Pistachio, Rose and Strawberry Buns
- Total Time
- 1½ hours plus at least 2 hours' chilling
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:8 buns
- 5tablespoons/70 grams unsalted butter, cubed and at room temperature, more for greasing pan
- 1½teaspoons/5 grams active dry yeast
- 1large egg
- 2½tablespoons/30 grams granulated sugar
- ⅓cup/80 milliliters whole milk, more if needed
- 2⅓cups/300 grams bread flour
- Pinch of kosher salt
- ⅔cup/80 grams pistachios
- 6tablespoons/80 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ⅓cup plus 1 tablespoon/80 grams granulated sugar
- 1large egg
- 1tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 8teaspoons strawberry jam
- ½cups/100 grams granulated sugar
- 1tablespoon honey
- 1tablespoon rose water
For the Dough
For the Pistachio Cream
For the Sugar Syrup
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
516 calories; 22 grams fat; 11 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 7 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 73 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 41 grams sugars; 9 grams protein; 43 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Powered byPreparation
- Step 1
Make the dough: Place butter, yeast, egg, sugar and milk in bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, or a large bowl if working by hand. Mixing on low speed or stirring with a wooden spoon, add flour and salt. If mixture looks dry, drizzle in another tablespoon or so of milk. Beat for 2 to 3 minutes in mixer, or 5 to 6 minutes by hand, until you get a soft but not sticky dough. Don’t worry if you still have some whole flecks of butter running through the dough; they will make your final bun quite light. Cover bowl in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours and up to 12.
- Step 2
Make the pistachio cream: Put pistachios in a food processor and blitz until they resemble bread crumbs, then add butter, sugar, egg and flour and pulse until they are well combined to form a paste. Set aside. Cream can be made up to 2 days ahead and stored in refrigerator.
- Step 3
Lightly butter 8 cups of a muffin tin. Remove dough from refrigerator. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a 16- by 8-inch rectangle. Work with as little flour as possible so as not to dry out dough. Use a sharp knife or pizza slicer to cut eight 4- by 4-inch squares. Lift each square into a cup in the muffin tin and push all the way down. Allow excess dough to hang over sides. Divide pistachio cream among cups, then top each with a teaspoon of strawberry jam. Fold corners over lightly to cover filling, but don’t push them down. Set aside in a warm place and let them rise for 40 minutes to 1 hour; the buns' folds should rise considerably.
- Step 4
Place a clean, empty baking sheet in the center of the oven, and heat it to 400 degrees. When buns are done rising, place muffin tin on baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Turn sheet front to back, reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 10 minutes.
- Step 5
While the buns bake, make the syrup: In a small pot, bring ⅓ cup plus 1 tablespoon water, the sugar and the honey to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in rose water.
- Step 6
Remove buns from oven and brush generously with syrup; you don’t have to use it all. Let cool slightly in the tin before removing and serving.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Louise
As a delicious alternate to rose water, we cooked the sugar syrup with a sprig of fresh rosemary.
Ana
Having made these buns twice now I can safely say that one pistachio filling recipe is more than enough for two batches of buns. This is great because you don't have to make the paste twice which makes things easier and less cleanup when you decide to make the second batch (I froze the paste for a couple of months and it was perfectly fine).
Used about 1/3 c of simple syrup diluted with 2t water and then added only 1t rose water instead of 1T. Found it too overpowering first time. Yummy!
Julia
Made these buns & have them in the freezer for breakfast. Very unclear if I should pop them in the oven frozen as Melissa says in her video or if I need to thaw them & let them rise before baking? After reading the comments I froze them before the rise in the tin. Hope someone can answer this as a few people had questions about freezing them! Thanks!
Judy
I wasn't sure whether to measure the pistachios before or after shelling, so I measured after (I even carefully removed the inner skin). The filling did run out during baking, so maybe I'd lessen the amount next time. Also, it would be great if more recipes included storage suggestions. In any case, these were unbelievably delicious! Wow!!!
Scott
I'm going to try this; I don't happen to have strawberry jam, so I'll probably sub one of my other homemade jams... maybe blackberry, though I do have strawberry-rhubarb.
I'm a little unclear about the freezing: is that only to let you make it ahead of time and cook on demand, or does the freezing serve some particular purpose in how it's then baked?
Heidi
Lost my muffin pan on a cross-country move so made these "free-form": rolled out squares and filled with pistachio/jam filling, pinching corners tightly to keep in filling. Is this the BEST PASTRY ever?? Comes really close. Yeast dough came out beautifully, the flavors in the filling sublime. I didn't add sugar syrup because already sweet enough. Calling this a strawberry "bun" doesn't really do it justice. One of the best recipes on NYT website! Thanks!!
