…which translates ( Google, don’t blame me) to ‘ a little cardamom bun please’
Yesterday was Swedish Bun Day according to Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall who published a lovely post on ecosalon.com yesterday afternoon. Johanna, who has a stunning blog of her own called Kokblog, tempted me to make these little buns (usually known as kanelbulle) and try and get them done before bedtime so I could eat them on the right day. Johanna has also been fermenting cider vinegar and foraging rosehips and it all looks so beautiful on her blog.
Johanna tweeted a link to where she and Anna Krones had published the recipe and I was overwhelmed with a desire to bake them. I haven’t baked any cardamom buns since the owl faced Tessa Kiros buns many blog moons ago and Brian has asked for buns all summer and none have been forthcoming.
Johanna also kindly gave me the gram weights for the flour and sugar as I am so very bad at using cups, being an English sort of cook. She will put them on her blog later (here’s the link) on if you want to have a go at making these and like me falter at cups.
This is a nice easy dough to make, though getting the cardamom seeds out of their pods and crushed up was a bit of a palaver. I realised that the first lot of pods were old and stale and the seeds inside had almost vanished into brown dust, fortunately I had some fresher ones from Bristol Sweet Mart and I got there in the end.
The little plate is a present from Elaine and is from Norway.
If you don’t like cardamom then these buns are not really for you, but you could always flavour them with cinammon instead.
I have put half in the freezer as the recipe makes masses and Brian has gone off with a bagful to the SS Great Britain to do his volunteering – I ate five last night. A woman has to know her limitations.
I am sorry the blog posts are patchy these days, I think I have lost my blogging mojo a bit. If you ever venture onto Twitter you can find me there @zeb_bakes and sometimes I put photos on Instagram too. Why those social networks? There’s something loose and flowing about them that I like, not quite as formal and static as a blog or Facebook for that matter. Twitter’s torrent of chatter vanishes downstream at a great rate of knots and I quite like its ephemeral qualities.
But who knows? I may post some more now the autumn is here and life is more settled than it has been for a while. Sending you all love anyway and thanks for popping in – always appreciated.
Joanna
Zeb Bakes 
Still enjoying your posts but doing what you’re happy with is the most important.
Hi Ken, thanks for that sweet comment, lovely to know you still pop by :)
Nice to ‘hear’ from you again Joanna! I love your plate and was going to ask about it but you then volunteered the details about it, it is very pretty and unusual. The buns look good too,
I did a little research and a Twitter friend helped yesterday too. Figgjo Flint is the Norwegian ceramics company and the designer for this piece (which is from the Corsica line) and lots of their ranges was Turi Gramstad Oliver. Some more about her here http://www.squidoo.com/vintage-figgjio-lotte-and-other-modern-classics. I went through a brief phase of collecting Swedish bits and pieces from the same era but stopped before I got too carried away :) The buns are fun once in a while, very unsweet but soft and buttery if you know what I mean :)
Same here… if you lose your blogging mojo, take a break. Or two. Or three.. :-)
As you know, I tried Twitter but did not quite work for me for several reasons. My account is still open, I get some notifications, but confess to not even going to check what they are all about. I hope notifications are not things directed at me personally, but if they are and I ignored some coming from you, don’t think I am ignoring YOU! ;-)
Great bread, Joanna – I am in a love affair with cardamon lately, it is becoming my number 1 spice right now, surpassing ginger. Well, ginger is not a spice, but close enough on a Friday morning, pre-caffeine
a ton of hugs going your way!
I am passionate about ginger too Sally! My local supermarket has started stocking the wonderful Aussie Buderim naked ginger. It really is much better than the glace stuff we get here. Pure clean ginger taste. Apple and ginger cake coming up soon I hope :) Hugs coming back at you too !
These look very good and right up my alley at this moment.
I love cardamom- and was thinking about making the owls- but perhaps I’ll try these instead.
Thanks, Jo, for sharing – and it is always nice to hear from you- I totally understand about the slow down in blogging.
It’s a similar recipe, I think these buns are a national institution (my Aunt hates them, shhh) I am glad you understand about the blogging, I read what you wrote the other day and knew what you meant. I look through my photos and think Oh yes I meant to write about that, but the moment passes and sometimes one just doesn’t feel like it. I reckon it’s allowed. By the way, I have almost finished rubbing these stupid haw berries through the sieve. Never again!
I’m always so happy when I see a post from you! Then again, any time spent with you is sheer joy. :) These buns look fantastic, especially the little plaited ones. And your plate is so very sweet! Much love, dearheart. xx
Thanks for all the love Celia, the twisty buns were completely out of control, every one came out differently but the bun monster has dispatched most of them, particularly the misshapes :) Munch munch!
A friend recently gave me her Norwegian recipe for Cardamom Buns which I suspect is very similar. I still haven’t made them yet, but I will…maybe soonish.
