Sticky plum buns recipe

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Plums picked fresh from the tree and straight into the baking tray. Helen Jessup gives us her seductively sweet sticky plum buns recipe.

We picked our first (and only) crop of plums recently, and it would appear that we picked them just at the right moment, as they were soft enough for the stone to fall out easily, yet firm enough to hold their shape.

A few were eaten straight from the tree and were lovely and sweet and juicy, and I can’t wait until next year for a (hopefully) bigger crop.

I wanted to use them in a recipe that would highlight them rather than hide them away under a pie crust or crumble topping. I decided that they would be a perfect topping for a sweet bun, and I was right. Once the plums are cooked they soften and turn almost ‘jammy’ whilst still retaining their sharpness, which contrasts well with the sweetness of the icing.

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

  • 500g of strong white bread flour
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 50g of caster sugar
  • 7g of dried yeast
  • 50g of butter, melted
  • milk, 225-250ml
  • 8 plums, de-stoned and halved
  • 50g of butter, melted
  • 100g of icing sugar

Method

1
Add the flour, salt, sugar and yeast to a bowl. Pour in the butter and 225ml of milk
2
Mix well and bring everything together to form a dough, adding more milk as necessary. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for approximately 10 minutes, until the dough is soft and smooth
3
Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with cling film and leave until doubled in size (approx 1.5-2 hours)
4
Once the dough has proved turn it out onto a floured surface and knead it again for a minute and roll into a sausage shape
5
Cut the dough into 16 equal pieces - you may want to weigh your dough to make sure your buns are equal in size
6
Roll each piece of dough into a ball and place on a floured baking sheet, spaced well apart
7
Using the end of a rolling pin (or similar implement) make an indentation in each ball of dough, and place a plum half on top
8
Cover the baking sheets with cling film and leave for an hour
9
Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6
10
Brush the buns and plums generously with the melted butter
11
Bake for approx 15 minutes until golden brown and the plums are soft and just starting to ooze their juice
12
Allow to cool before icing them – mix the icing sugar with a little water until a drizzling consistency is reached, and then pipe or drizzle the icing over the top of the buns
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Helen is a recipe developer and food blogger living in the Midlands with her husband and three children.

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