Overnight Cardamom Buns

At the bakeries here, you can find these little soft buns called "teboller". They usually come plain, with raisins or chocolate chips. Obviously I love the raisin and chocolate chip ones! When I do make raisin teboller, I usually use Claus Meyer's recipe from his giant baking recipe book, but my one complaint is that they take forever to make. You literally need to set aside half a day to make them. We had a friend over for breakfast last Sunday and I wanted to make some soft buns, but buns that would not be as time consuming. So! I found another Meyer recipe! This one comes from his magazine and is actually for a "fødselsdagsboller" but it's pretty much identical to the teboller in look and taste. I stuck to his recipe and only spiced it with cardamom, but I am sure you could throw raisins or chocolate chips in there too (and omit the cardamom if that's not your thing). The beauty of this recipe is that you can do the first rise in the fridge over night. Major time saver! So just in time for the weekend, here is the recipe for Claus Meyer's Fødselsdagsboller or what I now call Overnight Cardamom Buns. 

Overnight Cardamom Buns / Fødselsdagsboller (recipe from Meyer's Magazine)

Makes 18 - 20 small to medium sized buns

4 dl / 400 ml lukewarm milk

15 g fresh yeast

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

100 g unsalted butter, softened

2 egg yolks

1 egg

1 tsp ground cardamom (I ground my own - fresh cardamom is always better!)

650 - 700 g all-purpose flour

1 egg for the egg wash

In the bowl of your stand mixer, crumble the fresh yeast and mix it with the lukewarm milk, salt, sugar, cardamom, egg yolks, and egg. Stir until everything is combined and the yeast has dissolved.

Add the flour to the wet mixture a third at a time (starting with 650 g of flour). Using the dough hook and your mixer on the lowest setting, mix in the flour gradually. Depending on how wet the dough looks, you may need to add more flour.

Add the softened butter and mix until combined. This took about 8 minutes on my stand mixer on the lowest setting. The dough should be very smooth and glossy looking. 

Place a piece of cling film over your bowl and place the dough in the fridge to rise overnight (8 hours or so). 

In the morning, take your dough out and divide it into 18 - 20 pieces. My dough was a bit sticky so I floured my work surface and hands to form the 20 pieces into round balls of dough. Place the dough on baking sheets covered with parchment paper and let it rise at room temperature for another 1 to 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 220 C. Whip the last egg for the egg wash and add a splash of water. Using a brush, brush the egg wash over each bun and sprinkle with oatmeal or chia seeds on top if you'd like. Bake the buns for 10 minutes. When they're ready, let them cool off a bit and then enjoy! If you don't finish all of the buns the same day, make sure to freeze them. They defrost and reheat well.