Blueberry Buns for Breakfast and Brunch in London

In Poland a blueberry bun is rarely pudding. It is breakfast, or the thing eaten standing up at eleven in the morning with a glass of something sour. That is the habit worth importing, and it costs nothing to try. The bun goes on a plate, the drink goes in a tall glass, and the two are eaten together rather than one after the other.

Our Blueberry Streusel Buns come four to a box at £36 with 24 hours' notice: soft enriched dough, blueberry filling, buttery streusel on top. They are made with cultivated blueberries, which are larger, sweeter and milder than the forest bilberry a Polish jagodzianka is built on, and we would rather say that plainly than borrow the name without the caveat. If you want the full account of the berry, the crumble and the July and August season in Poland, it is written out at what are jagodzianki. This piece is about the meal around the bun.

Kefir, maślanka and why sour is the point

The traditional partner is kefir or maślanka, which is buttermilk. Both are fermented, both are thin enough to drink from a glass, and both are sour in a way that cuts straight through sweet enriched dough. This is not a garnish. A jagodzianka on its own is a sugared bun with fruit in it, and by the third bite the sugar has flattened everything. A mouthful of cold kefir resets the palate, the streusel tastes buttery again rather than sweet, and the blueberry reads as fruit rather than jam.

Kefir is easy to find in London. Any Polish, Russian or Ukrainian shop has it, and most large supermarkets now stock it near the yoghurt. Buy the plain sort, not the flavoured drinking yoghurts, which are sweetened and defeat the purpose entirely. Maślanka is harder to come by outside Polish shops, and it is worth the detour if there is one near you: it is thicker than kefir, less fizzy, and a little more savoury. Serve either straight from the fridge. Room temperature kefir is unpleasant and no tradition anywhere claims otherwise.

If fermented milk is not for the people at your table, plain unsweetened yoghurt in a bowl does much of the same work. Loosen it with a spoonful of milk so it can be eaten alongside the bun rather than as a separate course. Skyr and Greek yoghurt are both thick and both fine. Add nothing to them. The bun brings the sugar.

Blueberry Streusel Buns (Jagodzianki)Jagodzianki, Polish blueberry buns, four to a box. Soft enriched dough, blueberry filling, buttery streusel.£42Order this

Coffee, tea and the rest of the drinks table

Black coffee is the other honest answer. Filter or a long black, no sugar, no milk. The bitterness does the job the kefir does, from the opposite direction. A flat white is less successful: the milk and the enriched dough sit in the same register and the whole thing turns soft and samey. If you drink coffee with milk, make it smaller and stronger than usual.

Strong tea works and is closer to how these buns are eaten in most Eastern European kitchens. Black tea, brewed properly, drunk without sugar because the bun has plenty. A slice of lemon in the glass is not a Polish habit but it is a widespread one further east, and it does the same acidic work as the kefir.

What does not work: orange juice, which fights the blueberry, and anything sparkling and sweet. If there are children at the table, cold milk is the sensible answer.

A brunch table for four people arriving at eleven on a Sunday

Four buns, four people, one box. That is a real breakfast if you build a little around it, and the building takes about fifteen minutes.

Warm the buns first. A hot oven for four or five minutes, no longer, loosens the crumb and brings the butter in the streusel back to life. They should be warm, not hot: molten blueberry burns and nobody enjoys a plate of it. Let them stand for a couple of minutes before they go out.

Then the rest of the table:

• A jug of kefir or maślanka, cold, and glasses rather than cups.
• A pot of proper coffee for the people who will not touch the kefir.
• A bowl of plain yoghurt, loosened, with a spoon in it.
• Something salty, because four sweet buns and nothing else is a short breakfast. Salted butter and cheese on a board is enough. Cured fish if you keep it.
• Fresh berries if you have them, on a small plate, not scattered over the buns.

That is a table for four with one box on it. It reads as generous because the buns are large and the streusel makes them look like more than they are, and it takes one delivery and no baking.

If you want the meal to run longer, six syrniki at £15 turn it into a proper sit down. They are tvorog pancakes with natural vanilla, the standard Russian breakfast, and they want sour cream and jam on the side. Warm them through in a dry pan rather than the oven so the outsides stay firm. Syrniki need 48 hours' notice rather than the 24 the buns need, so if you are ordering both, order to the longer lead time.

When there are eight of you, or ten

Two boxes of buns for eight people is the arithmetic, but it is a monotonous table. Better to order one box and add contrast.

Ten blini at £25 are the most useful addition, because they take both directions: honey and jam at one end of the table, sour cream and something salty at the other. Poppy seed buns, four for £30, give the second sweet thing a completely different flavour rather than a second version of the same one. Strawberry vatrushki at £32 sit between the two, soft dough with a vanilla tvorog centre, and they photograph better than anything else on this list if that matters to you.

For a table that is meant to run into the afternoon, Madagascan vanilla choux at £16 are the thing to put out last, once the coffee has been refilled. The whole range, including the buns and babka section, is at our cakes page if you would rather see it laid out.

One caution about bread. The sourdough, rye and Japanese milk loaf are baked on Wednesday and go out the same afternoon on the bread round to Virginia Water, Weybridge, Ascot, Sunningdale, Sunninghill, Egham and Englefield Green. That is a Wednesday arrangement, not a Sunday one. A milk loaf bought on Wednesday and toasted on Sunday is still very good, but plan for it rather than expecting it to arrive with the buns.

Poppy Seed Buns - 4 Pieces£30Strawberry Vatrushki£32

Ordering for the morning you want

Everything is baked to order for the date you choose, so a Sunday brunch means telling us by Saturday morning at the latest for the buns, and by Friday if there are syrniki or anything else on the 48 hour list. Delivery areas across London and Surrey are set out at delivery. Email info@mikebakes.uk or call +44 7922 122149, Monday to Saturday, by appointment. We are a kitchen in Belgravia, not a counter, so there is nothing to come and collect on spec.

If you are ordering blueberry buns for the first time and want one small piece of advice: buy the kefir before the buns arrive. It is the cheapest part of the meal and it is the part that makes the rest of it make sense.