Today I want to share with you my favorite Swedish recipe: the authentic cardamom buns!
I baked the easy version at the French Food Blogging Fair where I was invited to give a 2-hour baking course on Swedish pastries with my friend Audrey from hibiscusblog last week. Today, let’s show you the luxury version of the recipe! I’m totally crazy about cardamom in any kind of pastries and to me these seeds are slightly addictive. The cardamom buns are the other version of the Swedish cinnamon buns and the recipe is basically the same except for the fact we use a different spice in the recipe. The traditional recipe involves one single dough that requires yeast and as a result you need to let the dough rise for a while before using it. I used this recipe in my Swedish cardamom buns with a twist of raspberry for instance.
An alternative to this recipe is to prepare a kind of pre-dough as main ingredient for the final dough of which the end product is made. Starting with a pre-dough is always to your advantage. It increases the fermentation capabilities and the volume. It also improves the consistency and aroma of the product when it’s ready. Using a pre-dough ensures you achieve a significantly better result, with a better texture as well!
It is quite easy to prepare and use a pre-dough, all you need is a little bit more time than for the classic recipe, because you need to let the pre-dough rise for a while, then let the dough (that includes the pre-dough) rise, and in the end let the buns rise as well before baking them.
If you are craving for cardamom buns and don’t have so much time to bake, go for the basic recipe of the cinnamon buns and simply replace cinnamon with cardamom, then just fold the buns the way it is explained below. But if you really want to impress your guests and have a better recipe that will yield buns that will stay fresh for several days, I suggest you go for this recipe using a pre-dough. You will never be disappointed!
And if you do not know where to buy cardamom, I suggest you head over to RawSpiceBar where they ship freshly-ground cardamom.
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Today I want to share with you my favorite Swedish recipe: the authentic cardamom buns!
Ingredients
Pre-dough (step 1):
- 1/2 cube (50g) fresh yeast
- 2 cups (480 ml) milk
- 5 3/4 (690g) cups all purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
Dough (step 2):
- 4 cups (480g) all purpose flour
- 1 cup (240g) softened butter
- 1 cup (200g) sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 Tablespoon ground cardamom
- 1 vanilla pod (seeds)
- 1 teaspoon salt
For the cardamom filling*:
- 1 Tablespoon ground cardamom
- 1/2 cup (120g) softened butter
- 1 cup (200g) sugar
For brushing:
- 1/3 cup (70g) sugar
- 1/4 cup (60ml) water
- The vanilla pod used in the dough at step 2
Instructions
- Step 1 : Crumble the fresh yeast into a large mixing bowl and dissolve with the milk. Add in the flour and sugar, and work until you achieve a smooth dough. Cover with a dishcloth and let rise for 30 minutes, until the dough has almost doubled in size.
- Step 2 : Incorporate the ingredients from step 2 to the dough from step 1. Knead the dough for approximately 15-20 minutes (or 12-15 minutes with a stand mixer). Cover with a dishcloth and let rise for 30 more minutes.
- In the meantime, prepare the filling: crush the cardamom seeds with a rolling pin (the seeds need to be crushed right before use as they lose their intense flavor if left for too long) and mix them with butter and sugar.
- Flip the dough onto a floured worktop, knead the dough a little bit more to reshape it and divide into 2 equal parts.
- Roll one of the dough into a rectangle on a lightly floured surface and spread half of the cardamom filling on half of the dough lenghtwise. The fold the dough so that the empty side covers the filled one.
- Make cuts in the dough, 0,5 cm wide – every other cut should be all the way through, and the rest should stop 1 cm from the top. Take each 1 cm strip, and twist the two skinny parts to make a rope. Fold into a sort of bun and hide the very end under the bun. Place in a paper baking cup or on a parchment paper. Sprinkle with some pearl sugar and cover with a dishcloth. Let rise for 30 minutes.
- In the meantime, repeat steps 5 and 6 with the second dough, spreading the remaining cardamom filling*.
- Bake at 440°F (230°C) for about 10 minutes. Brush with the sirup (water and sugar, in which you dissolve the vanilla pod used in the dough – step 2).
- Let the buns cool on a rack before serving. You can enjoy them directly or freeze them. In this case, you just need to warm them up a little bit in the oven before serving.
Notes
* Note: an option is to make only half of the cardamom filling and replace the other half with cinnamon, then you can use the second dough (once divided) to bake some cinnamon buns.
