unruly raspberry and lemon buns

unruly raspberry and lemon buns

• 5 Oct 2025

I first found Cecilia Tolone, an American born pastry chef who now calls Sweden home making cinnamon or cardamom buns in her home kitchen during lockdown. For a number of years Cecilia worked as the head pastry chef at Frantzén in Stockholm, a 3 Michelin star restaurant. These days she runs a Saturday bakery from her home. There are 4 items in the pastry boxes that she makes and Cecilia always includes 2 kinds of buns. 

One week Cecilia made raspberry buns. I just love yeasted buns. I've made cinnamon buns, chocolate buns, lemon buns, rhubarb buns, passionfruit and custard buns, jam filled buns and blueberry buns, but I'd not made raspberry buns before. This oversight needed to be rectified so off to the kitchen I went. Please note this is not the recipe that Cecilia uses, this is my own tried and tested bun dough recipe, which I adapted from a Sarah Kieffer recipe.

Things didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped. The day on which I made the buns was really cold, which made rolling out the bun dough very difficult. By the time I tried to roll the buns the filling had solidified meaning the raspberry pieces sprinkled over the butter filling went everywhere. My kitchen looked like a crime scene. 

After baking I glazed then topped my buns with some raspberry sugar which I made by whizzing 2 tbs sugar with some freeze dried raspberries. It's a nice touch but as freeze dried raspberries are hard to find, just use regular sugar or some pearl sugar instead.

I've recently changed the brand of dried yeast I use and had forgotten this brand is more active. As the bun dough proved and then baked, the scrolls I'd so carefully rolled all unravelled. If you're brave and would like to make a fancy bun, I've attached a link to the King Arthur Baking website with videos of the shaping process. Next time, I might reduce the quantity of yeast a little and ditch the fancy shaping and just roll them up like cinnamon buns. 

Here's the recipe for my unruly raspberry and lemon buns which makes 8 buns. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. 

Raspberry and lemon buns
Dough
1¼ tsp yeast
150 mls lukewarm milk
30g caster sugar or honey
1 room temperature egg 
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups (300g) plain flour 
½ tsp salt
60g room temperature unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Filling
100g caster sugar
4 tsp grated lemon rind
Pinch salt
80 g room temperature unsalted butter
1 tbs almond meal
75g frozen raspberries, roughly crushed

To finish
20g melted butter or cream

 
Lemon Syrup 
30g caster sugar
30mls water
30 mls lemon juice

Raspberry sugar (optional)
5g freeze dried raspberries
30g sugar
Pinch salt
1/8 tsp cinnamon

Dough
Grease a large plastic container and set to one side. Combine the yeast, milk and sugar in a large liquid measuring cup and rest for 5 minutes or until foamy then stir in the egg and the vanilla. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix the flour and salt and stir on low to combine. Add the egg mixture and mix on low to combine. With the mixer on low, add the butter, one piece at a time. When all the butter has been incorporated (about 10 minutes), increase the speed to medium and beat the butter into the dough, until all the little butter pieces are incorporated, and the dough comes away from the side of the bowl. 

Transfer the dough to the prepared container. Cover the container with a lid or with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 minutes. Place your fingers or a spatula underneath the dough and gently pull the dough up and fold it back over itself. Turn the container and repeat this folding again. Continue 6 to 8 more times, until all the dough has been folded over on itself. Re-cover the container and let rise for 30 minutes. Repeat this series of folding 3 more times, for a rise time of 2 hours and a total of 4 foldings. Replace the lid or tightly cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or up to 72 hours.

Filling
Combine the sugar, lemon zest and a pinch of salt in a small bowl then using your fingers rub the lemon zest into the sugar. Add the remaining ingredients (other than the raspberries) and mix with a spoon until you have a smooth paste.
 
Shape the dough
Flour a work surface and knead the dough 10 to 12 times to activate the gluten. Shape the dough into a ball, cover the top lightly with flour, and cover with a tea towel and let come to room temperature. 

Grease and line 2 baking trays with baking paper and set to one side. Roll the dough out to a 12 x 16" rectangle on a lightly floured bench. Spread the filling over the dough then sprinkle the berry pieces over the filling.

Take the easy route. Roll the dough up from the long side and cut into 8 equal pieces and place on the prepared trays. Brush each bun with a little cream or melted butter then cover the buns loosely with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place for an hour or until risen by half.

If you'd like to go fancy, then fold the dough like a letter. Starting on the right side, fold towards the left, making a crease roughly 1/3rd of the way (around 6.5” from the right edge). Press to adhere. Repeat the motion with the left side, folding from left to right, covering the first fold. Again, press the layers together to adhere. After folding, the dough block should measure roughly 12” by 6.5". Roll to extend the length of the block and remove any air bubbles, working the dough to about 16” by 8”.

Cut 8 or 9 strips. Gently twist the strip, then wrap the dough around itself into a knot, tucking the ends underneath. Place on the prepared tray. Brush each bun with a little cream or melted butter then cover the buns loosely with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place for an hour or until risen by half. Video instructions for shaping are here

While the buns are proofing, prepare the lemon syrup and the raspberry sugar, if using.

Syrup
Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Mix in the lemon juice; bring to a simmer and cook for a few minutes until thickened. Take off the heat and set aside until needed.

Raspberry sugar
Place all the ingredients into a small food processor and whiz until well combined. Set aside until needed.

To bake
Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Once the buns have risen, remove the plastic wrap and bake for 15-20 minutes, swapping the trays around halfway, until golden and cooked through. The interior should look fluffy and bready (not raw and stretchy) and should have an internal temperature 95-98°C.  Immediately after baking, brush the rolls with the glaze and then garnish with the sugar. Let the buns set for a few minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely. These are best eaten on the day of baking.

So how were my unruly buns? So delicious that I know I'll make them again.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian