It seems I just can’t stop baking this winter and with all the current restrictions it’s also the only thing – other than our daily muddy walks – that keeps the kids entertained. The smell of baking cardamom buns is an instant mood booster, only eating them beats it (while still warm, with a nice cup of coffee..);-) Whilst they are probably not the healthiest of my kitchen creations, they are also not half as naughty as they taste. Using date sugar means getting all the fibre and vitamins of whole dates and with a high quality vegan butter they are also much lower in saturated fats than they would be using dairy butter. I used spelt flour, you can also use normal white flour or whole wheat flour for extra fibre.
What you need:
For the dough:
250g spelt flour
2,5 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp dried yeast
¼ tsp salt
50g date sugar
1 tbsp maple syrup
40g vegan butter – I use “pure”
170ml plant milk – I use oat milk
5 cardamom pods
For the filling:
60g vegan butter – soft/room temperature
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp date sugar
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground cinnamon
For the glaze:
A brushing of maple syrup
How you do it:
Make sure you calculate in the rising time of the dough, I find that the longer I leave it the better it turns out, generally aim for 2 hours.
Firstly in a little sauce pan heat up the plant milk together with the cardamom pods.
Once it’s boiling turn down the heat and simmer for 7-10mins, adding the vegan butter in the very end.
Leave the cardamom/butter milk to cool, you want it to be tepid before it gets mixed into the dough.
While the milk is cooling mix all your dry dough ingredients - flour, cardamom, yeast, salt and date sugar - in a bowl, make sure to give it a good stir.
Once the milk has reached the right temperature (it should be as close as possible to your body temperature, so use a finger to feel if it’s right), pour it into the dry ingredient mix using a sieve to retrieve the cardamom pods.
Add the maple syrup and give everything a good stir until well combined.
Using your hands knead the dough thoroughly for about 5mins, return it to the bowl, cover with a damp cloth and leave to rise in a warm place.
Now onto the filling.
Give the vegan butter a good stir until it’s soft and fluffy.
Add all the other ingredients and stir for a few minutes until everything is well combined.
Once the dough has reached about twice the original size roll it into a rectangle using a rolling pin, aim for a thickness of about 1cm.
Preheat your oven at gas mark 5 (180C).
Now evenly spread the buttery cardamom filling on top.
Cut into 6 equal strips and roll each of them into a thin, long sausage.
Gently twist each one of them a few times (don’t worry if it gets a little messy and the filling squeezes out in some places), before folding them into a loose knot.
Place the knots on a lined baking tray, brush with a little maple syrup and bake for 25-30mins, make sure to keep a close eye on them after 20mins, they can suddenly get quite dark on top in which case you want to take them out a minute earlier.
Make yourself a cup of tea or coffee and enjoy straight out of the oven!
