Butter and cardamom buns
Author: Anna Hedworth
Serves: 10-20
Ingredients
- I egg, beaten
- 250ml milk
- 75g sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground cardamom (or ground fennel seeds, or ground black pepper)
- 500g strong white bread flour
- 7g sachet dried yeast
- 75g softened butter
Method
- Beat the egg in a bowl. Heat the milk until warm, remove from the heat and add a couple of spoonfuls into the egg mix, then put this milk and egg mix back into the milk pan. Now add the sugar, salt and cardamom (or ground fennel, or black pepper) and whisk until it is all dissolved.
- Put the flour, yeast, butter and milk mixture in the bowl of a kitchen mixer and mix with a dough hook for 10 mins. Alternatively, combine everything in a large bowl by hand and turn out onto a floured work surface and knead for 10 mins.
- Bring the dough into a ball about the size of a melon and leave it in a large bowl covered with cling film in a warm spot for about 1 hour or until it is doubled in size. It won’t take long on a warm sunny day and you’ll get sick of waiting in the winter! After this knead again for 10 mins.
- Now tip out the dough and weigh it. For tiny buns divide by 20 and for larger buns divide by 10. If you do 10 they end up roughly the size of a burger bun.
- Cut off the correct amount of dough (usually about 95g for the larger buns), then holding your hand like a claw with the dough under it, move the dough round in circular motions on the work surface. You might need a little flour if it is really sticky, but I find it easier to form without. The motion should be pushing the edges round and under and forming a neat little ball. I then dip the bottoms in flour and place on a baking tray lined with greaseproof a few inches apart.
- Cover them all with cling film and let them sit for another 30 mins. Then wash the tops with beaten egg and you can sprinkle on seeds or spice too. Bake at 200C/Gas 6 for 10 mins for the tiny buns and approximately 15 mins for the larger ones. I turn the larger ones after 10 mins if they are not browning evenly - you want an even golden colour all over and they should sound hollow when you tap the bottoms. Leave them to rest for 30 mins before you dive in...
