If I were to name just one food that stands out from my childhood it would be all sorts of sweet buns and rolls that my mum was making for us. Years and years later, I have to say I still have a bit of a soft spot for these pillowy buns. I associate them so much with my childhood and the way they smelled every time I walked into the kitchen. I have very vivid memories of my sister and I glued to the oven and impatiently watching the dough rise and turn golden. We thought it was taking forever! There would hardly be any leftovers left, all gone within minutes distributed within family members and friends.
You have to agree with me that the appeal of soft and pillowy yeast dough swirled with magical ingredients like cinnamon and cardamom is hard to beat. There are so many versions available, one of my favourite ones that provided inspiration for this recipe was from “The Nordic Baking Book” by Magnus Nilsson.
My husband says they are “too bready” for him and that he would like them to be more like croissants – crisp on top, springy, puffy, flaky and indecently buttery within (not to mention the butter that you add to the filling). “Darling” I remind him, “this is a totally different category of dough” and as much as I love croissants and my husband, this is not what I’m after.
A few more notes before you start:
- If you’re using fresh yeast always make sure yours is still fresh and alive as this will determine the success of these rolls.
- For the filling, I like to use dark soft muscovado sugar for a richer and treacly flavour but if I don’t have one I’ll use light muscovado sugar and it will be equally delicious.
- Instead of mixing sugar with butter together for the filling, I usually sprinkle it on top of the butter – I find it helps the filling to stay put better during baking.
| Servings |
|
- 700 g strong wheat flour
- 200 ml milk
- 40 g fresh yeast (if you don't have fresh yeast use 14g fast-action yeast or 2 tbsps dried yeast)
- 120 ml double cream
- 150 g soft unsalted butter
- 120 g caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 150 g very soft unsalted butter
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 120 g dark brown soft sugar
- 120 g chopped pecans or other nuts (optional)
- sprinkling of pearl or demerera sugar (optional)
- white icing (optional)
- You'll also need 1 lightly beaten egg
Ingredients
To make the dough:
To make the filling:
To decorate:
|
|
- Get all the ingredients ready and measured. Heat milk in a saucepan until approximately 37°C (98.6F). Add yeast, 1 tbsp of sugar (from the 120g) and 1 tbsp of flour (from the 700g) and stir until dissolved. Let this mixture stand for about 10 minutes in a warm, draught free place for the yeast to start to swell and foam.
- I highly recommend using a stand mixer if you've got one, it saves a lot of work! In the bowl combine the flour, cardamon, cream, sugar, salt, melted and cooled butter, egg and egg yolk and the yeast mixture. Knead with the dough hook until the dough starts coming clean off the sides of the bowl, for 8-10 minutes or by hand for as long as you possibly can, until the dough is shiny and feels very elastic.
- Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
- After 1 hour, punch down the dough, roll up your sleeves and start rolling out the dough. At this point, what you don't want is to add more flour to the dough so I like to roll it out either between two pieces of parchment paper or on a lightly oiled surface. The thinner the layer, the more swirls there are going to be inside (approximately 40x60cm / 24x16 inches).
- Spread the very soft butter evenly over the dough and sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon, and chopped pecans. Then, starting from one of the long edges closest to you, roll the dough up tightly like a swiss roll. Position it on its seam and with a very sharp knife (I like to use a serrated knife) cut the log into more or less 20 slices.
- If you like to bake individual rolls (which makes it easy to freeze later), it's best to put each slice into a muffin paper case so that the filling doesn't leak out onto the baking sheet. Alternatively, place the rolls evenly into greased cast iron pans or round cake tins lined with parchment paper. Cover with tea towels again and leave to prove in a warm place for another 20-30 minutes, or until they are doubled in size.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C. Brush the rolls very gently with the lightly beaten egg. You can now either sprinkle them with pearl or demerera sugar or wait till they cool down and decorate with icing.
- Bake them for 10-12 minutes, or until golden, then remove from the oven and cool on wire wracks.
Leave a Reply