Flour (All-purpose Flour) plus extra for dusting
- 7 g Easy Bake Yeast usually one sachet
- 40 g Caster Sugar (Superfine Sugar)
- 60 g Butter or Block Margarine at room temperature
- 1 Free-range Egg
- 3 tbsp Lemon Curd
- 150 g Sultanas
- 200 g Icing Sugar (Powdered Sugar)
- 3 tbsp Warm Water
- 6 Glacé Cherries (Candided Cherries)
INSTRUCTIONS
- In a small pan warm the milk until it's lukewarm. Set aside.
- Sift the flour into a large bowl and add the yeast. Make a well in the middle and add the butter, sugar, milk and egg. Mix to combine.
- Transfer the dough to well-floured surface, and using well-floured hands, knead the dough for around 10 minutes.
- Form the dough into a ball and transfer into a lightly greased bowl and cover loosely with a piece of lightly oiled cling film. Leave to rise in a draught-free place until it has doubled in size (around 1 to 2 hours).
- Generously grease a baking sheet with some excess butter/margarine. Set aside.
- After your dough has doubled in size, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knock it back. Using a rolling pin, roll it into a rectangle about 25 x 35cm (10 x 14 inches). It's important to make sure your dough is of even thickness throughout to ensure you have nice, neat buns.
- Spread the lemon curd from edge-to-edge of the dough and sprinkle the sultanas evenly over.
- Roll the dough tightly to create a sausage. Cut the sausage into 6 buns - I tend to cut in half, then thirds to ensure even buns. Arrange the rolls in your pre-greased tray and cover them loosely with a piece of lightly greased cling film.
- Leave to rise in a draught-free place for 1-2 hours until they look light and puffy.
- After your buns have gone through their second rise, remove the cling film and place the tray in a preheated oven at 180°c (160°c for fan-assisted ovens, Gas Mark 4 or 350°F) and bake for around 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack when cool enough to touch and leave to cool completely.
For the Icing
- In a medium bowl, mix the icing sugar with the warm water, adding a tablespoon of water at a time. When of a "gloopy" consistency, dip the top of each bun into the icing to get an even topping, spreading off the excess with a clean finger.
- Finish with a glacé cherry on top of each bun.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
All my recipes are developed using a digital scale and the metric system (grams and millilitres). Cup measurements are available as a conversion but these, unfortunately, won't always be as accurate. For best results, I always recommend baking with a digital scale.
RECIPE NOTES:
- Storage: Belgian Buns are best enjoyed on the day they are baked, but will keep for a couple of days when stored in an airtight container.
- Freezing: You can freeze Belgian Buns. For the best results, follow steps 1-10 and allow the buns to cool completely before freezing. Frozen Belgian Buns will keep fine in your freezer for 2-3 months. Defrost at room temperature and ice them as normal.
- Sultanas: If you're not a fan of sultanas, you can leave these out or replace them with another dried fruit of your choice, like raisins or dried cranberries.
- Lemon Icing: If you'd prefer a zestier icing, you can use lemon juice instead of water when making the icing.
What are Belgian Buns?
How to make Belgian Buns?
Why are they called "Belgian Buns"?
Free-from & Vegan:
Gluten-free: To make these gluten-free Belgian Buns, you can try swapping the flour for a gluten-free blend and adding ½ teaspoon of xanthan gum if your blend doesn’t already include it. Be aware that the dough may be softer and more delicate -chilling it before rolling can help. Alternatively, Becky Excell has a tried-and-tested gluten-free Belgian Buns recipe that you could use instead.
Dairy-free: To make this a dairy-free Belgian Buns recipe, you can swap the milk for your favourite milk-alternative (soya, almond, oat…), use a dairy-free margarine in place of butter, and check your lemon curd is dairy-free also.
Egg-free: To make this a egg-free Belgian Buns recipe, you can try using an egg replacer, such as 3 tbsp of aquafaba (chickpea water) or flaxseed or chia seed “eggs”. You will also want to use an egg-free lemon curd.
Nut-free: This Belgian Buns recipe doesn’t contain any nuts, but be sure to double-check all your individual ingredients for any hidden nuts when making for those with allergies.
Vegan: To make this a vegan Belgian Buns recipe, simply follow the dairy-free and egg-free steps above.
N.B. Any advice or suggestions to make recipes “free-from” or vegan are purely that – suggestions. Please be careful to double-check all ingredients individually, taking extra caution when serving to those with allergies & intolerances.
