In the Kantine Kitchen: Danish Cardamom Buns (Shrovetide)
Jet lag. With the nine-hour time difference between San Francisco and Copenhagen, a bit of shut-eye during our recent trip there just wasn’t happening. I got out of bed, walked quietly to the kitchen and began to stir a dough together. Baking usually helps when I can’t sleep. A few years ago, when I lived in Denmark, I baked a lot, especially during the cold winter months. Essentially, it was the baking (and the cold-water polar plunges) that got me sanely through most of those long and dark wintry days.The dough I was making that night was for Shrovetide—Fastelavn, in Danish—buns. Even though Shrovetide isn’t until February, I’d already seen them displayed in the window of a local Danish bakery. The sweet, custard-filled, cardamom-scented buns are a favorite of many, my family included.Years ago, my very first effort at making these buns was a true make-it-or-break-it situation. At the time, I’d only lived in Copenhagen for a few years, and worked as a chef in a school kitchen making food for 240 kids daily. One day, the head of the school approached me and told me about Shrovetide being a festive tradition at the school. On that day, all the children dress up in costumes (like on Halloween), swing bats at candy-filled hanging barrels (like piñatas) and eat these luscious buns as an afternoon snack. She asked me kindly if I could bake the buns, and intrigued, I said yes.I read recipe after recipe, not feeling I’d completely understood the way to enclose the custard in the center of each bun. (My Danish was admittedly not very good at this point.) I called my Danish mother-in-law for guidance, and sensing my anxiety, she offered to help bake the big batch with me.This story has a happy ending: the 240 children got their sweet buns (can you even imagine if I’d failed!), and I learned a new baking technique that I now can use to brighten up any cold and bleak winter day, even here in San Francisco.Makes 12 buns
- [tasty-recipe id="1767"]
Here's a quick video tutorial from Nichole on how to fold the buns together!