Traditional Swedish Cardamom Buns (Kardemummabullar)
These traditional Swedish cardamom buns are soft, tender and bursting with cardamom flavor. They are also surprisingly easy to make at home!
Prep time: PT45M
Cook time: PT15M
Total time: PT225M
Rating
4.97 stars (29 reviews)
Keywords
cardamom bun recipe
Ingredients
5 tablespoons water
5 tablespoons whole milk
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons melted unsalted butter (cooled)
½ cup whole milk (slightly warm)
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 teaspoons cardamom seeds (removed from the outer pod if necessary and crushed in a mortar and pestle or spice grinder)
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup granulated sugar
3 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 large egg
All of the tangzhong (cooled)
8 tablespoons soft unsalted butter
1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons cardamom seeds (removed from the outer pod if necessary and crushed in a mortar and pestle or spice grinder)
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 tablespoon water
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cardamom seeds (removed from the outer pod if necessary and crushed in a mortar and pestle or spice grinder)
Categories
baking
Breads and Buns
Fika
Cuisine
Nordic
Scandinavain
Swedish
Steps
Make the tangzhong: Combine water, milk and flour in a medium saucepan. Whisk until combined and no lumps remain. Place the saucepan over medium heat and cook mixture, whisking constantly, until it thickens, about 1-2 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Make the dough: While the tangzhong is cooling, begin preparing the rest of the ingredients for the dough. Combine yeast, cardamom, salt, sugar and flour in the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk briefly by hand to combine.
Attach the dough hook to the mixer. Add melted and cooled butter, slightly warm milk, egg and the cooled tangzhong (it can be slightly warm to the touch) to the dry ingredients. Mix on medium low until fully combined.
Increase mixer speed to medium and knead mixture for 4-5 minutes or until dough is slightly tacky but not sticky and clears the side of the bowl. It’s okay if it’s sticking to the bottom of the bowl slightly. You can also mix and knead the dough by hand but it will take longer, more like 8-10 minutes.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise until it is 1 ½ or 2 times its original size (about 1 ½ to 2 hours). The time will largely depend on the temperature of your kitchen.
In the meantime, make the filling. Combine butter, flour, salt, brown sugar and cardamom in a medium bowl. Using a fork, mix ingredients together until a smooth, spreadable paste forms.
Once the dough has risen, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove the dough from the bowl and place it onto a clean countertop. Roll out with a rolling pin until it is in the shape of a rectangle that is about 16 by 20 inches in size. The dough should be smooth enough that you do not need to add flour during the rolling process. If yours is sticking the rolling pin, however, sprinkle a little flour over the dough as necessary to prevent this from happening.
Using an off-set spatula, spread filling in a thin even layer over the bottom half of the dough.
Fold the top half of the dough rectangle down over the lower half. Roll the folded dough a few times to help everything flatten and adhere. Cut the dough into 12 evenly-sized strips that are about 8 inches in length. A pizza wheel works great for this!
Working with one strip of dough at a time, use your pizza wheel or a sharp knife to make a slit up the center of the dough strip until there is just about 3/4 of an inch at the top. The strip of dough will look like a tall pair of pants. Leaving the dough strip on the countertop, twist each "leg" a few times using the thumb and forefinger of each hand.
Loosely wrap one of the twisted legs up and around the top of the pants, followed by the other leg, securing the bottom of the last leg by coming up and through the center of the bun.
Place the shaped bun on a prepared baking sheet. Once you have six buns shaped and placed on one of the baking sheets, cover with plastic wrap and set aside. Continue with remaining buns, shaping and placing them on the second baking sheet before covering with plastic wrap. Let covered buns rise for an additional 45 minutes.
Starting with the batch of buns you shaped first, bake one pan of buns at a time for 12-16 minutes or until golden brown, rotating the baking sheet half way through the baking time. Remove the buns from the oven and cover with a clean tea towel while they cool. This traps the excess moisture in and helps keep the buns soft. Repeat with the second baking sheet.
Heat 3 tablespoons of light corn syrup and 1 tablepoon of water in the microwave or on the stove until bubbling. Combine 3 tablespoons of sugar with 1 teaspoon of cardamom in a small bowl. Brush the syrup over the buns and sprinkle each bun with cardamom sugar. Serve immediately!
Nutitrion
Serving Size: 1 serving
Calories: 323 kcal
Carbohydrates: 43 g
Protein: 5 g
Fat: 15 g
Saturated Fat: 9 g
Trans Fat: 1 g
Cholesterol: 51 mg
Sodium: 258 mg
Sugar: 17 g
Unsaturated Fat: 5 g
Reviews
Kirsteen Thomson on 2026-02-01 (5 stars): Wonderful! Super recipe!
Petra on 2026-01-24 (5 stars): Amazing recipe, thank you so much for sharing it! Fun to make and super delicious!
Carrie on 2026-01-16 (5 stars): I love these so much, and especially appreciate learning to use tangzhong in pastries! It's a game changer. I do pre-grind my cardamom for the week. What would you estimate is the equivalent of the ground spice to 2 tsp of seeds?
Beth H on 2026-01-11 (5 stars): The best cardamom roll recipe I’ve tried! The tangzhong make all the difference. Just like the ones we remember from our local Swedish Bakery which closed long ago. This recipe is a keeper! Thank you!
Tianna on 2026-01-08 (5 stars): There is one thing I would like some help troubleshooting: butter leakage. I have followed the recipe exactly 3 or 4 times. Most recently, I shaped the buns and then left them in the fridge overnight. But every time, I have trouble with the butter leaking out while they are baking in the oven. What could be causing this?
Even with the butter leaking, I love these! Thank you for this recipe!
Annika on 2025-12-16 (5 stars): I just made these this past weekend for the first time and they were great! The recipe is really well written and the pictures are very helpful. I plan to make these again this week for my parents for a taste from home!
S on 2025-12-13 (5 stars): I made these last night/today for my St. Lucia celebration and they were fantastic! Everyone loved them and I'm very pleased since they're so labor intensive. I didn't quite get the braiding technique so did the way described on the pioneer woman site. Also I found the corn syrup made them quite sticky so next time might try an egg wash instead, but on flavor, texture and overall deliciousness 10/10, thank you!