Lemon Poppyseed Bun

5 from 1 vote

Fluffy lemon brioche dough studded with poppyseeds and filled with a brown butter lemon poppyseed filling, this lemon poppyseed bun is like one giant spring cinnamon roll!

Prep Time2 30

Cook Time45

Total Time3 15

Course: Afternoon Kaffee, Bread, Breakfast

Cuisine: American, German

Keyword: lemon, Poppyseed

Servings:

Calories: 443kcal

Equipment

Stand Mixer
12" Cast Iron Pan or 10" springform pan

Ingredients

Lemon Poppyseed Butter

50 grams poppyseeds ground
115 grams unsalted butter
75 grams granulated sugar
1 lemon juice large
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

Poppyseed dough

500 grams all purpose flour
50 grams granulated sugar
15 grams instant yeast
1 lemon zested
35 grams poppyseeds *optionally ground
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
250 milliliters whole milk luke warm
2 eggs large, room temperature
60 grams butter soft
50 milliliters heavy cream

Lemon Glaze

250 grams powdered sugar
50 grams lemon juice more as needed

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Instructions

Poppyseed Dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer whisk together the flour, sugar, yeast, lemon zest, and poppyseeds.
Sprinkle in the salt. Then add in the warm milk, two eggs, and vanilla extract.
Use a dough hook to knead everything together on medium low speed for 15 minutes until the dough has smooth edges and the bowl is clean.
Add half of the butter in and knead again until incorporated (about 5 minutes). Add in the second half of the butter and knead once more until smooth. The dough should pass the window pane test *see notes section for more info.
Shape the dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl that is at least twice the size of the dough.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a towel and place somewhere warm to rise for 1 hour. The dough should double in size.
Grind the 50 grams of poppyseeds for the filling, I recommend a spice grinder or coffee grinder for this. Pour into a medium heat safe bowl.
In a medium pan, add in the butter. Place over medium low heat (medium if using electric and your stove isn't very hot).
Cook until bubbling, then use a rubber spatula to stir it gently until brown bits form. Keep scraping and stirring the pan until the butter is heavily speckled with brown bits but not burnt.
Turn the heat off and immediately pour into the bowl with the ground poppyseeds. Stir to combine.
Then add in the sugar, lemon juice, and salt and stir again.
Place the bowl in the fridge or in an ice bath to cool it down faster. Be sure to stir it every five minutes to keep the ingredients incorporated. Cool until spreadable and then leave at room temperature.

Shape

Preheat the oven to 350 F and place a rack in the center of the oven.
Grease a seasoned cast iron pan with softened butter (what's left on the butter wrapper is usually enough) or line with a sheet of parchment.
Once the dough has doubled in size, briefly knead it to knock the air out. Roll it out on a lightly floured surface to 30 cm x 60 cm. Try to keep the dough as rectangular as possible while rolling it out and use flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking.
Spread the lemon poppyseed butter over the surface of the dough, but leave a 1" border on one of the long sides.
Roll the dough up, starting with the long side where no border was left. Be careful to keep the roll tight but don't squeeze out the butter.
Once fully rolled, place it seam side down, and use a long sharp knife to cut it in half lengthwise.
Twist the two halves together with the filling face up. Start by crossing the two over each other in the middle to make an X shape, then twist together towards both ends. Pinch the ends together so that you have one long twist.
Starting with one end, roll the twist up into a giant cinnamon roll/snail shape. Tuck the starting end and the final end under the roll (at the center and edge respectively).
Carefully lift and place it in the prepared cast iron pan.
Cover the pan with plastic and set aside for at least 45 minutes to proof while the oven preheats. It should become twice the size and puffy!

Bake

Once the oven is heated up and the bun has gotten nice and puffy, drizzle the top with heavy cream. This helps to make it nice and fluffy.
Then, place the pan onto the center rack in the oven. Set a timer for 25 minutes.
After 25 minutes have passed, rotate the pan and bake for another 20 minutes until golden brown.
Once baked, remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool slightly.
While it cools, make the glaze.

Lemon Glaze

In a medium bowl, whisk the powdered sugar and lemon juice together. If it seems to thick slowly add more juice.
If it is too thin, add more powdered sugar.
Drizzle/pour the icing over the twist, then use a pastry brush or the back of a spoon to spread it out.

Notes

Tips for making a Lemon Poppyseed Bun

It's important to keep a close eye on your butter when browning it because you want to get those delicious bits but you don't want it to burn. Once it starts to bubble, use a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to stir the bubbles around so that you can see the color underneath.

Grinding a small amount of poppyseeds can be tricky so I recommend a spice grinder or coffee grinder but a mortar and pestle is great too. A blender or food processor will have a hard time grinding the seeds.

I recommend buying poppyseeds from a bulk store or ordering them online because the spice jars tend to be on the pricey side but they will work as well!

Make sure to keep stirring the lemon poppyseed butter as it cools so that the lemon juice stays mixed in with the butter.

When making yeasted dough, ensure that you allow your mixer to fully knead the dough, until it forms a smooth ball and the sides of the bowl are cleaned. This will happen twice while kneading the poppyseed dough, once before the butter is added and once after. Sometimes I have to scraped down the sides of the bowl after the second butter addition.

When rolling out the dough, try to make it as rectangular as possible. This will help when it comes shaping and cutting the twist. I use a bench scraper to keep reshaping into a rectangle as I roll it because it can be tricky to reshape at the end.

Don't underbake this one, it will get nice and brown; cover with foil if needed. If you notice it collapsing after baking that's usually a sign that it is slightly underbaked (no big deal) or not enough gluten was developed during mixing.

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