Nordic Style

I am nothing if not Nordic. From the palette of cream, white and grey that enfolds my wardrobe and my interior decor, to a distaste for embellishment in clothing and jewellery, my spirit is drawn to the clean elegant lines of Scandinavian simplicity.  

My Gustavian kitchen table hails from Sweden and has a typical neo-classical grace, this weekend it was reunited with its kinsmen when I decided to whisk up a batch of Little Butter Buns, using a recipe from the Nordic Bakery Cookbook published by Ryland Peters & Small. Anyone who has visited this delightful little cafe in London's West End, will probably have sampled their  famous cinnamon buns, made by the fair hands of Miisa Mink, whose name seems more suited to the pages of a  James Bond novel than a cook book. 

"Nordic food is uncomplicated and honest," said Miss Mink.  

"We use a lot of rye, oats and barley in our bread and exotic spices like cardamom and cloves in our bakes. I have been able to combine my passion for pure natural food and beautiful design at the Nordic Bakery."

Recipe

Little Butter Buns

Buns: 255 ml of milk, 1 egg, 85g of caster sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons crushed cardamom seeds, 7g yeast, 500g strong white bread flour, 75g unsalted butter

Filling and glazing: 50g unsalted butter, 25g caster sugar, 1 egg lightly beaten - makes 20.

Heat milk in saucepan until lukewarm, whisk the egg with a little of the warm milk, then pour into the pan and whisk. Add the sugar, salt and cardamom to the pan and mix well. Mix the yeast and flour together, add a little to the saucepan and whisk well to introduce lots of air into the dough, add the flour mixture and finally add the flour and knead it into the dough with your hands until thoroughly mixed. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes. Return the dough to the bowl, cover and leave to prove for one hour. After one hour punch down the dough and knead for a few minutes. Divide into four then divide each piece into five so that you end up with 20 pieces. Roll each into a ball, place onto a baking tray and cover and leave to prove for another 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile  for the filling mix the butter and sugar together. Pre-heat oven to 200 c/400f/Gas 6 after 30 minutes make a hole in each bun with your finger and add filling. Brush with a beaten egg then bake for 10 minutes or until golden.