← Nouns Cooking · Bakery

Ingredients

• 400 g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
• 50 g caster sugar
• 7 g fast-action dried yeast (1 sachet)
• 1½ tsp ground cardamom (ideally freshly ground)
• ½ tsp Salt
• 225 ml whole milk, lukewarm
• 75 g unsalted butter, melted
• 100 g unsalted butter, very soft
• 75 g caster or light brown sugar
• 2 tsp ground cardamom
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 egg, beaten, to glaze
• 2 tbsp pearl sugar (or crushed sugar cubes)

Method

1. Mix the flour, sugar, yeast, cardamom and salt in a large bowl. Add the warm milk and melted butter and knead for 8–10 min until smooth, soft and elastic. Cover and leave somewhere warm for 1 hour until doubled.
2. Beat the filling butter, sugar, cardamom and cinnamon to a soft paste.
3. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface into a 30 x 40 cm rectangle with a long side facing you. Spread the filling over the whole surface, then fold the bottom third up and the top third down, like a letter, and roll gently to about 15 x 40 cm.
4. Cut across into 12 strips. Take one strip, stretch and twist it, then wind it twice around two fingers and tuck the end through the middle to make a knot. Set on lined trays, cover and leave to rise for 30 min until puffy.
5. Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan, 400°F). Brush the buns with beaten egg and scatter with pearl sugar.
6. Bake for 12–15 min until deep golden (about 90°C / 195°F inside); some filling will ooze and caramelise, which is the best bit. Cool for 10 min before eating.

Tips

• Crushing whole cardamom seeds just before baking gives far more fragrance than ready-ground.
• If knotting is fiddly, roll the filled dough up like a Swiss roll and cut into 12 spirals instead.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

BBC Good Food BBC Food King Arthur Baking