These Raspberry Iced Buns are a New Zealand Bakery Classic. They have a super soft Tangzhong bread roll, filled with raspberry jam and finished with sweet pink icing. The dough for these soft bread rolls is super versatile and you can divide and use to make a whole range of soft bread roll recipes!
Table of contents
- Raspberry Jam Iced Buns
- How to make Frosted Buns
- Tangzhong Buns
- One soft bread roll dough, many uses
- Why did my bread rolls go wrinkly?
- Can this recipe be made without a mixer?
- How to freeze bread rolls or buns
- How to slow down rising at any time.
- How to tell when buns are baked
- FAQ for Iced Buns
- For more New Zealand Recipes, check out:
- Recipe For Iced Buns
Raspberry Jam Iced Buns
Hi hi! Just popping in here to share the recipe for these Raspberry Jam Iced Buns with you. I developed the recipe for my super soft burger buns a while back, and I am just fully obsessed with how perfect and soft the dough is that I had to turn it into a bunch of other recipes too.
These Raspberry Iced Buns go by many names. We called them 'pink buns' growing up and they are a NZ bakery / supermarket bakery classic. I guess they first originated as a way for bakeries to repurpose bread rolls by filling them with jam and finishing them with icing. Iced buns were the ultimate after school snack.
I of course had to recreate them with my super soft dough. I didn't stray too far from the original - perfect, super soft bun, raspberry jam filling, and a super sweet but very very nostalgic pink icing. They taste just right.
How to make Frosted Buns
These Raspberry Iced Buns follow the same format as my Super Soft Burger Bun recipe. The dough is exactly the same, they are just made smaller, baked together, then finished with a raspberry jam bun filling and a sweet pink icing.
- Make your Tangzhong - Tangzhong is made by cooking together bread flour and milk in a pan until a thick paste forms. This goes into the bowl of the stand mixer.
- Add cold milk - I borrowed this tip from King Arthur - they add cold milk to the hot Tangzhong to cool it down so it's cool enough that it doesn't kill the yeast.
- Mix in remaining ingredients - Pop everything else except for the butter into the bowl and throw it onto your mixer. Let it mix for about 10-15 mins until it is smooth and elastic and pulling away from the sides.
- Add butter - Room temperature butter goes in and you keep mixing until it is incorporated. This only takes a few minutes. Make sure your butter isn't too soft here or it will get all melty.
- First rise - Shape the dough into a ball and stick it into a bowl. Rise it at room temperature, or see further down the post for instructions on how to do the overnight rise
- Pre-shape your buns - Divide your dough into however many buns you like and give them a quick pre-shape, then rest them for 10 minutes, quickly shape again, and arrange on a pan.
- Do the second rise - This is another room temperature rise, where the dough will get super puffy. The buns will rise together.
- Egg wash and bake - The egg wash helps the buns to bake up beautifully golden. You can use milk here too if you want. I like egg wash. Bake until they are golden brown.
- Fill with Jam - These iced buns are filled with jam. I used raspberry, but you can use whatever you like. Poke a hole in the tops of the buns with a chopstick then pipe the jam into each bun.
- Finish with icing - I finished these iced buns with a super simple bun icing. I made mine pink, same as what I grew up eating, but you're welcome to leave it plain. You can also add some coconut on here too if you like.
Tangzhong Buns
The Tangzhong method used for these iced buns is an Asian Technique, and involves cooking part of the flour and water in a bread recipe to form a thick paste, or a roux. The process of making the Tangzhong gelatanises some of the starch in the flour. This means the flour is able to absorb a lot more water, and also holds onto it throughout the dough making process. This gives an incredibly soft bread which stays soft a lot longer than other bread does. Tangzhong (which is a Chinese word) is made by cooking the liquid and flour together, while the Yudane method (which is Japanese) involves adding boiling liquid to the flour and leaving it to set overnight.
The benefit of using a roux means that the bread dough can stay 'lean' - so very little added fat etc but still stay extremely tender and soft. The Tangzhong means the bread stays soft for a long time, which means these keep and freeze super well. It works perfectly in these iced buns!
One soft bread roll dough, many uses
The thing that I love the most about this Tangzhong based bread dough is how versatile it is. We all know how much I love a base recipe. I truly believe that it is such a great thing to have. You can take one base recipe and master it, then your options are endless. And this dough is such a good example of this (along with my base brioche dough). It can be used in all sorts of applications - savoury and sweet. It can be small batched like in these cheese buns.
