Deliciously doughy Belgian buns, filled with sultanas and lemon curd, topped with sweet icing and a glace cherry.
If there’s one bake that reminds me of 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 glace 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 home made 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’ve a stronger person than me. What can I say? I’m my father’s daughter!
Granny's Top Tips
• If you prefer a zesty icig, swap out the wwater for lemon juice.
Love this? Try this:
Belgian Buns
Ingredients
- 120 ml Milk
- 275 g Plain Flour
- 1 Pack of Easy Yeast ((7g))
- 40 g Caster Sugar
- 60 g Butter or Margarine ((at room temperature))
- 1 Free-range Egg
- 3 tbsp Lemon Curd
- 150 g Sultanas
- 200 g Icing Sugar
- 3 tbsp Warm Water
- 3 Glace 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.
- Using a dough hook, beat on a medium speed until you have a soft dough - about 10 minutes. (If you are not using a mixer you can knead the dough by hand for this step).
- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead it by hand for 1 minute. Form the dough into a ball and transfer into a lightly greased bowl and cover loosely with a piece of lightly greased cling film. Leave to rise in a draught-free place until it has doubled in size (around 1 to 2 hours, or overnight in the fridge for a slow-rise).
- Generously grease a tray with butter. Set aside.
- Once your dough has doubled in size, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and using a rolling pin, roll it into a rectangle about 10" by 14". It's important to make sure your dough is of even thickness all over 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 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 pre-heated oven at 180°c (160°c for fan assisted ovens) 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.
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 half a glace cherry on top of each bun.
37 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!