For more info on common food allergies, please see food.gov.uk | For more info on coeliac disease, please see coeliac.org.uk | For more info on a vegan diet, please see vegansociety.com
Originally published in July 2017. Updated in June 2025.
Thank you to Naomi Seiler for creating the updated photos.
39 responses
Oh my gosh. Belgian buns are literally my favourite thing. Just looking at your perfect bakes makes me so happy – I have loved them since I was tiny x
Can’t beat a good Belgian Bun, Donna!
They look stunning, you can’t beat a belgian bun smothered in icing!
Can’t wait to try this, a Belgian bun is right behind saffron cake on my list. Thank you from Christchurch, Dorset.
I have made this recipe three times now and about to make again. A brilliant recipe with perfect results every time. Thank you! x
My boyfriend and his sister just made these and they look DIVINE can’t wait to try them!
The results are in and they are SUREME!!
Judging from photos only and the sultana shown, these buns are about 4″ in diameter. Any idea how I can scale up to a 6″ bun?
My husband bought one last week which was sliced in half horizontally and filled with sweetened thick double cream, obviously after glaze had been added.
What size do you recommend I roll dough out to?
Thanks so much for a great recipe, these went down a treat! Never made them before but they turned out better than shop bought
Why is the dough so wet and floppy it’s not a dough it’s more like slime lol x
im a diabetic and the low sugar contents is great for me however i have to leave the icing off the top as would be very bad so i add chopped cherries inside the bun and put a thin glaze of icing on top very very yummy and no sugar spikes thank you
You can now purchase sugar free icing sugar by canderel
So pleased with this recipe and lots of compliments but how can o get them to be wider and not so thick please ?
When rolling the dough to form the sausage, which way did you roll it? The 14” side or the 10” side?
The 14 colin
Fantastic recipe – works every time & look just like your photo!
Has become a family favourite when cooked by my daughter
Superb recipe. Absolutely delicious.
These are amazing, made my second lot today , just scrummy
Printed this recipe out over a year ago, finally got around to knocking a batch up this past weekend. I doubled up on everything as we are a household of four all with large appetites ;0) After making the dough I separated into two halves for ease of working …. everything went spot on with regards to the instructions, thank you, will definitely be making more very soon. One question though …. Roll the dough into a sausage on the 14” or 10” edge? I went with the 14” edge and ended up with buns about 2 1/2 inches high and about 5 inches across ….. the photo above has them flatter and possibly slightly wider …. should I have rolled on the 10 inch edge?
I have just fetched a batch of these out of the oven I rolled
the dough up from the long side and made Eight buns. It’s a very good recipe and so easy to follow.
Easy recipe with fab results. They look and taste incredible
They are usually rolled from the long side
Turned out lovely
Didn’t last long they were fab
Absolutely perfect! Thanks for this easy and delicious recipe.
How did your dough turn out? Mine was super, super sticky. Despite using exact measurements I don’t know where I went wrong.
Please can you tell me what sort/size baking tin I need for your Belgian Bun recipe? The dough is proving now so I hope you can answer quickly. Thank you
I must be doing something wrong. Maybe my measurements are out but I’ve checked and rechecked but still my dough is sticky and sticks to my hands. Not workable. I’ve added extra flour but if I add too much more I’m going to have doubled the quantity of flour. Not sure how to get around this.
Can I use strong flour for these, will it change the proving time?
Absolutely 10/10 thanks for sharing granny any
I’ve made these a couple of times now and they’re just faultless, the dough is so soft and the balance of flavours is spot on, am making again today!
Absolutely perfect, delicious with a cuppa!
Love making these. Just wondering how how long these would keep in an air tight box and should they be refrigerated?
Also can they be frozen and at what stage would you do this at, dough or baked but not decorated?
Thanks in advance for time and assistance.
Thanks for this recipe. It’s fantastic. Do we roll the long side of the dough rectangle or the short side…it didn’t say. Maybe it doesn’t matter.
Fantastic recipe – works every time
Definitely better with lemon juice icing
Fantastic recipe – works every time
Definitely better with lemon juice icing
Brilliant recipe works perfectly every time
It doesn’t say in the recipe when to add the warm water? Can you let me know what step this is? Thanks for the recipe!
Warm water is for icing
Amazing, came out perfect! I must admit I made 12 small ones instead of 6 large ones, and it worked fine. Delicious!