Swedish Cardamom Buns

Simple, but incredibly fragrant buns similar to cinnamon rolls, but made with cardamom instead. Cardamom infuses both the dough and the filling and gives the buns sweet-spicy, lemony smell and taste.

You only want to use fresh cardamom from pods, already powdered, store-bought cardamom is often stale. You will need a pestle mortar, or better yet, electric coffee grinder.

You will need to open, extract and grind about 1/4 cup cardamom pods to have enough ground cardamom for both the dough and the filling.

Ingredients for 10 bun-muffins:

- 3/4 cup lukewarm milk

- 1/3 cup white sugar

- 1 tsp dried yeast

- 1/4 cup melted butter

- 1 tsp salt

- 1 tbs ground cardamom

- 2 cups + 2 tbs plain flour
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-1/4 cup room temperature butter

- 1/4 cup brown sugar (any sugar will do, but brown will give the filling darker, more contrasting colour once baked)

- 1 tbs ground cardamom

- 1-2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

- 1-2 tsp cocoa powder (optional)
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- 1 small egg for an egg wash

-1 tbs granulated sugar mixed with 1/2 tbs cardamom (optional)

Whether you are using pestle mortar or electric grinder, you have to extract the seeds from cardamom pods first. Pound them lightly with a pestle to open them up and extract all seeds. Grind them by hand or in the electric grinder until it's almost powder-like.

Mix milk, sugar and yeast, give it a good stir and leave it in a warm place for the yeast to activate. It shouldn't take more than few minutes.

Add melted butter, salt and cardamom to activated milk-yeast mix. Stir well and add about half the flour to the bowl. Mix with a whisk until a thick paste forms, at which point, switch to a fork. Add the remaining of the four to the bowl and mix it with a fork until it forms a rough clump of dough.

* If you have a stand mixer with a dough attachment, just dump all ingredients into a bowl and let the mixer run for 8-10 minutes until the dough is formed.

Use a hand mixer with dough hooks if you don't have a stand mixer. Alternatively, just use your hands until the dough comes together, all flour is incorporated and nothing sticks to the bowl.

Tip the dough onto a floured surface and knead until it's elastic and properly kneaded.

How do I know if the dough is properly kneaded?

You have to perform what's known as 'windowpane test'. To do that, pull a chunk of the dough off (about the size of a walnut), gently flatten it in your palm, then stretch it gradually until the middle part of the dough is thin enough to allow the light to pass through. If the dough breaks easily and creates holes, it means that it's under-kneaded and has to be worked for a few more minutes. If it stretches beautifully and doesn't break, it means it's ready.

Picture 1 - under-kneaded dough, holes visible once stretched.

Picture 2 - properly kneaded dough, stretches easily and doesn't break.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave in a warm place to double in size for 1 hour.

TIP: Microwave a mug of boiling water for about 1 minute, take the mug out and place a bowl of dough inside. Close the door and let the dough rise inside the microwave (don't turn it on, just use the residual heat).

Punch the dough a few times to deflate it and pull it off the bowl and onto a floured surface. Knead it for a minute to deflate it further.

Prepare the filling ahead of time, preferably while the dough is rising. Cream together butter, sugar, cardamom until smooth paste forms. Add cinnamon for an additional flavour if you want. I wanted my filling to be dark, so I added 2 tsp cocoa powder to my paste.

Use a rolling pin and a combination of rolling and hand stretching to flatten the dough into a rough rectangle.

Spread the butter filling over the dough. Fold the left third of the dough towards the centre and the right third towards the centre, so it overlaps the left part.

Cut the dough into 10, 1 inch thick slices. Then, split each slice in half, but leave a small part unsliced. Twist each sliced end 2-3 times, then twist both strips together. Pick the slice up and join both ends by pressing them together. Place each twisted dough piece into an oiled muffin hole.

Cover the muffin-buns with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place to double in size.

Break and whisk one small egg and egg-wash the muffins with a brush. If you want to, you can sprinkle a mixture of 1tbs sugar and 1/2tbs cardamom on top of the buns.

Bake at 180C (350F) for 20-22 minutes. Remove from the muffin tray once they are room-temperature.