The Mixing Bowl: Blueberry and Dark Chocolate Buns by Mountain Bakery

One of the best things about having a website, is that it gives you the opportunity to interact with all different types of people, from all over the world, that you would have otherwise never know. For me, Rose Kemmy is one of those people. A couple of years ago, Rose sent me a very kind email about how much she enjoyed and was inspired by this site. It was such a sweet note and I never forgot it! Then, just last week, I heard from her again, and guess what Rose has been doing over the past two years?? She's opened her very own home-run, micro bakery! Based in Norwich, England, Mountain Bakery is all about homemade baking, using only high quality ingredients and free range eggs. How cool is that?

Chipotle, parmesan and rock salt biscuits

Raspberry & vanilla butterfly cupcakes

Sourdough bread

Poppy and sesame seed buns

So, as you might expect, this is an extra special Mixing Bowl post. Not only because we're celebrating Rose's new bakery, but because this is the very first Mixing Bowl video!!! Hooray!!! I'm been longing for someone to do a video for years now and I couldn't be more thrilled with the one that Rose has produced! Not only is the video super cute, but the recipe, for Blueberry and Dark Chocolate Buns, is a great winter treat! Perfect for lazy Sunday mornings when it's just too cold to leave the house! I can just imagine myself snuggled up in a comfy chair with a cup of tea, a good book, and one of these buns. Heaven! Thanks, Rose! (The recipe video featured in this post was produced in collaboration with MakeMeMakeMe and Spindle Productions.)

For more info on Mountain Bakery, visit their website, right here. You can find the complete recipe for Blueberry and Dark Chocolate Buns after the jump.

Blueberry and Dark Chocolate Buns
**If you need help converting the measurements, click here for a nifty conversion calculator.

For the dough:
2 tsps dried yeast
100ml full fat (blue-top) milk
100ml double cream – mixed together with the milk
125g butter
3 egg yolks
450g strong white flour
3 tablespoons caster sugar

For the filling:
150ml blueberry jam
50g grated dark chocolate – at least 70% cocoa solids (the good stuff)
75g butter

Start off by heating milk and cream with butter in a pan, until you have a yellowy melted liquid. Set it aside until it cools slightly, you can test that it’s ready by popping a finger in – when you can’t really feel any difference in temperature it’s ready. Any hotter and you risk killing your yeast.

Pour the warm milky mix into a bowl with the yeast and sugar and leave to bubble. You should start to see it bubble after a few minutes, and see a pretty gross grey sludge appear! That’s your yeast waking up!

Mix in some of the flour and egg yolks and stir well to combine. Add the rest of the flour to your bowl and bring it together, working it into slightly sticky dough. Cover it with cling film and leave it at room temperature for a couple of hours to prove. You can tell when it will be ready, as it will have doubled in size.

Take the dough out of the bowl and on a well-floured surface use a rolling pin to stretch it out, as if you were making pastry. Spread thickly with butter, followed by blueberry jam and then sprinkle liberally with grated dark chocolate. Roll up the dough into a sausage and cut into 4 or 5cm chunks and place each into a muffin case on a baking tray. Cover the buns with a clean tea towel and leave to prove again until puffy and doubled in size. Pre-heat your oven to 225 degrees centigrade and leave to warm up whilst the buns are proving. Bake the buns for about 10 minutes, turning halfway through to make sure that they brown evenly.

Try to wait until they are cool to tuck in, as molten jam doesn’t half burn the hell out of your mouth! You can’t say that I haven’t warned you!

Note: if you want to make these buns even more decadent, once they are cool you can brush them with a little melted butter and sprinkle sugar over the top – but you didn’t hear it from me! Enjoy!