Ingredients
Equipment
Method
Make the tangzhong
- Cook the paste. Whisk the flour and milk together in a small saucepan until smooth. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens into a soft paste — this happens around 149°F (65°C). It doesn't need to boil.
- Cool it. Scrape it into a bowl and let it cool to room temperature. Don't skip this: warm tangzhong will kill the yeast and slacken the dough.
Mix and knead
- Combine. Put the cooled tangzhong in the mixer bowl with the flour, sugar, cold milk, cardamom, salt and the egg if you're using one. Crumble the fresh yeast straight in.
- First knead. Knead on low, then medium, for 7–10 minutes until the dough comes together and starts to pull away from the sides.
- Add the butter. Add the cubed cold butter a few pieces at a time and keep kneading. Total kneading time is 15–20 minutes.
- Check the gluten. Pull off a small piece and stretch it between your fingers toward the light. When it stretches into a thin, translucent film without tearing, it's ready. If it tears short, keep kneading.
First rise
- Cover the bowl (a plastic bag over the whole bowl works best) and leave somewhere warm until doubled, about 1 hour.
Shape and second rise
- Divide the dough into 14 pieces of about 75 g each. Roll each into a tight round and place on parchment-lined sheet pans, leaving space between them.
- Cover and prove for 35–45 minutes, until visibly puffy.
Fill and bake
- Rise. Cover the bowl (a plastic bag over the whole bowl works best) and leave somewhere warm until doubled, about 1 hour.
Shape and second rise
- Shape. Divide the dough into 14 pieces of about 75 g each. Roll each into a tight round and place on parchment-lined sheet pans, leaving space between them.
- Proof. Cover and proof for 35–45 minutes, until visibly puffy.
Fill and bake
- Preheat. Heat the oven to 425°F (220°C), conventional (top and bottom heat).
- Press the wells. Now — and not before — press a deep well into the center of each bun with your fingers, right down toward the base but not through it. Widen it more than looks necessary; the dough springs back in the oven.
- Fill. Spoon 1 tablespoon of jam into each well — one flavor per bun rather than mixing them. Brush the exposed dough around the edge with beaten egg, keeping it off the jam.
- Bake. Bake for 7–12 minutes, until deep golden. Watch them closely at this temperature — they color fast.
- Make the syrup. While they bake, bring the sugar and water to a boil, stir until clear, and take off the heat.
- Glaze. Brush the hot buns with the syrup as soon as they come out of the oven. Cool on a rack.
Notes
Chef's tip — press the well late, and deep. If you make the wells before the second rise, the dough simply fills them back in as it proofs. Press them after proofing, just before the jam goes in, and go deeper and wider than feels right.
- Fresh vs. dry yeast: we bake with fresh yeast, which is standard in Nordic kitchens but hard to find in the US. Swap in 7 g (2¼ tsp) instant yeast — add it with the dry ingredients rather than crumbling it in, and don't change anything else.
- Use thick jam. A loose, runny jam will boil over the edge and caramelize on the tray. Homemade jam cooked to a proper set, or a thick store-bought preserve, stays where you put it.
- Salted butter? Drop the added salt to a good pinch.