Cinnamon & Cardamom Buns

click to enlarge

This is one of the recipes that I make with some regularity from my newest, most favourite cookbook- Falling Cloudberries by Tessa Kiros. They are lovely, light, and an absolute doddle to make- just allow enough time for a couple of rises (one longer, one quite brief). Although, when I think about it, they wouldn't suffer from a long, cold rise in the fridge overnight, to facilitate a lazy(ish) Sunday morning breakfast.

I think of them as an antidote to the Cinnabon, that most American of creations, which thoroughly compromises your health and well-being (670 calories/34 g fat!) while leaving your head pounding and your stomach convulsed. Even the standard home cook's version is a killer; I made cinnamon buns from Cook's Illustrated (May 2002) on Christmas morning, and while they came out well, they were just so sweet, so leaden, so altogether too much, that I didn't eat anything else until dinner.

Here, then, is my (well, Tessa's really) answer. The dough is incredibly gorgeous; its everyday yeasty goodness is augmented here with cardamom, which when teamed with cinnamon equals almost utter perfection in my book. A thin layer of butter and a light dusting of cinnamon sugar conspire not to ooze, but to enhance the finished buns with a coating of sweet promise. Finished with a bit of egg and a sprinkle of sugar, they bake for a short time before emerging from the oven to grace your table with their beautiful simplicity and outstanding flavour. They are best eaten straightaway, but may be kept briefly in an airtight container or frozen and thawed piecemeal when a craving sets in (as it most certainly will).

Cinnamon & Cardamom Buns
by Tessa Kiros

bun dough

250 ml (1 cup) TEPID MILK
100 g (3 1/2 oz.)CASTER (SUPERFINE) SUGAR
25 g (1 oz.) FRESH YEAST (OR 2 PACKETS ACTIVE DRY YEAST)
1 EGG, lightly beaten
125 g (4 1/2 oz.) BUTTER, softened
2 tsp. GROUND CARDAMOM
1 tsp. SALT
650 g (5 1/4 cups) CAKE FLOUR OR PLAIN (ALL-PURPOSE) FLOUR

cinnamon butter

2 tsp. GROUND CINNAMON
50 g (1 3/4 oz.) CASTER (SUPERFINE) SUGAR, PLUS 1 TBSP.  for sprinkling
80 g (2 3/4 oz.) BUTTER, softened
1 egg, lightly beaten

Put the milk and 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 and salt and mix in. Add the flour, bit by bit, mixing it 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 and then a heavy towel or blanket, and leave in a warm place for about 2 hours, or until it has doubled in size.

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

Put the dough on a floured work surface and divide it 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 25 cm (12 x 10 inches) and 2-3 mm (1/8 inch) 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 to make a long dough sausage. Set aside while you finish rolling out and buttering the rest of the dough, so that you can cut them all together.

Line two large baking trays with baking paper, or bake in two lots if you only have one tray.  Line up the dough sausages in front of you and cut them slightly on the diagonal, alternating up and down, so that the slices are fat 'v' shapes, with the point of the 'v' about 2 cm (3/4 inch) and the base about 5 cm (2 inches). Turn them so they are all the right way up, sitting on their fatter bases. Press down on the top of each one with two fingers until you think  you will almost go through to your work surface. Along the sides you will see the cinnamon stripes oozing outwards. Put the buns on the baking trays, leaving space for them to puff and rise while they bake. Brush lightly with beaten egg and sprinkle a little sugar over the top.

Leave the buns to rise for half an hour and preheat your oven to 180C (350F/Gas 4). Bake them for about 20 minutes, or until they are golden. Check that they are lightly golden underneath as well before you take them out of the oven. Serve hot, warm or at room temperature and, when they are cool, keep them in an airtight container so they don't harden.

Makes about 35 buns.

Recipe reprinted with kind permission from Murdoch Books.

Comments

[Moira]

Thanks Jessica!

[Keiko]

Hi Moira, your cinnamon buns look gorgeous! I just got the Tessa's second book and am trying to decide what I'm going to cook first, I think this is the one! (even I like Cinnabon as well...) I've put a link to your site on mine, I hope you wouldn't mind!

