Toronto Blueberry Buns, My Way

A couple of weeks ago, I went into the school's kitchen to talk to the cook about something and I left with about five jars of unopened blueberry jelly. He said he needed to use them up before the end of school and was hoping I would so something with them. For days the jelly sat on my kitchen table while I brainstormed recipes that I could make with them. Crumble bars? Been there. Jam shortbread bars? Done that. Finally, it hit me- Marcy Goldman has a recipe for Toronto Blueberry Buns. That is exactly what I was going to make. These classic buns are made with a fresh fruit filling, but I decided to rework the recipe a bit to fit my needs. So I used most of the blueberry jam and swapped out shortening for the butter, as per their original recipe, anyway. I'm not going to lie, these would have been sublime with fresh blueberry filling but alas fresh, or even frozen, blueberries cost a pretty penny. Anyway, this recipe made plenty of gargantuan buns. Feel free to make them smaller. They were so large that girls took halves. They didn't disappear until last night, when I cut the remaining buns in half for them and plated them. Lots of girls loved them in their entirety, and some loved the pastry but were skeptical about the filling. I was totally with them on that, but feel free to use a better jam or your own homemade blueberry filling. Either way, you should give these a try. While a bit time consuming to shape, they are fun to make. A couple of technical notes: I made my dough the night before and stashed it in the fridge. Although the dough doesnt rise much, it was easier to work with when cold. Also, I scaled my dough at 3 ounce pieces. They made large buns. Feel free to dial them back to 2 ounces each. These buns are off to Yeastspotting!

Toronto Blueberry Buns, My Way
adapted from A Passion for Baking

Dough:
1 cup water
1 tbsp instant yeast
5 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Filling:
lots of good quality blueberry jam

To Finish:
1 large egg, beaten
turbinado sugar

Place all of the ingredients into the bowl of your mixer.

Using the paddle attachment, mix on low until all of the ingredients are combined. Switch to the dough hook and knead on low for 8 minutes. Add more flour as necessary until the dough is soft. It'll firm up in the fridge.

Place in a greased bowl and turn to coat. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, remove the dough from the fridge and scale your dough into pieces. Shape into balls for easier rolling.

Using a rolling pin, roll each dough ball into a medium sized circle.

Spoon a nice amount of jelly into the center of each dough round.

Seal the edges of the circle turnover style. Use a fork to crimp the edges, making sure they are well sealed.

Place on a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet. Set aside to rise for about an hour. Towards the end of proofing, preheat the oven to 350.

Brush the buns with the beaten egg and sprinkle generously with turbinado sugar.

Bake for about 25 minutes or until the buns are golden brown and delicious. Cool on a wire rack. Store in a ziploc bag.