On the other hand, when the morning rush is over, I would sneak over for a break and there I discovered Swedish Cardamom Bread. It was love at first bite and I started hunting for recipes almost immediately. Then the pandemic became official and supply chains got borked, so it took a while to get all the ingredients together. Today was the day.
I found the recipe here, though it's by Leila Lindholm who is a popular chef in Sweden. Ingredients go as follows:
- For the dough:
- 1 tablespoon cardamom pods
- 300 milliliters (1/2 pint) milk
- 135 grams superfine sugar
- 7 grams (1 packet) fast-action dried yeast
- 150 grams unsalted butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 egg
- 660 to 720 grams bread flour
- 200 grams unsalted butter, softed
- 90 grams superfine sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- Beaten egg, for brushing
- Golden syrup and water, for brushing
- Ground cardadmom, for sprinkling
- Superfine sugar, for sprinkling
Yes, this is a LOT of butter
If you have'nt made golden syrup before, it's pretty easy. I used this recipe and while it was simmering, I got started:
Open the cardamom pods and crush the seeds in a mortar and pestle or electric spice grinder until fine. I wasn't sure how to open the pods, so I put them all in a small plastic bag and hit them a few times with a kitchen mallet. It took a while, but damn, my kitchen smells great.
- Pour the milk into a pan. Add the cardamom and gently heat until around 115° F (45° C).
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large mixing bowl, briefly mix sugar, yeast, salt, butter, and egg. Don't worry if the butter is still a bit lumpy. I did this by hand in a mixing bowl. I don't own a stand mixer and generally get by without it.
- Add the milk and cardamom, mix briefly, and add most of the flour. Mix briefly.
- In a stand mixer, use the dough hook and knead for a few minutes, until the dough is glossy, smooth, and soft. (Alternatively, knead by hand for 5 minutes.) The dough should be a little sticky: Don’t add too much flour at once, as you don’t want to end up with a dry or hard dough. Italics mine. This is great advice
- Cover the bowl with the tea-towel and leave the dough to proof until doubled in size.
- In the meantime, make the filling: Mix all three ingredients until well combined and smooth. Your kitchen is going to smell even more fabulous.
- Once the dough is well risen, tip it onto a floured work surface and divide it in two.
- Roll half the dough into a large rectangle and spread half the filling on top, covering the whole rectangle. I would have appreciated a thickness measurement here. I tried for .25 inches.
- Fold the dough into three like a business letter (fold the top long side down to the middle, then fold the bottom long side over the top). The filling will ooze.
- Cut the dough into 3/4-inch (2-centimeter) strips, then cut every strip down the middle, leaving one end intact (so they look like a pair of trousers). Twist the two “legs” into a knot (this does not have to be very precise, you can go a bit freeform). Oh boy was this freeform. My counter got quite messy.
- Place the buns on a parchment-lined baking sheet, cover with a tea towel (I needed two pans and apparently need another tea towel) and leave to rise until almost doubled in size, about 40 minutes. Repeat with the other half of the dough and filling.
- Preheat the oven to 400° F (200° C). Brush the buns with lightly beaten egg and bake for about 10 minutes or until golden.
Brush the still-warm buns with golden syrup mixed with water and sprinkle with ground cardamom mixed with superfine sugar. There wasn't a ratio here, so I did 1:1 for the syrup and about 3:1 for the sugar to cardamom.
Delicious. I probably should have given them another few minutes in the oven because they were a touch underdone on the inside, but the cardamom flavor was deliciously everywhere. I need a bit of practice with the cutting and shaping, but overall, I'm happy. Here's one of the prettier ones.
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