* Note: if you came to the French Food Blogging Fair, you might notice I actually shape the buns in a different way from the one Audrey used during our cooking class (Audrey usually cut one strip and twist it before shaping a little bun). I like to make cuts every other strips (see point 6. in the recipe above) because it gives a lovely shape to the buns and it enhances the cardamom taste that I love. But don’t worry, both methods work!
On the way back from the French Food Blogging Fair…
We had so much fun baking these beautiful Swedish pastries at the French Food Blogging Fair last week, and I am very thankfull to everyone who came to our baking course, it made the event very special to us and we were so happy to see such an enthusiastic audience!
Thank you 750g for this wonderful organization and all the work you did in advance, and thank you to the French chef Philippe Conticini that I have been happy to meet. I am also honored to have met the very nice Chef Damien whose great humor and enthusiasm are contagious.
Above all, I have been delighted to meet my fellow French bloggers friends and we had an amazing time together. I wouldn’t mention anyone in particular in case I would forget some!
Then of course, thank you to all the sponsors of this event that made us discover some beautiful products and in particular a big thank you to Visit Sweden that made this adventure possible for Audrey and me!
Last but not least, thank you to the two official photographers of the event: Syvain Bertrand and Marc, who did an amazing job as well and allowed us to keep dreaming with the pictures!
Credit picture: Julie Leclere
Credit picture: Audrey Lebioda
Credit picture: Sylvain Bertrand
Credit picture: Julie Leclere
Trop belles ces brioches !!
Absolument magnifiques tes brioches Del. Et quel superbe façonnage. Je suis sous le charme
Bon dimanche
Chrys
miam. encore bravo !
Elles sont trop belles ces brioches. Et la cardamome j’adore aussi..:)
Elles sont super ravissantes tes petites brioches 🙂
Très bonne idée, cette manière de former les brioches ! Il va falloir que j’essaye. 😉 Le résultat est magnifique ! Et j’ose même pas imaginer ce que ça donne à la dégustation ! 😛
Ça donne envie! Ravie de savoir que tu as passé un super moment au salon xx
Super les photos du salon! Ça a dû être une belle expérience! 🙂
Oh comme j’aime ces petites brioches ! ça me donne des envies de Noël 🙂
La double étape de la pâte me fait beaucoup penser à celle que l’on utilise dans les brioches italiennes contenant beaucoup de garniture et en effet, ça n’a rien à voir sur la manière dont monte la pâte.
What a beautiful recipe! I’ve never heard of these but they sound amazing!! Thanks for sharing!
C’est vrai qu’elles sont jolies tes petites brioches, j’en fait à la maison pour mes enfants, mais elles ne sont jamais aussi parfaites que les tiennes 🙂
Oh! These are just gorgeous! I love cardamom – what a great experience you must have had!
Rooh je les teste dès que possible!D’ailleurs j’ai acheté de la cardamome moulue exprès!!!Biz ma belle et merci pr la recette!
Wow juste au top ces brioches et tu as l’air d’en avoir bien profité ! On aurait aimé pouvoir y être pour assister à ça ! En tout cas bravo pour tout ! Bisous et on espère vraiment pouvoir te voir un de ces jours !
I LOVE everything about these cardamon buns. They look absolutely perfect and sound amazingly delicious! Thanks for the lesson on pre-dough too! I am so exited to try this!
Merci beaucoup Delphine de votre venue à Soissons.
Nous espérons vous compter parmi nous l’année prochaine pour mieux découvrir la Suède, à travers une autre démo !
A bientôt,
Wow! What beautiful buns and beautiful photos!
I really love your recipe and I am going to make some over Christmas. I bookmarked it 🙂
Thank you!
rhoo miam miam miammmm elles st sublimessss
Beautiful work on these rolls! I love cardamom, and I bet these not only taste great, but are super yummy smelling as they bake. Thanks for the recipe.
I absolutely love using cardamom in sweet dishes and your buns look as beautiful as they do delicious! Thank you for sharing your recipe and wonderful experience with us. I feel like we were right there with you!
WOW. These are a work of art. I am not sure, not even with your precise directions and photographs I could make them look this great. But I sure wan to try. Delicious.
What a delicious recipe! Your photos are so gorgeous too! Pinning!
