Cardamom Buns with Almond Filling

The following is excerpted from Bakeland: Nordic Treats Inspired by Nature by Marit Hovland.

Makes 16 buns

If you look closely at a wild rose petal, you’ll notice that it has the shape of a heart. The lovely simplicity and fragile appearance of a blush wild rose contrasts with the thorns of the woody branches. Decorate these romantic-looking buns with candied wild roses.

Wild roses

16 wild roses
1 egg white (for roses)
pinch of salt
superfine granulated sugar
1 egg white (for icing)
1 tsp lemon juice
approximately 1 ⅔ cups (200 g)
icing sugar
yellow liquid gel food coloring
small gold sugar pearls

Below you’ll find the instructions for making candied wild roses. Make them the day before you want to use them. You will need yellow icing to assemble the candied roses. Follow the instructions for making icing with the egg white, lemon juice, and icing sugar. Use a few drops of food coloring to color the icing yellow.

The Candied Roses

Go for a walk and pick wild roses. If you’re going to use them immediately when you get home, take only the flowers or the petals. If not, include the stem and put them in water until you need them. You can also use garden roses or roses from the florist, as long as they haven’t been sprayed.

With a fork, whisk an egg white with a pinch of salt. Disassemble the flowers and paint both sides of the petals with the egg white. Cover both sides of the petals with superfine granulated sugar and let them dry on parchment paper.

1. Get a couple of glasses and aluminum foil. This is not necessary, but it will make it easier to assemble the roses again. Put foil across the glass and gently press down so you have a little dip.

2. Pipe a spot of icing in the bottom of the foil dip. Place a petal there.

3. Continue with the remaining 4 petals. Let them slightly overlap.

4.  Pipe out a small dot of icing in the middle of the flower and sprinkle with a little superfine sugar.

5.  When the flowers have dried, you can remove them from their foil forms. If you want pistils, you can use the same icing as before to make a tiny circle around the yellow dot in the middle of the rose. Sprinkle with sugar pearls. Remove the excess pearls.

6.  The flowers can be kept for several months in an airtight container.

Buns

¼ cup (65 g) butter, melted
1 cup (250 ml) whole milk
3 Tbsp (25 g) fresh yeast, or 11.2
Tbsp (12 g) active dry yeast
4 cups (500 g) all-purpose flour
⅓ cup (80 g) granulated sugar
2 tsp ground cardamom
½ tsp salt
1 egg yolk
1 egg, for brushing (optional)

Almond filling

¾ cup (100 g) almonds, finely chopped
⅔ cup (75 g) icing sugar
1 egg white
1 tsp rum extract

Buns

Combine the melted butter and milk in a mixing bowl. When the mixture is lukewarm, crumble the yeast into it.

In another bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cardamom, and salt. Add to the yeast mixture, then add the egg yolk. Work the dough with your hands for about 10 minutes. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 50 minutes.

In a bowl, combine the almonds, icing sugar, egg white, and rum extract. Knead the risen dough lightly and divide it into 16 pieces. Flatten each bun slightly, put a heaped teaspoon of the almond filling in the middle, and close the bun like a bag. Turn the bun so that the seam is facing down and roll it into a bun shape. Repeat with the rest of the pieces of dough. Place the buns on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Cover them with clean kitchen towels and let them rise again for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425ºF (225ºC). If you want the buns to be glossy, whisk an egg lightly with a fork and brush the buns before baking. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes in the middle of the oven. Transfer the buns to a wire rack to cool.

Decoration

icing sugar (optional)

Sprinkle some icing sugar over the buns. Pipe out some icing to fasten the flowers.

Excerpted from Bakeland: Nordic Treats Inspired by Nature by Marit Hovland, published April 2018 by Greystone Books. Reproduced and condensed with permission from the publisher.

Photos by Marit Hovland.

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