We’re getting pretty international today and that’s awesome because when you’re on a budget and you have wanderlust sometimes the kitchen can be your best trip abroad without the necessary shots.
Good morning (or whatever time of the day your reading this), I specifically say good morning because this post is all about starting your day off hearty, fruity and right. In this post, the recipe is Lingonberry Morning Buns, morning buns are basically cinnamon rolls without the cinnamon part, and so people basically just call them morning buns, although the main base of the recipe is made the same way.
While I don’t post a lot of bread recipes, mostly because I always talk myself out of it thinking it’ll take too much time out of my day, I’m always pleasantly surprised with how little time of my day it takes and just how simple it is, and I’ve been making homemade bread for about 7 years now and it still surprises me. I think I’m just a worry wart who overthinks everything; but in general this is a very basic bread recipe that I love since I can adjust it to just about anything I want it to be.
Adjustments: this recipe is somewhat different than most of my recipes since it makes a good amount, about 12 if you cut it evenly. You can half this recipe no problem I’ve done it tons of times but I’ve never doubled or tripled it, but I’m sure you can it would just mean more elbow grease when it came to kneading the dough.
Also when it comes to resting time, it specifies 1 1/2 hours, but usually when I give people information about bread and rising times they ask “what if something comes up?” I tell them to put their dough in the fridge while it rises, that way it will slow down the rising which is also a good thing because the end result will be a thicker, fluffier, heartier dough, so having a busy schedule or tons of free time is actually a plus for your dough and your end results.
Alterations: if you can’t seem to find Lingonberry jam or honestly don’t want to try it then using any berry jam (blackberry, strawberry, raspberry (maybe not blueberry)) in this recipe is fine, it’s completely interchangeable; although if you can’t seem to find Lingonberry but want something similar then try cranberry jam with pomegranate concentrate, mix about 1 cup jam to 2 – 3 tablespoons concentrate and you’ll have a great fake out.
I know a lot of people are thinking just what in the heck is Lingonberry? unless you live in Scandinavia. Lingonberry is basically Scandinavia’s blackberry but still different since they somewhat resemble cranberries but once again they’re in a league all their own. I first saw Lingonberry Jam on a shopping trip to Ikea and I had heard or seen it tons of times on Instagram as I follow a couple of Scandinavian food bloggers so it was nice to see it and get a real view of what it was like; that being said, I bought the jam and looked it up on the internet and OH LORD! some companies sell it for like $30 USD!!! when I bought it for $7 USD MAX! So I encourage you to either use some other fruit or buy yours from Ikea or find it cheaper elsewhere, because I can’t really fathom spending that much money on one little jar.
Helpful Hints & Suggestions: when it comes to the bread it can seem pretty intimidating, but really it’s not, the only thing that may deserve some reservations is the kneading, it is a b-word if you’re not used to doing it. The best way I can think to describe the process is like a deep tissue massage, you want to continue to fold the dough into itself and make sure it’s coated with enough flour that it doesn’t continue to stick to the countertop.
If you want a better understanding on rolling your dough with the filling then you should know that the first step it NOT to overfill with jam, it will cause spillage and make things (EVERYTHING) sticky and messy. You want to roll it as tightly as you can and when you’re finished, pinch the outside of the open part closed that way it becomes one entire closed roll. Then cut the middle of the bread, and continue to cut the middle of each piece of bread until you get 12 even-ish morning buns. I highly recommend using a serrated knife as it will make cutting easier and prettier in the end result, if you use a regular knife it will pinch close and you won’t be able to see the pretty jam and it won’t caramelize on the outside.
When it comes to baking one of my favorite things is making fresh frozen treats for later. I love making homemade break and bake anything and I try to do it with as many things as possible. When it came to trying to make homemade frozen morning buns it worked out great. I didn’t bake the frozen ones and just let it proof in the tin the second time but it was lined in a cupcake liner. I then froze it completely in the cupcake liner in another muffin tin and then put them in a freezer safe Ziploc bag, labeled them along with baking directions and ta-da! we had homemade frozen ready to bake Lingonberry Morning Buns.
Ta-Ta-For-Now: well that’s it over here; this post is probably one of my more out there post but I promise it’s worth it. These beauties will last about a week in the fridge and six months in the freezer.
DOWNLOADABLE RECIPE:
My Neurotic Food Stories 