Wow!! Great recipe ! I really like how the twists look on the bun. Thank you for linking up at Bloggers Brags. I am pinning this to Bloggers Brags pinterest board. We would love to see you again next monday .
The buns look wonderful! Thank you for sharing at The Southern Special.
Carda-yum! I really need to use it more because I love it so.
Visiting from Wine’d Down Wednesday
Elles sont vraiment belle ces brioches, bravo !!!
Je me souviens avoir goûté des “smabullars” ou quelque chose comme ça en Suède, il y a 20 ans… c’était à la cardamome aussi, est-ce différent?
J’ai voulu me risquer. J’ai eu du mal ça ressemblait pas aux photos, mais le gout était là, c’est le plus important je crois. Non ? 🙂
★★★★★
Bravo Joséphine ! Eh oui en effet, d’abord le goût. La technique vient avec le temps ne t’inquiète pas 🙂
I’m stunned, I must say!
Merci pour cette recette, elle est parfaite! En fermant les yeux on se retrouve à Stockholm, quel bonheur!
Does one brush the rolls before or after baking? Thanks! These look wonderful!
★★★★★
Thank you Emilie. I do brush them right after I removed them from the oven. Happy Baking!
I’ve made this recipe a couple of times now – I love the flavour. I am struggling with the quantity of flour though, and I”m never able to get as much flour into the dough as what is called for. At the most, I can get four cups into the pre-dough and then only 3.5 into the dough. Can you confirm amounts? I do use dry instead of fresh yeast as I’m not able to get it here. Would that make that much of a difference?
Weigh the dry ingredients! You will see an amazing difference! So much easier! I used to have to use a mixer (which really strained when I measured by cupfulls, but now I make this by hand kneading entirely! I have a little folding scale that I bought a Whole Foods that weighs in grams and other units. It is about 2” x 5” x 1/2” when closed up and barely noticeable in my drawer.
Thank you for sharing your tips with our readers, Kristi!
I’ve made this recipe many times, always to rave reviews. I have three observations/experiments to share:
1) I noticed a significant improvement in the tenderness of the recipe when I switched to measuring the dry ingredients by weight rather than scooping into the measuring cup.
2) I also tried half all purpose flour and half whole wheat pastry flour with another improvement in the tenderness and texture of the bun.
3) For a now vegan friend, I converted the recipe to vegan with no significant change in texture or flavor. I used Silk coconut-almond milk to dissolve the yeast. This was not too successful because the yeast turned into a slimy mass, but I was able to blend it into the appropriate consistency. A different vegan milk might be a better choice….or even possibly water. To replace the butter in the bread I used 1/2 c of applesauce and 1/2 c of coconut oil. To replace the egg I used a “flegg:” 1 Tbls ground flax seed mixed with 3 Tbls hot water left to sit for about 30 minutes. To replace the butter in the filling, I again used coconut oil. We were anxiously awaiting the finished product and all thrilled with the end result. Very happy this worked out so I can make it for my vegan friends too!
★★★★★
I came across a recipe for cardamom buns a while ago and, as is my habit, before I decided to try making a new recipe, especially one with which I am unfamiliar, I looked around the internet for other recipes for the same item and read them and the reviews. I finally had a chance today to make them and used this recipe. WOW, these are amazingly delicious!! My husband and kids were quite pleased with them and are already looking for excuses and upcoming holidays for when they want me to make more. lol Oddly enough they didn’t like my homemade Kulfi (which was good for me since I did!! :-D). I adore cardamom.
Thank you for having shared this recipe.
I am a bit confused on the process of twisting the strips of dough into the knot….Could you possibly explain it again?? It seems to me if one would cut all the way through every other strip and just leave 1 cm every other strip, etc….it just doesn’t make sense??? of course, I am very much a novice with baking this type of roll. Any more details would be helpful. Thank you! They look absolutely delicious!!
Hi Jill! Good news for you, I have a little step-by-step tutorial at the end of the recipe card. Have you noticed it? You should be able to see how to cut the strips + fold the buns. Another way to fold them is explained in this little video I made a couple of years ago: https://youtu.be/i1sb75wh_OQ I hope it helps. Best of luck with the recipe, and you’ll see the result is worth the effort 🙂 Del
Hi Delphine, can the fresh yeast be replaced by dry yeast? Many thanks
Hi Lea, the answer is yes: you can replace 50g fresh yeast with 20g active dry yeast, and proceed exactly the same way. Hope it helps! Del