Swedish Cardamom Buns

Swedish cardamom buns – called kardemummabullar – are the less-famous sibling of the cinnamon roll, and in Sweden they are often considered the better one. The distinction is real. Where cinnamon rolls are sweet and soft and built for frosting, cardamom buns are more aromatic, slightly less sweet, and designed to be eaten alongside coffee rather than as a dessert in their own right. The spice is the point: cardamom has a floral, almost citrusy warmth that is unlike anything else in the pastry world, and when it is worked into both the dough and the filling, the result is a bun that smells like a Scandinavian bakery on a cold morning.

The dough is an enriched yeast dough – milk, butter, eggs, and sugar in addition to the flour – which makes it soft and slightly tender with a fine, pillowy crumb. Enriched doughs take longer to rise than plain bread doughs because the fat slows the yeast slightly, so plan for at least an hour for the first rise and another forty-five minutes for the second. The wait is entirely passive and the results justify it. Rushing the rise by proofing somewhere very warm tends to produce a bread-like rather than pastry-like crumb – patient, room-temperature proofing gives a better texture.

Freshly ground cardamom makes a noticeable difference here. Pre-ground cardamom loses its volatile oils quickly and can taste dusty and flat compared to seeds ground just before use. The easiest way is to buy green cardamom pods, crack them open, and grind the seeds in a small spice grinder or mortar and pestle. It takes three minutes and the difference in aroma is significant.

The filling is a simple mixture of softened butter, sugar, and ground cardamom, spread over the rolled dough before it is shaped. Traditional kardemummabullar are knotted – the strip of filled dough is twisted, then looped and knotted around itself – but a simple scroll shape is just as good and considerably easier to form.

A reliable swap: if cardamom is not your preference, the same dough and technique works very well with a cinnamon-heavy filling – cinnamon, butter, brown sugar, and a small pinch of cardamom to keep a hint of the Swedish character. Orange zest added to the filling alongside the cardamom is also a combination that works particularly well.

The most common mistake is not kneading the dough long enough. Enriched doughs need extended kneading – about 10 minutes by hand or 6 to 7 minutes in a stand mixer – to develop enough gluten to hold together around all that butter and sugar. Under-kneaded dough produces buns that spread sideways during baking rather than rising upward, and the texture will be dense and slightly gummy.

If you enjoy baking enriched doughs, try Hot Cross Buns in a different season for a similarly spiced result – and Classic Madeleines (French Butter Cakes) are an easy afternoon project with a completely different texture but the same careful approach.