[Moira]

Hi Keiko,

Thank you so much! There are so many incredible recipes in Tessa's book that it's hard to pick a favourite, but these come pretty close. Of course I don't mind that you've linked to me- it's very nice!

Cheers,

[Melissa]

This is GREAT! Congratulations...loved the photos :)

[Moira]

Hi Melissa...thank you so much, Ms. Diva!

[alfreda Held]

I am looking for a recipe for coffeebread that has cardamomand almond flavoring...when dried is a thing called skorpa...Swedish

[Karen]

Alfreda, At "fooddownunder.com" I found a recipe for "Cardamon Toast" that I think is the Swedish skorpa you are looking for. You may want to try it. Karen

[Rocío]

I'm going to try this recipe. How do you get that shape for the buns? They look like chinese bread. Beautiful pics, I'll use some as my desktop wallpaper.
Greetings from Spain!

[Karmen]

hi~

your buns look fantastic,
i have followed your recipe, but the dough seemed too sticky to roll. After it had got doubled its size, it sticked to everywhere it'd got in touch with. My kitchen was in total chaos afterwards.

wondering if i could reduce some water?

[Ceendy]

Hi!
I've just bought Falling Clouberries.
Thanks to your review!
Btw, if I only have instant yeast on hand, what would the subsitution be for this recipe?
Thanks!

[melanie]

did i miss something here? 1 cup of milk doesn't seem like much, there was no way i could get 5 1/4 cups of flour into there, and yet this other lady is talking about over stickiness because of too much water, when there is no water in the recipe. very confused, help!
melanie

[ejm]

Excuse me for jumping in here to answer.

in re "how much instant yeast"... Karmen, the Fleischmann yeast page says that you can substitute "instant" for "active dry" teaspoon for teaspoon. But I have NO idea how much is in a standard packet in UK.

After consulting various breadbooks, I believe that 25gm of fresh yeast is equivalent to 10gm active dry (or instant) yeast, which is about two and a half teaspoons. So... for this recipe, use 2+1/2 tsp instant yeast.

in re "dough too sticky to roll"... Rocio, just make sure there is plenty of flour on the board. I confess that I have not yet made these buns (even though I said I was going to!!) but I have made lots of breads with very slack sticky dough. Rather than rolling with a rolling pin, I think I would be inclined to pat the dough out into rectangles with my hands liberally floured.

in re "too much flour??"... Ceendy, it's possible that you need to sift or fluff up your flour before measuring it. You can also try adding all but 1/2 cup when mixing the dough and then use the remaining 1/2 cup for kneading. You'd be surprised at how much the dough changes as it is being kneaded.

-Elizabeth

P.S. I hope all is well, Moira, and that you are just taking a break from blogging to have a real life!

[ejm]

Oops, sorry Karmen, Ceendy, Melanie... I see that I was misreading who had asked what in the comments. But you'll get the picture, I hope.

-Elizabeth

[Honeybee]

First of all - I love your blog! I added it to my favourites and I'll be checking back! I just started my own food blog recently but it still needs a lot of work... I think I will make the cinnamon buns this weekend. When you say that they could be left in the fridge overnight, how exactly would you proceed? Let the dough rise, form the buns and then put them in the fridge? Do you then take them out and put them straight into the oven or do you need to let them come to room temperature frist? Thank you very much!!

[Maddy Bray]

These are so good! And so easy. The cardamom and cinnamon are a great combination, and the rolls come out looking fantastic. Thanks for the recipe.

[Lauren]

Hello,

I found a link to this somewhere, and made the buns for a large brunch today. I'm still a bit of a novice with yeast, and I'm not sure they rose quite as much as they should have, but were absolutely delicious, and a real hit. I think I had about a 60% strike-rate with the shape, but the slightly unrolled ones tasted just as good.

Thanks for posting the recipe!

[Shu-Ting]

many thanks for your great recipe!! I'd tried several recipes to make cinnamon roll, this one is the best:)