Cardamom buns: golden brown knots, heavy on the cardamom, crispy on the edges and soft and buttery in the centre. Jump to Recipe
If I had a year of cardamom buns, it was 2018. I was introduced to Fabrique early on while living/studying/mostly-eating in the UK: trays and trays of symmetrically knotted dough lounging in the windows, perfectly spaced to rise neatly in golden rows but never squashed, cardamom spiced butter and sugar leaking from the edges and coalescing into crispy caramelised lattice as they cooled. What was a day in central London without a cardamom bun in hand? I’m not sure I ever found out. Sunday mornings at the Columbia Road Flower Market weren’t complete without a flat white clutched in one hand a cardamom-laced bun from Pavilion in the other (I was never brave enough for their turmeric version), wrapped in a winter coat and on route to Ottolenghi (where else?).
Finally there was that week in Copenhagen – confirming the fact that cardamom may be superior to cinnamon, completely unafraid of coarsely ground pods speckling buns almost like black pepper. The neighbouring concept of fika was a kindred spirit – the swedish coffee break, a pause in the day incomplete without an accompanying baked good and to slow down rather than simply refuel. It’s something that the pandemic (isn’t it crazy, we now just say ‘the pandemic’ like it’s this normal omni-present part of our lives??) has given us an abundance of time for. Honestly I may have lost my mind by this point if regular coffee and cake breaks weren’t a highlight (perhaps the highlight) of days spent at home.
Anyway – I thought it was high time to attempt cardamom buns of my own. I was planning on just making them once, but their all round success and the outpouring of interest over on instagram for the recipe (which wasn’t just one, but an amalgamation of many) meant I’ve demolished a couple of batches for this version. They’re actually much easier than I had assumed – the dough is a simple enriched brioche which you can make the evening before then leave in the fridge until you are ready to bake. The filling is heavy on the cardamom and cinnamon: a buttery paste which you spread over the rolled out dough. This is the point where for ordinary cinnamon buns you would roll it into a log – but here you fold it in thirds like a letter (almost like a single croissant fold) and then slice into rectangular strips, each containing 2 layers of cardamom butter and 3 layers of dough. The hardest bit of all is the knot: I’ve done my very best to explain them in the instructions, but if it’s your first time I’d recommend just taking an edge strip of dough and sacrificing it to the cause – practice knotting and unknotting it until you get a feel for how to do it. It was one of those frustrating actions where the more I overthought it the more difficult it became, until I stopped thinking, wrapped the dough more quickly and suddenly my hands figured it out. To be honest, no matter how wonky your knots are they’ll look pretty once they’re baked.
The dough is brushed with an egg wash and sprinkled generously with fresh cardamom sugar for shine and crunch respectively before baking. You end up with with golden brown knots, heavy on the cardamom, crispy on the edges and soft and buttery in the centre. Pretend you’re in London or Copenhagen while you demolish one (or more – I couldn’t resist) with your coffee. Best eaten on the day they’re made.
Makes 16 buns
Make the dough the evening before you plan to bake. The next morning, it takes about 45minutes to assemble and knot the buns, followed by 1 hour of rising time before you bake.
- 250 ml whole milk heated to simmer then left until lukewarm
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 7 g sachet instant yeast
- 500 g plain flour
- 1/3 cup 75g castor sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 egg
- 80 g unsalted butter room temperature
- 160 g butter room temp
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 3 teaspoons cardamom
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
- 1 egg for egg wash
- sprinkling
- 3 tbsp caster sugar
- 20 whole green cardamom pods finely ground OR 1 tablespoon cardamom seeds, finely ground/crushed
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Heat the milk up in a saucepan to a simmer, then turn off the heat and leave until lukewarm (this helps the crumb of your buns by changing the protein in the milk).
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In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the salt, yeast, flour, caster sugar and cardamom. Stir to combine, then add the egg and lukewarm milk.
