Strawberry and cream buns – Laskiaispullat

I already made these Finnish strawberry and cream buns last year, but now I want to improve my technique. I'm not sure whether I managed to improve or not, they were very delicious, but could've been better looking I guess. Well, this is a seasonal dish, so I'll make sure to make some in a year, if not before.

These sweet buns are traditionally enjoyed on Shrove Tuesday after the day's activities out in the snow, but of course they taste wonderful at any time, even in a warmer climate. The cardamom seeds give the distinctive taste of Finnish baking and an interesting twist.

Ingredients for about 10 buns

For the buns

50g butter

250ml milk

700ml flour

50ml sugar

½tsp salt

2tbsp dry yeast

1tsp ground green cardamom seeds

1 egg for brushing the buns before baking

2tbsp icing sugar as the topping

For the filling

1dl strawberry jam

300ml whipping cream

3tbsp sugar

Method

Gently melt the butter in a saucepan and warm the milk slightly above room temperature.

Mix the dry yeast with about a quarter of the flour. Then mix the sugar, salt and cardamom in a bowl and add the milk. Add the part of flour that was mixed with the yeast into the bowl. Follow this by adding the melted butter and then the rest of the flour gradually while mixing until the dough is nice and smooth.

Let the dough rise in the bowl under a tea towel for about 45 minutes until it doubles its size. Shape small buns of the dough and place them on a baking tray and let them rise for further 10 minutes. In the meanwhile pre-heat the oven to about 220C. Brush each bun with the beaten egg before baking and bake them for about 10 minutes until they are golden brown.

Let the buns fully cool down after the baking. While they are cooling down you can whip the cream. Add the sugar to the cream and whip with a hand mixer until it's a firm foam.

Cut the buns in half slightly above the middle in order to form a lid. Spread strawberry jam on each side (lid and base), spread whipped cream on the base in an approximate thickness of 1 cm.

Place the lid on the base and in the end sprinkle some icing sugar on the top of the buns.

Serve with coffee or hot chocolate and enjoy!

Your VegHog