In Sweden the cinnamon bun is a HUGE deal .. and just like the spice cinnamon , cardamom is also a HUGE deal. And therefor Swedes love their cardamom buns just as much as the cinnamon ones. I’ve made mine as the typical traditional cardamom bun knot with a delicious almond & cardamom paste filling (for extra cardamom flavour because why not! 😉 )

It’s absolutely delicious and will be loved by everyone!

Here’s how you bake them!

INGREDIENTS:

Forthe dough:

1 egg
150 g room temperature butter (cubed)
500 g milk (full fat)
Roughly 700 g flour (preferably strong bread flour)
50 g fresh yeast (75g dry yeast)
85 g sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1-2 tblsp ground cardamom

For the filling:
(This can be done to your preference, here’s mine)
150 g room temperature butter
100 g almond paste
85 g sugar
1 tblsp cardamom

METHOD:

For the dough:
(By hand, but it can all be done in a stand mixer if you don’t want to get a workout) (less fun)

1. Heat up the milk to about 37 degrees, finger warm.
2. Crumble the yeast in a large bowl and mix in the milk.
3. Add sugar, egg and salt, then mix it together.
4. Add flour and need all of it together, I do this in the bowl, it’s a bit sticky but stick to it.
5. When the dough has come together you start incorporating the cubed butter, a little at the time. This gets even more sticky, but stick to it 😆. When you’ve worked in all the butter and you have a shiny and smooth dough, you can take it out and kneed it for about 5-10 minutes on the table.
6. Let the dough proof under a kitchen towel until doubled in size. Takes 30-60 minutes depending on your yeast and temperature where you’re proofing it.

While it’s proofing you make the filling,
1. Mix all the the ingredients together in a bowl.

Time to make the buns!

Lightly dust the work space with flour.

Split the dough in two, easier to handle, or if you have enough counter space you can keep it as a whole.

Flatten it with a rolling to about 0,5 cm thick. Make it as rectangular as possible. Once flattened then spread filling onto the entire surface.

The next step is going to be a fold in thirds. Start with folding the top of the dough down about two thirds down the entire length. Then from the bottom you fold up all the way to the top. Think lamentation-ish.

Then with the rolling pin make it as even as you can, still in a rectangular shape. This is mainly to get an even shape so the slices become more even.

With a knife or pizza slicer cut strips about 3-4 cm wide (this is a preference thing).

To do the bun knit, take a strip and carefully lengthen it. I usually twist it because I think that keeps the filling in the bun while baked 😆.

Now the bun, I swirl the dough strip around my fingers and then finish with putting the end over and through. This is hard to explain but think about those beautiful buns in cafes or the once in my pictures 🥳.

Put your buns on a tray dressed with a baking sheet and let them proof under a t-towel a second time for about 30 minutes. This is a good time to heat your oven to 250 degrees Celsius.

If you split your dough in two it’s now time to repeat all of the above, enjoy.

Once proofed I sprinkle some extra cardamom on top and brush them with egg wash. Then into the oven they go for about 10 minutes. Just take them out when they look the right amount of brown.

And, done.
Isn’t the rule of bun making. On the day of baking you’re allowed an unlimited amount of buns with no guilty conscience.