Gluten Free Caramilk Lemon Buns

Recipe Video

These sweet gluten free buns are the ultimate afternoon treat. Irresistibly soft, sweet bread filled with luscious caramilk chocolate chunks with tangy lemon and cream cheese they'll make you forget all your worries.

These buns were inspired by a recipe I saw one day in a magazine. This happens to me pretty often - I see something gluten-filled in a magazine and think "that looks delicious! I wonder if I can make a gluten free version..." Sometimes the results are... interesting, but sometimes I land on something amazing - enter these Caramilk and Lemon Buns!

Caramilk is a caramelised white chocolate made by Cadbury available here in Australia. If you can't get your hands on the caramelised version plain old white chocolate will still be super delicious. The chocolate in this recipe is paired with lemon zest and juice, vanilla and cream cheese to create the most amazing creamy, zesty and rich combination. Surrounded by the softest gluten free bread ever, it's pretty darn irresistible.

These buns really aren't too tricky to put together. First up is the sweet dough itself. I make mine in a stand mixer, but you can do it by hand as well. I wouldn't recommend a hand mixer - the dough will climb up the beaters and leave you in a sticky mess! As usual in my bread recipes we start by combining the psyllium and yeast with the liquids, and we mix the dry ingredients separately. Once your psyllium has formed a gel and the yeast is frothy it's as simple as tipping them into the dry ingredients along with an egg and some butter and mix! The dough will be fairly sticky but it should be manageable. Once it's thoroughly mixed it's time for the first prove - it should double in size.

During the dough's first prove we make the filling. It's important to have your cream cheese at room temperature, that way you can get the mixture really soft and smooth and easy to spread onto your dough. If it's too thick it'll tear into your precious dough.

I like to roll out my dough on a sheet of lightly floured baking paper. The dough can sometimes get a bit sticky (especially if you've used different flours), and the paper just gives you a bit of an insurance policy. I find the best way to go about rolling the buns is to cut separate strips of dough with a pizza cutter and roll them individually. Because the dough is soft this method helps to avoid it all becoming a misshapen, sticky mess!

The buns will sit pretty close together in the tin, and they should just about fill it up after proving. To figure out if they're completely baked I like to use a skewer as you would for a cake. You'll always see some cream cheese and melted chocolate when you insert it in the middle, but you shouldn't see any sticky, thick uncooked dough.

The bread will still be pretty soft straight

out of the oven so they need to cool a bit in the dish before you remove them onto a wire rack. We can make the glaze while they cool. It's a simple icing sugar, lemon juice and vanilla situation, so not demanding in the slightest. The only thing to be careful with is not adding too much liquid. I usually find that a pretty thick but just runny consistency is best to avoid it sliding straight off the buns.

The buns are best on the day they're made, but any leftovers will keep in an airtight container for a few days. Reheat them for about 30 seconds in the microwave and they'll be incredible!