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Use a dough hook (or knead by hand) on low for a few minutes to form a shaggy, cohesive dough.
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Cut the butter into ~1cm cubes – it should be soft but not melted. With the mixer on low, add the butter one piece at a time, adding the next when each is combined. Turn the mixer to medium and knead for a further 3 minutes (it should be about 10 minutes all up by now). When finished, the dough should be smooth and elastic.
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Place the dough in a large bowl greased with thin layer of oil. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate overnight (this works up to 24hrs ahead, but ideally just make the evening before).
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The next day, stir together the room temp butter, brown sugar, cardamom, cinnamon and vanilla to make a thick even paste.
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Roll out the dough to a rectangle measuring approx 38 x 45cm, with the short edge facing you (see photos).
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Dollop the cardamom filling over the dough and spread out in an even layer right to the corners.
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Fold the top third of the dough down over the middle third, then the bottom third up over the top third – like folding a letter (see photo).
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Roll the dough out again to a rectangle measuring 30 x 40cm, this time with the long edge facing you.
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Trim any uneven edges.
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Use a tape measure/ruler and a sharp knife to measure and slice the dough vertically into 16 x 2.5cm strips. This is along the long edge, so each strip of dough should be ~30cm long. I lay the ruler along the dough and run my knife down beside it to get a straight line (see photos).
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To make the knots: I would recommend sacrificing one strip of dough to practice making the knots a few times until you get the hang of it (just unravel and try again if you don’t get it.).
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Take a strip of dough, holding one end in each hand. Twist in opposite directions and gently stretch as you do so (see photo), until it is loosely twisted and approx 5-10cm longer than originally.
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Hold one end of your twisted strip between your thumb and the side of your index finger. Wrap the dough up over the top of your knuckles and around your fourth finger (or your pinky if you have small hands). Wrap round your thumb and over the top of your hand a second time (this time, placing the dough on the wrist-side of your first loop.
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Bring the dough around your thumb a second time, then bring it over across the top of two loops on the top of your hand towards your fingers. Tuck the end underneath the knot as you slide your fingers out of the loops.
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Place on lined baking trays, spaced apart. Repeat with the remaining strips
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Cover with a damp tea towel and leave to prove for 40min – 1 hr, depending on how warm your room is.
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Preheat the oven to 200°C.
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Whisk 1 egg with 1 tablespoon of water to make your egg wash.
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Blitz together ~20 whole green cardamom pods until finely ground, then mix with the 3 tbsp caster sugar. If you don’t have a spice grinder or high speed blender, you could alternatively crush cardamom seeds (use 1 tbsp) in a mortar and pestle or similar (as the cardamom pod is very fibrous so really needs to be ground fairly finely.
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When ready to bake, brush the knots with egg wash and sprinkle generously with cardamom sugar.
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Bake for 12-16 minutes or until golden brown. Best eaten on the day they are baked.
When does the vanilla paste go in?
Hi Karen! Sorry I missed that – it goes in with the spices. I have edited the recipe now too. Thanks for pointing it out!
Why do people like to try and bring others down..this is about the love of cooking. Making people happy with flavours.
Mic drop. Loved this recipe tonight! Thanks for being you.
I love cardamom and these look wonderful! Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Do you think these buns could be frozen at some point and baked off as needed? At what point could one pop these buns into the freezer?
Thanks ahead!
Hi Anne, so sorry I missed this. You could definitely freeze them once they are rolled into knots. I would defrost them in the fridge the night before you plan on baking them, then leave them to come to room temperature that morning. Hope that helps!
I made these as written above and also without the paste inside just to make it a bit less sweet and both were wonderful
Hi Claudia! Am I able to use ground cardamon in the filling? And would you recommend using bread flour or just plain flour?
Hey! Yes you could use ground cardamom. And would recommend using plain flour – I find it’s better for making nice soft buns and the liquid ratios in the recipe are made for plain flour. Let me know how you go!