Buckwheat sultana buns – gluten and sugar free

Cottage cheese or Ricotta cheese buns, still warm with a cup of tea or coffee, make our favourite late breakfast in winter. Usually I bake rice flour and poppy seed buns, but my husband requested buckwheat ones, with no sugar and added sultanas. When I baked them the first time I was quite sceptical about the overall taste, but after tasting them, agreed that it is a nice bun to start the day. It is soft, spongy, a touch chewy and reasonably sweet from sultanas. My version, a bun with cinnamon sprinkle on top, freshly baked and warm with a knob of butter, is a pure delight.

Buckwheat flour, gluten free option from Bio-Oz, never disappoints. It is my number one gluten free flour of choice, excellent for everything, from bread to sophisticated cakes. For 8 good size buns you will need only 95g of flour, hard to believe, but true. The nutritional value of these buns is exceptional, not only for gluten free bakes, but for every baking product. Additional ingredients include eggs, cottage/ricotta cheese, full fat sour cream and pure apple puree. The only requirement for a nice but is to whisk eggs with sea salt and apple puree to increase the volume of the mixture 6fold. Easily done with a whisk attachment from a stick blender. It took me less that 3 minutes.

Ingredients:

2 large eggs, 110g without shell
pinch of sea salt
50g of pure apple puree, I used blended apple pie filling
95g of Bio-Oz buckwheat flour (you might need more if using another brand)
6g of baking powder
170g cottage cheese (homemade), can be replaced by dense Ricotta cheese from deli department
50g of full fat sour cream, I used Coles brand
50g organic sultanas
cinnamon powder mix with Demerara sugar (optional)

Preparation:

if sultanas are too dry, soak them for 5-10 minutes in hot water, rinse and dry on paper towels
mix buckwheat flour with baking powder
add sour cream to soft cheese and combine them together to make a paste
whisk eggs with a pinch of sea salt until the volume triples (in my case it took only 70 seconds
add apple puree (cold from the fridge)
whisk until the mixture doubles in volume, in my case it reached the mark 900ml in a measuring glass, it took another 75 seconds
incorporate egg mixture into soft cheese paste, do it in three goes
add dry ingredients to wet, mix them together with a whisk
add sultanas, mix them in with spatula
the dough will be soft and very sticky
I work with the dough like that with wet palms
form buns with your hands, or use 2 spoons, or ice cream spoon
use baking paper or silicone mat for baking
bake 25 minutes in pre-heated to 170C oven, fan forced