Starter Dough
- AP Wheat flour (9,5% protein, i.e. nothing special)
- Milk 250 ml
- Sour cream 100 ml
- Yeast, more than for your ordinary non sweet doughs.
Rest for 45 min
Then add
- White syrup (or sugar, but white plain syrup makes it more moist)
- One egg
- Ground cardamom seeds. First roast them quickly on the stove until they crack open, then grind the black seeds inside.
- Some more flour or any old white dough lying around.
- Salt
- 200g butter in cubes at room temperature is added slowly after 4-5 minutes of machine action.
Rest, divide if necessary and shape each to a smooth heap, rest again. Roll out to 0,3-0.5 cm thickness.
Spread evenly with a soft mix of:
- Butter
- Vanilla flavouring
- Cinnamon
Roll together. Be careful not to roll to thin. Rolling "back" to a thicker size creates a less attractive end result. With QUICK cuts and a non-jagged knife cut the roll in around 3 cm thick slices. Place with minimal space apart on a baking sheet. Not totally together but tight together. Optional: Fill the small spaces in between each roll with raspberry jam.
Let it rise, possibly in a mildly heated and dampened oven, though careful not to melt the butter filling.
Brush with a whisked mixture of
- One egg
- 2 tbsp water
- A pinch of salt
Sprinkle over some chopped nuts or almonds.
Bake for about 15 min at 225 degrees C in the middle of the oven.
Cool as quickly as possible perhaps even outside to retain moisture.
When cool, garnish with some icing sugar, lemon juice or water mixed to form a thick paste. When half was used i dropped a few drops of Grenadine in what was left and got two colors.
The result from real butter, sour cream, white syrup gives a fantastic taste and moisture while the pre-dough procedure ensures a stronger gluten structure to form and support the rise without the interference of too much sugar initially. As you can see from the picture I only filled some of the gaps with raspberry jam, but the result was good and next time I'll fill them consistantly.