The other thing that you can do is to make one batch (or a double), and make a few different shapes from the same dough. You could shape some into burger buns, then some into these iced buns. You could also use this dough for these baked cream buns and shape them into finger buns - I haven't tried this yet but I can't wait as I know they will taste just like how I remember.
Why did my bread rolls go wrinkly?
This dough is super soft and fluffy, so when the buns come out of the oven, they may deflate a little. They go a little wrinkly and get little folds in the edges.
This is totally normal - it just comes from the dough being really soft. Mine always collapse, so do not worry if yours do a little too!
Can this recipe be made without a mixer?
I haven't tried this iced buns recipe without a mixer, but I really do think that this particular recipe needs it. Because the dough needs to develop a lot of strength and is quite sticky, along with having a really long kneading time, it is best that you use the mixer for it.
You are welcome to try making this recipe by hand but I have no idea how it will go. Alternatively my small batch no mixer brioche would work quite well here if you wanted to make a small batch with a different dough. You could double it too to make more rolls!
How to freeze bread rolls or buns
The great thing about these super soft Tangzhong iced buns is that they are super easy to freeze. If you would like to freeze some of the rolls, do not fill them with jam or frost them. Instead, pop them into a ziploc bag or lightly wrap.
To defrost the rolls, leave to sit at room temperature. You can refresh them in the microwave or oven to freshen. Fill and frost as directed.
How to slow down rising at any time.
If at any time you're making bread and you find you need a little more time while it is rising / you're not ready to bake yet, pop it into the fridge. Putting dough into the fridge slows down the rising time. Just make sure the dough is nicely covered so that it doesn't dry out on the surface.
How to tell when buns are baked
You want to bake these until they are a nice golden brown. However there is another way to check too if you want - you can take their internal temperature using a probe thermometer. For a dough like this, 195°f -200°c (87°c - 93°c) is an indicator that they are done. I often do this just to double check but if you don't have a thermometer you don't need to do this step!
FAQ for Iced Buns
You can see a full list of all the tools I use here
Bread flour is a higher protein flour - high grade flour works if you are in NZ!
If you don't have it, you can just leave it out!
These cheese buns are a small batch version of this dough - this dough is also egg free.
Yes, that will work just fine. What you need to do is pop the tangzhong in your stand mixer bowl then add the cold milk. Stir around - this will warm the milk up a little. Add the sugar then add the yeast then leave to sit for 5-10 minutes until foamy. Then proceed with the rest of the recipe!
I haven't tried it, but it should be able to. These have quite a long rise time, so you will want to leave the dough standing out on the counter for 30 minutes or so before putting it into the fridge overnight, just to kick start the rise time. The second rise the next day will take a little longer too as you are starting with cold dough.
It should work just fine. Use something that is on the creamier side if you can and just do a 1:1 sub for the milk.
For more New Zealand Recipes, check out:
Made this recipe and love it?
If you made this recipe then I would LOVE for you to leave me a review below to let me know how you liked it! Also, please make sure to tag me on Instagram if you make it!
A note on salt and oven temperature
It is important to note the type of salt that is called for in a recipe. I use Diamond Crystal salt throughout my recipes - if you use a different sort of kosher salt or regular table salt you will need to adjust accordingly as some salt is 'saltier' than others. Morton's salt is twice as salty, so you will need half the quantity. Same goes for a regular table salt. I am working to get gram measurements throughout my recipes for salt but still getting there.
All oven temperatures are conventional unless otherwise stated. If you are baking on fan / convection, you will need to adjust the temperature. An oven thermometer is a great investment to ensure that your oven is the correct temperature.
Using the double / triple function in the recipe card
You will notice that there is a '1X' '2X' '3X' button in my recipe card. This can be used for doubling or tripling a recipe. However, please note that this only doubles the ingredient quantities in the ingredients list and NOT in the method. If there are quantities or pan sizes in the method of the recipe (for example weigh out 150g brown butter), you will need to scale this number manually. It will also not change the baking time in the recipe so you will need to adjust this yourself too. It is always a good idea to read through a recipe fully before doubling it just to check this. If you would like to scale this recipe or convert for another pan size, use my calculator!
Tools and equipment
For a list of my go-to tools and equipment, I have a post you can refer to here.
Why is this recipe in grams?
I post my recipes in grams as it is the most accurate way to bake. Cups are not only inaccurate but they vary in volume worldwide. There is no way for me to provide one cup measure that works for everyone. However, posting in weight fixes this issue. If you would like the recipe in cups you are welcome to convert it yourself via google, but please do not ask me to do it for you as I am not comfortable providing a recipe using a method that I have not tested. Baking with a scale is easy, accurate, and also makes cleanup super simple. Here is the scale that I use if you would like a recommendation! Here's to accurate baking!
