Golden with toasted hues of brown, Cranberry Cream Cheese Buns are iconic breads that can be found in Singapore local bakeries. Having grown up eating these buns as part of my childhood, I am really glad to be sharing my own version of these Cranberry Cream Cheese Buns which are fluffy, lightly savoury and most importantly, soft!
As these Cranberry Cream Cheese Buns are one of my favourite breads I look forward to having, I develop particular expectations for them which I reflect in my recipe.
Firstly, neither the bun nor the cream cheese filling should be too sweet. Then, the bun must also have the right amount of feeling as having too much of a good thing (the filling) or one can feel cloyed. Finally and equally important, the buns must be soft!
Having the finish in mind, I crafted my recipe for these Cranberry Cream Cheese Buns which I am so absolutely happy with.
Interestingly and for avid bakers, you would have noticed similarities between this recipe and my Hokkaido Milk Buns recipe. This is because both uses a water roux method and has similar proportions of ingredients. However, I made sure to create a separate page for this Cranberry Cream Cheese Buns recipe as it uses a different method to create the distinct disc shapes.
In addition, I have included the recipe for the cream cheese filling which is less sweet and still creamy!
Without further ado, the recipe.
Fluffy Cranberry Cream Cheese Buns Recipe
by Javier Tan June-20-2021
These iconic Cranberry Cream Cheese Buns are soft and fluffy with a lightly sweet and fragrant Cream Cheese Filling to match!
Ingredients
For Water Roux / Tangzhong:
- 3 Tablespoon + 1 Teaspoon or 50ml Water
- 3 Tablespoons or 45ml Milk
- 2 Tablespoons or 18g Bread Flour, Sifted
For Bread:
- 2 and 1/2 Cups or 300g Bread Flour
- 1/4 Cup or 50g Granulated White Sugar
- 1 Large Egg, Room Temperature, 55g each
- 3/4 Teaspoon or 4g Table Salt
- 1 and 1/2 Teaspoons or 7g Instant Dry Yeast
- 3 Tablespoons or 45g Unsalted Butter, Melted
- 1/2 Cup + 2 Tablespoon or 150g Liquid Milk
- All that was made Water Roux / Tangzhong
- 30g / Handful of Cranberries
For Cream Cheese Filling:
- 1 Cup or 240g of Cream Cheese, softened
- 1/4 Cup or 30g of Powdered Sugar, Sifted
- 2 Teaspoons or 10ml of Milk (optional, if not coming together)
Instructions
First Proofing:
- Prepare the Water Roux / Tangzhong. Mix all 3 ingredients and heat using a saucepan at medium low heat until the flour has all dissolved and you form a sticky, slightly thickened gel.
- Cover the water roux and leave to cool. Meanwhile, mix Bread Flour, Sugar, Salt, and Yeast together in a large bowl. Make sure to put the salt and yeast at separate places before mixing.
- To another small saucepan, melt the softened butter at low heat.
- Once fully melted, turn off the heat and add in egg and milk and mix well until it forms a single wet mixture.
- Add in half of the wet mixture (water roux + butter, egg, milk mixture) into the large bowl containing the dry ingredients and knead using a dough hook attachment at high speed for 1 min 30 seconds or until clumps can be observed.
- Mix in the remaining half and knead well for another 6-7 minutes at medium high speed. Once done, the dough will no longer stick to the bowl and it will pass the windowpane test.
- Transfer the dough to a large bowl and sprinkle some water on top of the dough. Cover it with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and proof for an hour.
Cream Cheese Filling:
- While waiting, assemble the cream cheese filling by mixing the softened cream cheese and powdered sugar together with a hand mixer. If it doesn’t come together, add the milk and whisk again.
Second Proofing and Baking:
- Once an hour is up, poke a hole at the center of the dough to release the excess air.
- Knead the dough for a couple of minutes on a surface with bread flour and allocate approx. 50 – 70g for one bun. I stuffed each ball of dough with 2 tablespoons of cream cheese filling for each at the center before rolling to form a ball. At this stage, I roll it in a coat of dried cranberries.
- Flatten by rolling out to form disc shape and then transfer to your baking tray ( I am using a 13 inch ), then cover and proof for another 25-30 minutes.
- Start preheating the oven at 180 degrees C when the proofing is about to be completed.
- Bake for about 19-23 minutes until lightly golden brown with another metal tray pressing on top of the buns to keep the disc shape. I bake 4 – 5 at one go as they do spread out a little.
- Serve and enjoy!
- Prep time:
- Cook time:
- Total time:
- Yield: 9 – 12 Delicious Cranberry Cream Cheese Buns!
Notes:
- If you would like to be updated for more recipes which I strive to create to perfection for sharing and for free, do check out my Instagram, Facebook Page, or YouTube 🙂 Thank you so much for all of your support! Feel free to tag me or link back here!
- Store at room temperature for up to 5 days. Optimally, eat it within 4 days!
- Feel free to ask if you have any questions. Will try to help soonest!
Enjoy!
– Bakeomaniac, Javier Tan
Hi Javier,
I am confused. May I know which milk in the recipe is milk powder and which is liquid milk? You answered milk powder(13/11) for one reply and liquid milk for another reply(17/12)
Hey M Lim! Thanks for dropping by my blog and for noticing the disparity! Seems like I have mixed up two recipes and I will be issuing a correction notice.
We will be using liquid milk completely! I’ve corrected the blog post and will be correcting the (13/11) comment. Thanks so much for spotting it once again :-)!
Hi sorry can I ask, does the 150g of “milk” in the ingredients for the bread refer to liquid milk or milk powder? If it refers to milk powder, then can I ask how much milk I should be adding to the melted butter in step 4 of the instructions?
Hey Skye, thanks for dropping by my blog and checking the recipe out!
It refers to liquid milk, and should be ml but ml and g are roughly interchangeable for milk 🙂 Hope that helps!
Thank you for your reply! I threw out the first batch of ingredients because I put 150g of milk powder instead… oops! But it eventually turned out very soft and tasty! Can I also ask if the dough is meant to be very sticky?
No problem 🙂 I am glad you got a soft and tasty final product!
You are right that the dough (when making) tend to be very sticky due to the high moisture content, it’s an accurate observation :p. My bread recipes tend to add less flour and more liquid so that there’s more leeway in adding extra flour and dusting when working with it! Also produces a very soft finish as compared to higher amount of flour because flour gives structure / denseness
Hi Javier,
the milk in the recipe is referring to milk powder or milk in liquid form? Thanks for sharing
Hey! Apologies for the late reply, I was referring to milk in liquid form. Hope that helps 🙂
Correction notice: 22nd Jan 2022. Originally, the comment said it was referring to milk powder, but actually, it is milk in liquid form. Thank you M Lim for spotting this!
Hello Javier!
Would it b ok if i just plonk everything into my breadmaker n use knead mode?
Hey Joey! Yup it will most definitely be okay but just in case, the cream cheese has to be wrapped in separately only after the bread is done!
Thank you so much for sharing yummy yummy recepie…I will definitely try ……..
Hey Richen, thank you so much for dropping by my blog and I am looking forward to see you try 😀 Feel free teo let me know if you have any questions!