Adapted from the Nordic Baking Book by Magnus Nilsson. Makes about 15 large buns.
Ingredients
- 320 ml full-cream milk
- 150 g butter
- 1 tablespoon finely ground cardamom seeds
- 50 g fresh yeast or 1 packet (about 5 g) dried, instant yeast
- 1 egg
- 125 g caster (superfine) sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 750 g strong wheat flour
- All-purpose flour for dusting
- Egg wash
Filling
- 80 g butter, softened until very soft and spreadable
- 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 75 g granulated sugar
Decoration
- Egg wash: 1 egg and half quantity of milk1
- Pearl sugar, optional
You’ll also need
- An electric mixer with a dough hook
- A rolling pin
- A bench scraper
- A pastry brush
Method
- Combine milk, butter, and cardamom in a small pan. Heat until the butter melts. Leave to cool until cool to touch–slightly warmer than room temperature–and dissolve the yeast in this liquid.
- Transfer the liquid and yeast mix to a large bowl. Add the egg, sugar, salt, and flour; knead until smooth, shiny, and elastic. I like to use an electric mixer with a dough hook to start off with. The dough should come off the sides of the bowl easily.
- Cover the bowl with a clean dish towel, and leave to rise until doubled in size. This will take about an hour or two.
- When dough has doubled in size, place dough on lightly floured surface. Roll out dough to a 40 by 60 cm rectangle.
- Using the bench scraper, spread the softened butter on half the dough (40 by 30 cm area) all the way to the edges. Then sprinkle ground cinnamon and granulated sugar over the butter as evenly as you can.
- Take the unfilled short side of the dough and fold it onto itself: you should now have a 40 by 30 cm rectangle. Using a sharp knife (or your bench scraper if it has a sharp side), cut into 3 cm strips for twisting. There are several ways to shape these buns; my favourite way to do it is shown in this video, but you can also twist them like this (more detailed explanation here).
- Place the twisted buns on to a lined baking tray. Cover the buns with a tea towel as you go. Then rest buns for about half an hour until they are about 1.5 times in size.
- Pre-heat oven to 200ºC fan-forced. Brush the egg wash, very lightly, on to the buns. If you have the pearl sugar, sprinkle them on now.
- Bake buns for 10-12 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks.
Notes
These buns are best eaten the day they are baked; they get rather dry after 24 hours. If you must store them, spray with a little bit of water before you’re about to eat it and microwave for 10-20 seconds on medium.
Footnotes
In a large bowl (larger than you think you’ll need), crack the egg and add about half the quantity of milk. Whisk vigorously until well-combined.↩︎