Spiced Orange Cardamom Buns (Kardemummabullar)

Directions

• Combine just 1/4 cup of the milk with just 3 tbsp of flour in a small saucepan over medium and whisk until no clumps remain. Heat until the mixture thickens into a paste, 2 minutes or so. Set aside to cool.
• Combine the remaining 3 cups of flour, sugar, salt, clove, & just 2 tbsp of the orange zest in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add clove here if using it. Set aside. If you’re using whole cardamom seeds, pulverize them in a mortar & pestle before adding.
• Warm up the remaining 1/2 cup milk to about 105 degrees F. This took us about 25 seconds in the microwave. Sprinkle yeast over the milk. Give it a light stir with a fork and set it aside for a minute. In a separate small bowl, make your flax egg. Combine the ground flaxseed and water and let thicken for 5 minutes. Now’s a great time to melt your butter if you haven’t already done so, but make sure it’s slightly cooled before continuing.
• Add all wet ingredients (milk & yeast, flax egg, milk & flour mixture, melted butter) to the dry flour mixture and knead on medium-low until it forms a ball of dough and is no longer sticking to the sides of the bowl. Roughly 5 minutes. It may still stick to the bottom; that’s okay.
• Pull the dough ball out of the bowl, grease your bowl a little bit with some oil or butter, then return the dough ball to the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or a wet towel and let rise in a warm area until the dough doubles in size. This took about an hour for us, but will depend on the yeast you use and how warm the room is. If your room is cold, go ahead and preheat your oven to 425F here.
• While dough is rising, combine the filling ingredients in a small bowl with a fork or a whisk until creamy. Set aside.
• After dough ball has proofed, transfer to a well floured surface, and roll it into a ~16×10” rectangle, the longer side parallel to your body, or facing you. Gently tug on the corners to make the dough as squared off as you can, and try to roll it out as evenly as possible. Spread the filling mixture across the top 1/3 of your dough, and the bottom 1/3 of your dough. If you need a visual, check out my Instagram reel here. Fold the top 1/3 down, and then fold the bottom 1/3 up.
• Cut the dough into 12 strips. I do this by cutting it in half, then each of those halves in half, then each of those quarters into thirds. This wording might not be helpful but technically it’s correct and it was really fun to type. Again, click here if you need a reference!
• Take one strip. Flatten it just a bit and cut it into thirds, stopping the cut just before the top, so that you’re left with three strips that are still connected at the top. Braid these thirds, then roll the whole strip into a little ball. Do this with every dough strip and set them into your greased muffin tin. If you need a visual for this step, just watch this video at 3:12.
• Cover the buns with plastic wrap or a towel and let them rise for another 45 minutes. If you haven’t yet, preheat your oven to 425F. After risen, put them in the oven for 12-14 minutes. I used the top rack and they got perfectly golden brown, just be careful and watch them closely if you do this.
• While the buns are in the often, quickly prepare the glaze. Put the orange juice, sugar, and remaining orange zest in a small saucepan and heat on medium, just until the sugar has dissolved. Once the buns are out of the oven, immediately brush them generously with this glaze. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.