Did you know it’s currently Sourdough September? A month celebrating and advocating for real sourdough, bread made with nothing but flour, water and salt (a campaign spearheaded by the Real Bread Campaign). You probably already know that I love baking with sourdough, check out my sourdough series here if you’ve not read it before, but what you don’t get from me very often is sweet sourdough recipes, enriched doughs, brioche recipes etc. Well today, in collaboration with Doves Farm Organic Flour, and in celebration of Sourdough September, I am showing you one of my all-time favourite sourdough recipes; Swedish cardamom buns.

The base dough in this recipe is an enriched dough, made with milk, eggs and of course butter. For the flour I chose to go with a mix of Doves Farm Organic Strong White Bread Flour and their Organic White Spelt Flour. Doughs made with spelt tend to be softer than when made purely with bread flour and it adds a mild nutty flavour. September is also Organic September and Doves Farm’s flour range is all organic. I find organic flours taste better and make a better loaf of bread.

Baking with sourdough is a slower process. These buns are made stretched over two days but do not let that put you off, the hands-on work is short and sweet. Once you’ve learnt to make this dough you also have a great base for other similar recipes. One important thing to note about baking with sourdough, and this is the case for all sourdough breads, is that the starter needs to be at its peak when it is used. This means that the starter has been recently fed and has doubled in size. You want to use the starter before or just after it starts to fall, but well before it has sunk.

If you’ve ever had a Swedish cinnamon bun you know how fabulous they are, sweet sticky and incredibly fragrant and my favouritesfrom Fabrique Bakery are the inspiration for this recipe. The key to the flavour is good quality cardamom and freshly grinding it so the flavour is fresh and bright. You can either break open the pods removing the seeds and grind these, or if this is too time consuming you can simply grind the whole pod, although you’ll need an electric spice grinder to do this. If you aren’t a fan of cardamom this recipe and method would also work great flavoured with cinnamon like a classic cinnamon bun you could also use the dough to make buns in the style of babka, with a chocolate filling and a syrup glaze.

Sourdough Swedish Cardamom Buns
Makes 12
225g Doves Farm Organic Strong White Bread Flour
225g Doves Farm Organic White Spelt Flour
50g caster sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp fine sea salt
150g mature sourdough starter, recently fed and doubled in size
185ml whole milk
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
75g unsalted butter, diced and at room temperature

Filling
150g caster sugar
185g unsalted butter, very soft
2-3 tbsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp fine sea salt

To make the dough place the flours, sugar and lemon zest into the bowl of a stand mixer, with the dough hook attached, and mix briefly to combine. Add the sourdough starter, the milk, eggs and vanilla and on low/medium speed knead until everything is moistened. Cover the bowl and set aside for 30 minutes. This stage helps to hydrate the flour and kick starts the gluten development. Add the salt and then on low/medium speed knead the dough for about 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth, elastic and forming a ball that clings to the dough hook. Add the butter one piece at a time and continue kneading until all the butter has been absorbed and the dough has become smooth and elastic again. Form the dough into a ball and place the dough into a lightly greased bowl and cover. Set the bowl aside for about 6 hours or until the dough has almost doubled in size. Transfer the bowl to the fridge and leave overnight, this firms up the dough and makes it easier to handle. At this stage the dough can be refrigerated for 24-48 hours.

Before you remove the dough from the fridge make the filling. Beat all the ingredients until soft and well combined. On a lightly floured work surface roll out the dough into a 30x60cm rectangle. Spread the filling over one half of the dough and then fold the uncovered half over, creating a square of dough. Roll out to slightly extend so the finished shape is roughly 30x40cm. Cut the dough into 12 equal sized strips.

To form the buns gently stretch out each strip of dough and grip one end with your thumb and forefinger. Fold the dough around your first three fingers and before you run out dough fold the tail end over the ring of dough and tuck the end underneath. Place the buns onto two parchment lined baking trays and cover, setting aside for 3-4 hours or until risen and puffy.

When ready to bake preheat the oven to 190ºC (170ºC Fan). Brush with a beaten egg and sprinkle liberally with pearl sugar. Bake the buns for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

Kept in a sealed container the buns will keep for 2-3 days but are best on the day made, they will also freeze brilliantly.