Kardamummaboller/Kardamummabullar/Cardamom buns - Swedish Cardamom Rolls

Boller, Bolle or bulle means Sweet buns, the attraction of Swedish Coffee time or fika. Swedish Fika aka Coffee breaks is like Chinese Tea time, it is intertwined with their daily lifestyles. They say, it is very common to meet a friend/or getting to know a person, over coffee and a bulle than beer for the weekend. It is said even many companies have coffee meeting rituals in the afternoon. Wish i was born there!!!
Coming to today's attraction, cardamom buns, oh my i drool as i spell that name. There are variety of bulle's the popular being Kanelbullar/Cinnamon buns and the next Karademummabullar/Cardamom buns. These can be made with chocolate, raisins too.

I have tried those sweet cinnamony buns previously for We Knead to Bake event. These buns are inspired from the same recipe. I have used the same measurements, just replaced the cinnamon filling with cardamom filling.
I must say, the whole family fell in love with this cardamom bun, we were in a state of trance! Every bite in to this soft, sweet, a bit sticky buns transported us Forth & Back to Heaven & Earth. No, i m not exaggerating the taste. You must taste it to believe it!
Do remember to remove the outer cover of the cardamoms and take only the seeds and make a powder of it. If you are going to follow this recipe you might need 1 tablespoon of cardamom seeds. I have used my mortar-pestle to powder them.
The sponge is made of whole wheat flour, so i have added 1 tablespoon of gluten, if using All purpose flour, skip that part.
The sponge is made the previous night and rested for 8 hours in the refrigerator. This makes it easy to make these buns for the next day morning or evening snack. Do try and let me know how you loved them.

Reading Sources here, and here

For the Sponge

1 cup Whole Wheat flour

1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten

1 teaspoon instant yeast

1 cup warm milk

For the dough

1 cup Whole Wheat flour

all of the above sponge

2 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon cardamom powder, freshly pounded

3 tablespoon butter

For the Filling

5 tablespoon butter

4 tablespoon brown sugar

1.5 teaspoon cardamom powder, freshly pounded

Topping
¼ cup sugar
2 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon cardamom powder

Method

Heat everything until the sugar melts, keep it aside until use. Better to make it at the end, so it is still warm when you brush the buns with this.

Method

For the sponge

Mix in all the ingredients for the sponge. Since i have used whole wheat flour, i needed 1 cup milk, if using all purpose flour, you might require only ½ cup milk. Mix all the ingredients together, stir using a wooden spoon.
Refrigerate the contents overnight. The flour will double in volume, so make sure the container is big enough to hold it.

To make the dough.

Next day remove the sponge from the refrigerator an hour before making the dough. I have used my food processor to make the dough.
In the food processor, add all of sponge, wheat flour, sugar, cardamom powder and start kneading. As the dough starts to form, add the butter and knead for another 2-3 minutes. Remove kneaded dough on to a well-oiled bowl. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.

While the dough is resting, make the filling. Mix all the ingredients together and keep aside until use.
AFter the resting time, dust the working surface with flour, roll the dough into a rectangle measuring 15x30 rectangle. I made the mistake of stretching the dough too thin, so the buns were flat.

While rolling the dough i made the mistake of stretching it too thin, so my buns weren't fluffy, but little flat. But neverthless the taste was spot-on. So remember even if you dont follow a scale, do not stretch it too thin.

Spread the filling on to the rolled out dough. fold the dough into half. cut the dough itno 8-10 strips.

Cut each strip ressembling pants,leaving one end intact. Twist each strip and roll them into a ball, tuck the loose end under the roll, resembling a cute bun.