I know what you mean about the different social media outlets. Time is such a factor for me these days, and Instagram really is an easy quick enjoyable ship to jump on. Saying that like Celia, I still love seeing a new notification of a post from you :-)
Have a lovely weekend Joanna.
I think the bun recipes are all quite similar, but do have a peek at Johanna’s blog if you have time, she is a wonderful illustrator. Instagram is very sweet, like blogging without any pressure, just snap away and post and that’s it and very easy to look at other people’s pics and say hi I was here. It’s a nice interface. Looking forward to the weekend, sun shining, friends coming for a visit – maybe a little baking, a little dog walking – all things are possible.
I’m glad you supplied the translation – I definitely needed it! What beautiful little buns and I haven’t had a bun with cardamon in it before. I usually find cardamon in Indian curries so I would like to try this xx
I was having a moment, my Swedish relatives will all probably tell me it isn’t written like that. (I don’t speak Swedish though I grew up hearing it and Danish too) These buns are nice slightly warm as they have so much butter in them. It’s a very common flavour in baking in Scandinavia. If you do try them let me know what you think :) xx
I too love it when I see a new post from you but of course you must only blog when you are enjoying it – it shouldn’t become a chore. Must have a look on Twitter some day – it is something I have never really tried.
Love the look of those buns – love cardamom. Also ginger and am so glad you can get the naked variety. Living in Oz, I have been enjoying it for some time and eating it like a sweet!
It’s not so much a chore but I don’t know what to blog about and then I just come to a halt and the longer you go without writing a post the harder it gets to come back to it. Something like keeping a diary. The easiest time was when I was making all those breads for the Mellow Bakers and doing some of the Short and Sweet recipes as that was the prompt to blog and all the other posts fitted in between quite easily. Knowing that lovely people like you read it makes such a difference and yes, I have been caught eating the ginger like a sweet too, such good stuff – I put it in my chocolate biscuit fridge cake this summer and it was wonderful :) Can’t remember if I blogged that one, do you like biscuit cake?
I’m afraid I am only too fond of biscuit cake! I only make it when I have to take it somewhere so that I can’t scoff the lot! Great idea to put ginger in it.
The ginger cuts the richness of the other ingredients a bit, the cherries, the butter, the chocolate, the digestives, the nuts, the golden syrup, the sugar, the chocolate, the chocolate the chocolate….. cut into tiny chunks and pretend it’s a little something to go with coffee or tea or for a dark moment of the soul. It is for sharing that’s for sure :)
Bun looks tastier and healthier than the huge gooey cinnamon buns. I wasn’t clear about your comment re naked ginger in this thread. Were you referring to ginger root?
Thanks Jean! I was referring to an imported processed ginger product from Australia made from ginger root. Buderim Naked Ginger. If you google it you will find the company and whether it is exported to your part of the world.
Beautiful plate.
Beautiful buns!
Thanks Emily! Took a lovely frog pic yesterday and thought of you (always do!)
Hello Joanna, lovely to see you again. We’re technically challenged in our house at the moment; I’ve discovered that once my husband’s computer is on, my computer and ipad don’t update emails, or sometimes they do and sometimes they obviously don’t feel like it! I love the name of the buns and I also really like the flavour of cardamom. I thought we had true cardamom growing and about to produce seeds in our garden but have since discovered it is ‘false cardamom’ – eheu! I do love your plates – I love the whimsy and the colour. Chocolate biscuit fridge cake sounds very num-num especially if you put ginger in it – we wants it.
Nothing like being technically challenged by computers… my sympathies :( I have never seen cardamom growing, true or false, will go and look it up later. Choc biscuit fridge cake is the stuff of long marches across hills on cold days :)
They looked so lovely and the recipe sounded so easy….that I just had to make them as soon as I read this post! The are so lovely and light. I was suspicious at the lack of eggs in the recipe, but it all turned out so well. Thumbs up from the kids (and the dog)! Loved the illustrations on kokblog too.
You could have thrown an egg in the dough if you wanted, I think some versions have egg in them. Really pleased you tried them and that they turned out well Spice, Yay! Thanks for letting me know and thanks for visiting Johanna’s blog, it is really lovely and special.
It didn’t need an egg! Nice to know a lovely rich buttery and light dough is possible without eggs (don’t always want to add them in…although lately we have had at least 4 dozen eggs in the fridge, no matter how many dozens we give away! I find myself searching for those egg-heavy recipes now!). I will be making these again – fast, simple and delicious!
BTW, I can totally relate to the low blogging mojo. Have made a very paltry efforts for the last few months…
I think one needs some sort of focus for a blog, ongoing projects, that sort of thing. I have popped up a food and garden diary post this morning, just because I liked the sunlight coming through the rosehip bottle and wanted an excuse to show it to you all. xx Jo
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