Swedish Cardamom Buns

I needed something to use up sourdough starter and decided on these cardamom buns. Sadly they didn't rise super well, but I think that was just down to my starter not being as active as it should've been. The buns are still tasty, they're just slightly denser than I'd hoped.

I made the recipe pretty much as written this time. The only change I made was to reduce the amount of cardmom called for since mine was freshly ground. Pre-ground cardamom tends to have a much more muted flavour, so you need more of it to get the same effect in the finished buns.

I think I might try swapping out the brown sugar in the dough for granulated sugar next time. The original recipe called for 75g of brown sugar in the dough. I think I'd probably try it with just 30g of granulated sugar in the future. (This isn't as dramatic a sugar reduction as it sounds since brown sugar has a much higher moisture content than granulated.) I've written the recipe up to reflect this change, although I haven't had a chance to test the sugar swap yet.

Photo goes here.

Swecish Cardamom Buns

Slightly adapted from Sourdough.com

Ingredients

Dough

• 210mL milk
• 75g unsalted butter
• 390g all-purpose flour, divided
• 30g sugar
• 5g coarse sea salt
• 1/2 Tbsp. decorticated green (or white) cardamom¹, ground
• 150g fed/active starter (100% hydration)

Filling

• 60g unsalted butter, softened
• 60g brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. decorticated green (or white) cardamom, ground
• 40g ground almonds/almond flour

Assembly

• 1 egg, beaten
• sugar, for sprinkling

Directions

1. Combine butter and milk and heat until butter has melted. Set aside.
2. Combine 235g flour, sugar, salt, and cardamom.
3. Once the milk mixture has cooled to about 37°C (98°F), add it to the flour mixture along with the starter.
4. Beat with a wooden spoon for ~5 minutes to develop the gluten.
5. Stir in remaining 155g of flour to make a very soft dough.
6. Shape into a smooth ball (as best you can), cover, and set aside to rise for 2-3 hours.
7. In a small bowl, combine all filling ingredients and mix to form a paste. If it seems too stiff to be spreadable, warm it up a bit (on the stove or in the microwave) until it becomes soft enough to spread.
8. On a well-floured surface, roll the dough into a sheet about 4mm thick.
9. Gently spread the filling mixture over 2/3 of the dough sheet.
10. Fold the unfilled thrid of the dough over the middle, then fold the opposite thrid (with the filling) over that. So the dough ends up folded in thrids like a letter with filling between each layer of dough.
11. Cut the dough crosswise into 2cm wide strips.
12. Let the strips rest for 10-15 minutes.
13. Grease a large baking sheet.
14. Gently stretch a dough strip so that it can be wrapped twice around two or three of your fingers. Then tuck one end through the hole in the centre to make a knot.
15. Place the knotted dough on the greased baking sheet and repeat the knotting process with the remaining dough strips.
16. Cover and let rise for another 2-3 hours.
17. Lightly brush the risen buns with beaten egg and sprinkle with a little sugar.
18. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 15-20 minutes.
19. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

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¹ Double cardamom quantities if using pre-ground cardamom as it tends to be much less potent than freshly ground. ^Back