Easy Homemade Raisin Buns

These fluffy, not too sweet, raisin buns made with yeasted dough make a perfect breakfast, brunch or snack.

This raisin bun recipe is so fluffy, delicious and easy to follow (perfect for beginner bakers). Made with yeast, milk, flour, raisins, egg and sugar. Perfect for breakfast, brunch, afternoon tea or as a snack.

The raisin yeast rolls taste great on their own or spread with jam, nutella or butter. Feel free to cut down on the raisins or leave them out completely, if you’re not a fan like my father in law just make chocolate buns instead.

What you’ll need to make raisin buns:

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 125 ml (about 1/2 cup/ 4.4 fl oz) lukewarm milk
• 260 g (2 cups + 2 tablespoons/ 9 oz) plain flour (all purpose flour)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 medium egg
• 30 g (about 3 tablespoons/ 1 oz ) butter, melted
• 100 g (2/3 cup/ 3.5 oz) raisins
• 2 ½ teaspoons dry yeast

You’ll also need:

• about 1 teaspoon sunflower oil for greasing
• 1 egg yolk and ½ tablespoon milk
• about 1 tablespoon melted butter to brush the buns after baking
• baking sheet and parchment paper

How to make yeast buns with raisins

Begin by combining lukewarm milk, 2 tablespoons flour (from the 260 g (2 cups + 2 tablespoons/ 9 oz)), 1 tablespoon sugar (from 2 tablespoons sugar) and yeast in a jar. Whisk well and let the mixture stand for 5 minutes.

In the meantime combine the remaining flour, the remaining sugar, egg and salt in a large bowl. Pour over the yeast – sugar mixture. Start mixing, while adding the melted butter.

How to knead the sweet yeast dough for raisin buns

Knead the dough very well, until you see bubbles in the dough or until it’s no more sticking on the walls of the bowl. I normally knead my dough like this:

1) If I’m kneading it with the hand mixer, I knead the dough for about 8 minutes at low speed and then for 5 minutes on medium high speed.

2) With the kitchen machine I knead the dough for 7 minutes at low speed (speed 1, on Bosch kitchen machine) and for 3 more minutes at medium high speed (speed 3).

3) With the hands, I knead the dough for about 10 to 12 minutes. If the dough is sticky when kneading with the hands, just oil them with few drops of vegetable oil. If you’re using a heavy duty kitchen machine, please knead your dough for maximum 7 minutes in total. Otherwise you will be overworking the dough.

Using one hand, remove the dough from bowl and grease with 1 teaspoon sunflower oil. Put the dough back, turn in well so that it is completely covered with oil.

Cover with cling film and then with kitchen towel. Let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour or until dough has doubled in size.

How to incoporate raisins into the yeast dough and shape rolls for raisin buns

After 1 hour remove the dough from the bowl and put it on a working surface. Gently flatten the dough with your hands.

Put the raisins in the middle of the flattened dough and carefully press them into the dough and fold.

Then shape it into a long baguette form. You want to retain the air bubbles in the dough intact so that you’ll have nicely fluffy buns.

Cut the baguette roll into approximately 8 equal rolls. Cut the roll in the middle first, it makes it easier to cut the rest of the rolls.

Form the rolls into buns and put them on a baking sheet lined with a parchment paper. Cover and let rise for another 30 minutes.

In the meantime preheat the oven to 180°C (356 °F) with both up and low heat. Then beat an egg yolk and about ½ tablespoon of milk in a small bowl.

After the second rise brush the raisin yeast rolls with the egg wash.

Bake for 20 minutes or until nicely golden brown. Immediately after baking remove the raisin buns from oven and brush with melted butter. Done!!

How to soften rasins

If the raisins that you’re using are hard, just pour hot water or apple juice over them to make them soft. Let the raisins soak for about 10 minutes before draining them. You could also soak the raisins in rum if kids won’t be eating them.

Love this Raisin Bun Recipe? Try my raisin buns without yeast and German Easter bread recipes, too.

Did you make this raisin roll recipe? I’d love to hear from you! Simply write a review and add rating to it.