Makena
Melissa, I'd like to understand the freezing to baking instructions, please. The video indicates that after you fold the corners of the buns in the muffin tin, you can freeze and then "just pop in the oven" when ready to eat them. However, if you do that, the 40-to-60-minute rise gets skipped. Should you thaw/rise after freezing? Or, could you do the rise in the fridge over 12-48 hours, perhaps? Thanks.
Ketzirah
I tried freezing them after the rise, so I could bake them for breakfast the next morning. After the 20 minutes of baking they appeared done, but turned out they weren’t. I put them back in the oven under a tin foil tent for an additional ten minutes. Next time I’ll just plan on that if I freeze overnight, 10 @ 450, 10 @ 350 and additional 10 with tinfoil tent so they don’t burn on top. I used orange flower water instead of rose & added a little cardamom. good flavor, just needed more time
Judy
I doubled the recipe and ended up with way too much pistachio filling! This is a fantastic recipe and will definitely use the filling later, but if you only want one batch, you can make half the filling and a quarter of the rose syrup.
Jenn
Delicious. For once I followed a recipe (nearly) exactly, my only substitute was to use orange blossom water instead of rose water and it worked out quite nicely. The dough behaved beautifully, though it was a bit of a workout to get it rolled out after 12 hours chilling. I accidentally put all the pistachio cream ingredients in the food processor at once instead of pre-crushing the pistachios, but it worked out fine. And now I've got honey-orange blossom simple syrup for cocktails!
SF Novice
Excellent. Recipe made 16 if you roll out the dough enough. They are very sweet so next time I will try without the jam. I love rose so I’ll add more next time.
Karen R
I wish someone from the Times food section would answer the question about freezing. Usually you freeze after the first rise. Then you let the buns have a second rise after it defrosts.The other option is to let it defrost over night in the refrigerator. Then let it come to room temp and then cook. The recipe does not specify salted or unsalted pistachios.( i assume the latter but does it make much of a difference?)Has anyone made them with salted p.nuts?
Judy
I doubled the recipe and ended up with way too much pistachio filling! This is a fantastic recipe and will definitely use the filling later, but if you only want one batch, you can make half the filling and a quarter of the rose syrup.
Jenn A
Really good- I am a novice baker, and these turned out beautifully. Don’t be scared :)
Nercon5
These are just ok, but in fairness I probably overworked the dough. I’d recommend cutting pistachio filling by 1/3, otherwise it spills out while baking
LoisS
If there is one drawback to this gorgeous recipe, it really is heat and eat. No waiting. I have been using the leftover pistachio cream and strawberry preserves on top of lightly buttered English Muffins. Fabulous.
LoisS
I'm a fan of Ms. Clark's culinary efforts but this one sets a new bar. Wow, just out of the oven, what a delight. My neighbor has an art class and I'm sending some along with her. Beautiful brioche-like pastry. Heavenly filling. I used only 1 teaspoon of Rose water. Next Time I'll bump it up to 2.
PA
Could this be filled with peanut butter and chocolate ganache? Maybe then sprinkled with a coarse sugar...?
PA
So good! All my friends loved it! I doubled the recipe, ( made 12 ), made the normal amount of pistachio cream, and I had tons left over. Maybe a bit to much pistachio for the amount this recipe makes.
Rob
These were good. I was hoping they’d be better for all the steps involved; though to be fair, I feel that way when I bake pretty much anything. I do think I can say without bias, less pistachio filling and more jam in each bun would be an improvement.
Ketzirah
I tried freezing them after the rise, so I could bake them for breakfast the next morning. After the 20 minutes of baking they appeared done, but turned out they weren’t. I put them back in the oven under a tin foil tent for an additional ten minutes. Next time I’ll just plan on that if I freeze overnight, 10 @ 450, 10 @ 350 and additional 10 with tinfoil tent so they don’t burn on top. I used orange flower water instead of rose & added a little cardamom. good flavor, just needed more time
Brooke
Made these yesterday. Great recipe! I added 1/4tsp ground cardamom to the dough and would add maybe a 1/2tsp next time, and there will be a next time. I used apricot jam as well. I have a really pungent rose water so only used a tsp of it in the syrup, probably could have used two but I really like rose. They were good right after they were made, but I thought they absolutely shined reheated the next morning for 5-8 min in a 350 degree oven. Will make again with this plan in mind!
Anne
Pistachios and apricots are frequently paired in Middle East foods. So I made half the buns with apricot jam...quite good.
Makena
Melissa, I'd like to understand the freezing to baking instructions, please. The video indicates that after you fold the corners of the buns in the muffin tin, you can freeze and then "just pop in the oven" when ready to eat them. However, if you do that, the 40-to-60-minute rise gets skipped. Should you thaw/rise after freezing? Or, could you do the rise in the fridge over 12-48 hours, perhaps? Thanks.
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