Recipe For Iced Buns
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These Raspberry Iced Buns are a New Zealand Bakery Classic. They have a super soft Tangzhong bread roll, filled with raspberry jam and finished with sweet pink icing. The dough for these soft bread rolls is super versatile and you can divide and use to make a whole range of soft bread roll recipes!
Ingredients
Tangzhong
- 25g bread flour
- 120g whole milk
Buns
- All of the Tangzhong
- 200g cold milk
- 20g granulated sugar
- 7g (2 tsp) instant yeast - see FAQ for using active yeast.
- 30g milk powder
- 1 ½ tsp kosher salt
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 360g bread flour
- 45g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- Egg wash - 1 egg whisked with 1 Tbsp water
- To fill - 200g Jam of your choice (I used raspberry)
Icing
- 260g powdered sugar
- 20g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- Pinch of salt (leave this out if using salted butter)
- ¼ tsp vanilla bean paste
- 20g boiling water
- A tiny bit of pink or red food colouring, to tint icing pink
Instructions
TANGZHONG
- Combine the milk and bread flour in a medium saucepan. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring continuously, until the mixture thickens into a paste. Remove from heat and transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer.
BUNS
- Add the cold milk and mix to combine, checking with your finger that it is not hotter than lukewarm (the cold milk should cool the hot tangzhong enough). Add the sugar, yeast, milk powder, salt, egg, and flour. Transfer to the mixer and fit with the dough hook.
- Mix the dough on medium speed until it is smooth and elastic and clearing the sides of the bowl, about 12-15 minutes. Don’t freak out, as it is sticky - if you have made it by weight you will be fine. Set a timer and walk away from the mixer if you need. If after that time it really isn’t coming together and you’re worried, add flour a teaspoon at a time just until the dough just comes together.
- Add the butter and mix for a further 5 minutes until incorporated. The dough should be smooth and elastic, and pass the windowpane test.
- Turn the dough out onto a surface and flour very lightly if needed to bring into a tight ball with a bench scraper. Transfer to a greased bowl and cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
- Place the dough in a warm spot and rise until doubled in size, approximately 1 ½ hours.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Grease and line a 9x13” (23x33cm) baking pan.
- Divide the dough into 12 equal portions, each weighing about 67g. Working with one piece of dough at a time, flatten out the piece of dough, then tuck up into a ball, then turn the ball seam side down and roll into a tight ball by cupping your hand to create a 'claw' shape, using the tension from the counter to roll the dough tightly. Place to the side and cover lightly with plastic wrap. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough, grouping the balls together on your counter with a little space between them so they don't touch.
- Leave the buns to rest for 10 minutes, then give them a quick roll to tighten them back up. Arrange them evenly in the pan. Alternatively you can space them out individually.
- Cover the buns either with a lid, or some lightly greased plastic wrap, or place a second sheet pan upside down over the top to act as a lid. Leave the buns to rise again for about 45 minutes to an hour. You want them to puff up and double in size, and when you press lightly on one, it should leave a small indentation that doesn’t quite spring back. See images for how they look just after rolling and then risen. Remember that rising time depends on your environment so go by how the dough is looking, rather than a rising time.
- When there is about 20 minutes to go in the rise, preheat the oven to 360°f / 185°c. Brush the buns with egg wash. Bake the buns for 15-20 minutes, until deep golden brown. Remove from the oven. Leave to cool in the pan. The buns will wrinkle slightly as they cool - this is due to them being very soft and is totally normal.
ASSEMBLY
- Transfer the jam to a piping bag fitted with a round piping tip or with the tip snipped off. Alternatively you can use a ziploc bag.
- Poke a hole in the top of each of the buns using a chopstick. Wiggle it around to create space for the jam.
- Pipe jam into the tops of the buns. If you would like, to check that there is enough jam in the bun so you know how much to add, you can put a clean finger into the bun to check how much jam is in there. (this sounds weird but it's the only way to check haha)
- Combine all icing ingredients in a medium bowl until a thick, smooth icing forms. Adjust boiling water or powdered sugar until you get the right consistency - you want it to be thick enough to spread.
- Divide the icing between the buns. Smooth using an offset spatula or the back of a spoon.
- Leave to set until a slight crust forms on the icing or eat straight away.
Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.
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