Quick and easy Speculoos and White Chocolate Buns. A rich fluffy bun filled generously with luscious speculoos spread and white chocolate chips, a perfect sweet treat.

Recently at work, we had a charity bake sale event for which I wanted to participate by making some desserts. Unfortunately, life got a bit busy so I couldn’t experiment or do as much as I wanted, however, I went for my trusted sweet buns recipe and played around with some flavours and shaping. One of the favourites of the day, were these speculoos and white chocolate buns! Here in Luxembourg everything speculoos/biscoff flavoured is always so well received, so I knew these were going to disappear in a few minutes!

What are these Speculoos and White Chocolate Buns

Speculoos or Biscoff, is a flavour which is truly taking over all desserts. Even on my website, I already have plenty of recipes with this flavour, specifically with the spread, such as these Speculoos doughnuts, Speculoos scones or else these Mini Speculoos Cheesecakes. These buns are filled with a glorious amount of luscious Speculoos spread and topped with white chocolate chips. Speculoos and white chocolate both have a rich aroma and strong flavour profiles, however when they get together through their contrast they manage to amplify their flavour creating such a lovely balance.

What is Speculoos?

Speculoos, or also known as biscoff, are these spiced dark biscuits popular in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. Originally made for St. Nicholas day and during Christmas days. Nowadays, they are also popularly served with tea and coffee in coffee shops. These biscuits are spiced with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom and white pepper. From these biscuits a spread version is also available, which is extremely delicious!

How to make the brioche buns?

The recipe for these brioche buns is quite straightforward, however you need patience in order for the dough to produce enough gluten in it, which will then become a light and fluffy bun. Ideally, the dough is worked in a stand mixer with a dough hook and is left to knead for a while so that this gluten develops. So as to check whether the dough is ready to be let to rest, I recommend to use the windowpane test.

What is the windowpane test?

To carry out the windowpane test, take a small amount of dough and hold it with both hands (using the thumbs and first two fingers). Gently, spread open your hands so to stretch the dough. Keep stretching gently until the centre part of the dough is translucent. If the dough doesn’t break that means that the gluten has developed and you can prepare your dough for the rising part. However, if the dough breaks easily when you open your fingers, the gluten hasn’t yet fully developed. Therefore, transfer the dough ball back to the main dough and let it knead for more minutes. Try again until the dough passes the windowpane test.

FAQs

How to store these buns?

Whenever I make these buns, I always double the batch and freeze most of them; they freeze beautifully! When a craving strikes, simply warm one up for a few minutes, and it’s just as delicious as fresh. If you prefer, you can store them in the fridge for up to 5 days, but let’s be honest, resisting them every time you open the fridge is the real challenge!

Ingredients

Brioche Buns

300 g strong bread flour
125 ml milk lukewarm
45 g castor sugar
7 g active dry yeast 1 sachet
1 egg
30 g butter room temperature and cubed
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Egg wash – 1 egg whisked with 1 tsp water

Speculoos Filling

100 g white chocolate chips
200 g speculoos spread

Instructions

In a mixer bowl activate the yeast by adding the yeast, milk and sugar. Let the mixture foam for about 15 minutes.
In a separate bowl add together the flour, salt and vanilla extract. Set aside
Once the yeast is activated add the dry ingredients together with the egg to the mixer bowl. With a hook attachment knead the dough for about 3 minutes, until a soft dough starts to take shape.
Then gently add the diced butter one piece at a time until all the butter is incorporated. Let the dough knead for about 10 minutes. Make sure it passes the windowpane test*.
Cover the dough and let it rest for an hour in the warmest place in your kitchen until it doubles in size.
Line a large baking tray with parchment paper and dust it with flour. Set aside
On a floured work surface roll the dough into a rectangle, roughly 40 x 30cm. Spread the slightly warm speculoos spread over the dough and cover it on top with the chocolate chips. Fold the dough lengthways, by closing the bottom half of the dough first, and then fold the other half on top. Cut widthways into 12 strips about 3 cm each.
Twist each strip a couple of times and roll on itself and tuck the sides underneath. Don’t worry if it is messy, that is how it should be. Place each bun on the prepared baking tray, leaving some space between each one. Cover the baking sheet loosely and let sit for about 30 minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 200°C.
Brush the buns with the egg wash and bake them for about 20 minutes, until golden.
Before transferring the buns to a cooling rack, let rest for about 5 minutes on the baking tray.
Store rolls in an airtight container. These morning buns can be enjoyed at room temperature or slightly warmed up before serving.

Notes

*To carry out the windowpane test, take a small amount of dough and hold it with both hands (using the thumbs and first two fingers). Gently, spread open your hands so to stretch the dough. Keep stretching gently until the centre part of the dough is translucent. If the dough doesn’t break that means that the gluten has developed and you can prepare your dough for the rising part. However, if the dough breaks easily when you open your fingers, the gluten hasn’t yet fully developed so it needs more work. Therefore, transfer the dough ball back to the main dough and let it knead for more minutes. Try again until the dough passes the windowpane test.

Nutrition