bastardised buns

I am a big fan of Dan Lepard - he understands dough like few others. An expert, an enthusiast, a teacher; dammit, the man’s a guru! Why try and improve on his well informed, well crafted, well practiced perfection? So, when my thoughts turned at 6am on a Sunday morning to the manufacture of some Swedish-style buns for a breakfast treat for my loved ones (and, of course, for myself) who else to start googling along with their name than his? I found them here (as I knew I would having tried this recipe before) - cardamom perfumed and filled with cinnamon.

However, the last time I made these, they were a bit lacking on sweetness for my taste (admittedly because I had no dark brown sugar and had opted to measure the light brown stuff I did have by eye) and the Ryvita element(?) - while I’m prepared to go along trustingly with most of Dan’s quirky ingredients on the basis he really knows his onions, it was a bit of a turnoff (plus, I don’t have any Ryvita anyway).

Distracting me further was a retained memory of Jamie’s ‘Sexy’ blueberry version found here, which looked great when he made them and first introduced me to the notion of a Swedish bun. But it was a little less than sexy in the making, TBH, and the final outcome owing to a 'tight’ dough with, I thought, a little too much flour in the mix, plus the whole blueberry/orangejuicy/sugary/messy bit, let down the look and eating quality somewhat.

With these thoughts in my head, I set about doing what anyone in my position might have done, and cannibalised the ideas of both recipes to create the inauthentic, truly sexy, Swedish cinnamon bun of my imagination.

I kept pretty faithful to Dan’s dough proportions,

and to his base notes of cardamom, lemon and cinnamon, but added in a handful of blueberries, some different varieties of sugar and a bit more lemon into the mix

and the result - Bliss. A light, springy dough, perfectly flavoured with some none too delicate spicing, a sugar crunch to bite into and some luscious blueberry juicy bits (and, to be frank, that is not how I would describe the bloobs in their pre-baked state when they were distinctly lacking the crisp, juicy, non-wooly allure of a blueberry at its peak).

So, here they are - my idea of a pretty damn good bun; one worth taking a little time to appreciate with a cup of morning coffee. Purists may not approve but what the heck. Thanks to Dan and Jamie for their skill and their inspiring ideas for helping me to bring these babies to life.

“I was going to egg wash it, but I don’t think we’re in that kind of a place anymore” Jamie Oliver

Erica x
(www.acookinthekitchen.co.uk)