Pistachio, Rose and Strawberry Buns

Pistachio, Rose and Strawberry Buns
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
Total Time
1½ hours plus at least 2 hours' chilling
Rating
5(204)
Comments
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Meant for breakfast or as an accompaniment to a mug of hot tea, these Danish-like yeast buns are filled with pistachio cream and strawberry jam, then soaked in a rose water-scented sugar syrup. Adapted from "Golden," a cookbook from Honey & Co. cafe in London, the buns sweet but not at all cloying, with the rose water and pistachio adding a heady perfume. Feel free to substitute apricot or raspberry preserves, or orange marmalade, for the strawberry jam. And if you’re not a fan of rose water, try orange blossom water or even brandy instead. These are best served within eight hours of baking, but leftovers can be refreshed the next day by heating them in a 300-degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until just warmed through. —Melissa Clark

Featured in: The Year’s Best Baking Cookbooks

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Ingredients

Yield:8 buns

    For the Dough

    • 5tablespoons/70 grams unsalted butter, cubed and at room temperature, more for greasing pan
    • teaspoons/5 grams active dry yeast
    • 1large egg
    • tablespoons/30 grams granulated sugar
    • cup/80 milliliters whole milk, more if needed
    • 2⅓cups/300 grams bread flour
    • Pinch of kosher salt

    For the Pistachio Cream

    • cup/80 grams pistachios
    • 6tablespoons/80 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
    • cup plus 1 tablespoon/80 grams granulated sugar
    • 1large egg
    • 1tablespoon all-purpose flour
    • 8teaspoons strawberry jam

    For the Sugar Syrup

    • ½cups/100 grams granulated sugar
    • 1tablespoon honey
    • 1tablespoon rose water
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)

516 calories; 22 grams fat; 11 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 7 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 73 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 41 grams sugars; 9 grams protein; 43 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Make the dough: Place butter, yeast, egg, sugar and milk in bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, or a large bowl if working by hand. Mixing on low speed or stirring with a wooden spoon, add flour and salt. If mixture looks dry, drizzle in another tablespoon or so of milk. Beat for 2 to 3 minutes in mixer, or 5 to 6 minutes by hand, until you get a soft but not sticky dough. Don’t worry if you still have some whole flecks of butter running through the dough; they will make your final bun quite light. Cover bowl in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours and up to 12.

  2. Step 2

    Make the pistachio cream: Put pistachios in a food processor and blitz until they resemble bread crumbs, then add butter, sugar, egg and flour and pulse until they are well combined to form a paste. Set aside. Cream can be made up to 2 days ahead and stored in refrigerator.

  3. Step 3

    Lightly butter 8 cups of a muffin tin. Remove dough from refrigerator. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a 16- by 8-inch rectangle. Work with as little flour as possible so as not to dry out dough. Use a sharp knife or pizza slicer to cut eight 4- by 4-inch squares. Lift each square into a cup in the muffin tin and push all the way down. Allow excess dough to hang over sides. Divide pistachio cream among cups, then top each with a teaspoon of strawberry jam. Fold corners over lightly to cover filling, but don’t push them down. Set aside in a warm place and let them rise for 40 minutes to 1 hour; the buns' folds should rise considerably.

  4. Step 4

    Place a clean, empty baking sheet in the center of the oven, and heat it to 400 degrees. When buns are done rising, place muffin tin on baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Turn sheet front to back, reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 10 minutes.

  5. Step 5

    While the buns bake, make the syrup: In a small pot, bring ⅓ cup plus 1 tablespoon water, the sugar and the honey to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in rose water.

  6. Step 6

    Remove buns from oven and brush generously with syrup; you don’t have to use it all. Let cool slightly in the tin before removing and serving.

Ratings

5 out of 5
204 user ratings
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Comments

As a delicious alternate to rose water, we cooked the sugar syrup with a sprig of fresh rosemary.

Having made these buns twice now I can safely say that one pistachio filling recipe is more than enough for two batches of buns. This is great because you don't have to make the paste twice which makes things easier and less cleanup when you decide to make the second batch (I froze the paste for a couple of months and it was perfectly fine).
Used about 1/3 c of simple syrup diluted with 2t water and then added only 1t rose water instead of 1T. Found it too overpowering first time. Yummy!

Made these buns & have them in the freezer for breakfast. Very unclear if I should pop them in the oven frozen as Melissa says in her video or if I need to thaw them & let them rise before baking? After reading the comments I froze them before the rise in the tin. Hope someone can answer this as a few people had questions about freezing them! Thanks!

Delicious. For once I followed a recipe (nearly) exactly, my only substitute was to use orange blossom water instead of rose water and it worked out quite nicely. The dough behaved beautifully, though it was a bit of a workout to get it rolled out after 12 hours chilling. I accidentally put all the pistachio cream ingredients in the food processor at once instead of pre-crushing the pistachios, but it worked out fine. And now I've got honey-orange blossom simple syrup for cocktails!

Excellent. Recipe made 16 if you roll out the dough enough. They are very sweet so next time I will try without the jam. I love rose so I’ll add more next time.

I wish someone from the Times food section would answer the question about freezing. Usually you freeze after the first rise. Then you let the buns have a second rise after it defrosts.The other option is to let it defrost over night in the refrigerator. Then let it come to room temp and then cook. The recipe does not specify salted or unsalted pistachios.( i assume the latter but does it make much of a difference?)Has anyone made them with salted p.nuts?

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Credits

Adapted from "Golden," by Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer (Little, Brown, 2016)

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