Cinnamon & Cardamon Buns

The cardamom in the dough makes these buns far more sophisticated .....

The recipe is taken from Falling Cloudberries by Tessa kiros.

Makes about 35 buns

bun dough

250ml tepid milk

100g caster sugar

25g fresh yeast (you can get this from a decent bakery)

1 egg

125g softened butter

2 teaspoons of ground cardamom

1 teaspoon of salt

650g plain flour

cinnamon butter

2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

50g caster sugar, plus 1 tablespoon for sprinkling

80g softened butter

1 egg

Put the milk & sugar in a bowl and crumble in the yeast.  Leave for 10 minutes, or until the yeast begins to activate.  Add the egg, butter, cardamom & salt & mix in.  Add the flour, bit by bit, mixing in with a wooden spoon until you need to use your hands, and then turn it out onto the work surface to knead.  It may seem a little too sticky initially, but will become compact and beautifully soft after about 5 minutes.  Put the dough back in the bowl, cover with a clean cloth & then a heavy towel or blanket, & leave in a warm place for about 2 hours, or until doubled in size.

To make the cinnamon butter, mix together the cinnamon & sugar.  Divide the butter into four portions and keep on one side.

Put the dough on a floured work surface & divide into four portions.  Begin with one portion, covering the others with a cloth so they don't dry out.  Using a rolling pin, roll out a rectangle, roughly about 30 x 25cm & 2-3mm thick.  Spread one portion of butter over the surface of the dough with a palette knife or blunt knife.  Sprinkle with about 3 teaspoons of the cinnamon mix, covering the whole surface with quick shaking movements of your wrists.  Roll up the dough to make a long sausage.  Set aside while you finish rolling out and buttering the rest of the dough, so that you can cut them all together.

Grease some large round cake tins & cut the dough sausages into 3cm slices.

Turn the dough slices up in the cake tins so their cinnamon centers are facing upwards. Arrange the dough circles in a round circle next to one another (don't squash them in too tightly as the will rise when they are cooking). 

Brush the dough with the beaten egg & sprinkle with the remaining sugar.

Leave to rise for half an hour & preheat your oven to 180oC.  Bake them for about 40 minutes or until they are golden on top.  Once they are cooked you can take them out of the tin & they should all hold together in a round shape.  You can also test if they are properly cooked underneath by taking them out of the tin.  If the underneath still feels doughy, put back into the oven until fully cooked.

I iced my buns with a mixture of icing sugar, milk & a tablespoon of cream cheese.

Beat all the ingredients together until smooth & pour over the cooled buns.