Cardamom buns

Step aside cinnamon buns, there’s a new top dog in town and it’s these deliciously fragrant cardamom buns from Caroline’s Cooking

Prep time: 1.5 hours
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Makes: 12 buns

Ingredients dough:
240ml milk
10g yeast
56g butter
40g brown sugar
1tsp ground cardamom
420g plain flour
pinch of salt
1 egg
Sugar for sprinkling on top, or pearl sugar!

Ingredients filling:
84g butter
15g brown sugar
2tsp ground cardamom

1. Don’t be a weir-dough

Firstly warm 240ml milk in the microwavé until lukewarm. Sprinkle over the 10g yeast and leave to the side to feast. Meanwhile in a separate vessel (but one larger than the mug pictured…) mix together 56g butter, 40g brown sugar and 1tsp ground cardamom.

Add the yeast and milk mixture to the sugar mixture (which is in a big bowl already…) and then add the 420g of plain flour and pinch of salt. Bring it together roughly with a spatula and then turn this out onto a floured work surface. Knead the dough for about five minutes until smooth

Put it back into the bowl and cover with a teatowel, leave for 40 minutes to rise

2. Cardamomnomnom

Near to the end of the rising time, soften 84g butter and mix together 60g brown sugar and 2tsp ground cardamom. Resist the temptation to eat this mixture with a spoon

Roll out the dough to a rectangle of about 50×20 cm, Lady Cassandra-like but a bit thicker, maybe once she’s been moisturised? Spread the buttery cardamom paste over the dough. Fold one short side into the centre, and then fold the other side overtop, this should make an almost square shape which has three layers

Cut the dough into 12 pieces latitudinally

Cut each line down the centre to make two legs, but leave them attached at one end!

Take one of the lines and twist the two legs together, then feed one end back through the hole created and tuck the ends underneath, a little difficult to explain…maybe best to watch this little gif instead. Seeing is believing!

Repeat with the other lines and pop the finished buns onto a prepared baking tray. Leave these twists to rise for another half an hour. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 220°C

Beat the egg, and brush each bun with this egg wash and sprinkle over sugar/pearl sugar to decorate

Bake for 12 minutes until golden – good enough to serve for fika!

Dink and sink!

Food for Thought