Cardamom-Caramel Rolls Recipe
By
Kate Ramos
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The ultimate comfort food, these rolls combine ooey-gooey caramel and heady cardamom. Though they require a time commitment, they’re definitely worth the effort.
Note: We tried these rolls in all sorts of pans; muffin tins and pie plates weren’t deep enough—most of the caramel spilled over the sides, making an unsightly mess. No matter what pan you use, some caramel may drip over, so place a foil-lined baking sheet on the rack below the cardamom rolls.
INGREDIENTS
For the dough:
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 (1/4-ounce) packet active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into small pieces
For the topping:
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick), at room temperature, plus more to coat the cake pans
- 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons whole milk
For the filling:
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
To assemble:
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
INSTRUCTIONS
For the dough:
- Coat a large bowl with butter and set aside. Place milk and water in a heatproof bowl or measuring cup and warm in the microwave until the mixture reaches 100°F to 115°F (this can also be done in a small saucepan on the stovetop over low heat). Once milk mixture is warm, transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle yeast on top. Set aside to rest until mixture bubbles, about 5 to 10 minutes. (If the mixture does not bubble, either the milk mixture was not at the correct temperature or the yeast was old.) Add eggs, sugar, and salt and whisk until evenly combined.
- Add flour and place on a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix on low speed until flour is mixed in and dough just comes together, about 1 minute.
- Increase speed to medium high and add butter piece by piece, letting each piece completely incorporate before adding the next. Continue mixing until butter is completely incorporated and dough is smooth and pulling away from the sides (the dough will be soft, moist, and slightly sticky), about 10 minutes total.
- Transfer dough to the prepared bowl and turn to coat in butter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place until dough doubles in size, about 1 1/2 hours.
- Punch dough down, cover, return to the warm place, and let rise again until doubled, about 45 to 60 minutes.
For the topping:
- Coat two 8-inch cake pans with butter; set aside. Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat; stir in sugar and milk. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until boiling, about 10 minutes. Divide caramel evenly between the cake pans; set aside.
For the filling:
- In a small bowl, combine sugar and cardamom and mix well; set aside.
To assemble:
- On a lightly floured work surface with a lightly floured rolling pin, roll dough into a 14-by-14-inch square. Using your hands, spread 3 tablespoons room-temperature butter evenly over dough, then sprinkle with filling.
- Starting at the edge closest to you, roll dough into a cylindrical shape. As necessary, stretch dough to ensure that it is being rolled evenly.
- Using a sharp knife, slice dough cylinder into 12 pieces (they will resemble slices of a tortilla wrap).
- Place 1 roll in the center of each cake pan. Evenly space 5 rolls around each center roll. (At this point you can cover the pans with plastic wrap and refrigerate them overnight.) If baking immediately, set, uncovered, in a warm place to rise for 40 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle. If the rolls have been refrigerated, take them out of the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for 40 minutes before baking. Bake the rolls until they’re puffed, golden brown, and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center roll reads 190°F, about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately invert the pans onto a serving plate. Let the rolls sit in the inverted pans 1 to 2 minutes before removing the pans.
These are delicious. My second time making them, I reduced the temp. to 300 deg and it was perfect. 350 was too high.
amy, i bet if you use whole wheat pastry flour you won't lose as much of the texture!
southernbelly, though I never tested it, you should be ok sub'ing up to half of the AP with wheat flour. The texture may be a little different, but it should still rise and bake properly.
Amy Wisniewski, CHOW test kitchen
Can I use half wheat flour?
Is there a gluten-free version? thanks,
I have made these twice.... or tried to. Both times I add ~1/2 cup ground almonds to the filling, which is yummy! This second time though, I refrigerated the rolls covered in plastic, in the pan...and they rose beautifully for a while. Then in the morning when I took them out to sit at room temp before baking.. they had shriveled up and flattened. I let them sit at room temp for almost two hours hoping the yeast would reactivate and puff them back up again.. but alas no such luck. I have no idea what happened. I have refrigerated yeast doughs before and this has never happened before. Thoughts?
Other than that REALLY delish rolls. I use a rectangular springform pan and have had no leakage/spillage. Ground almonds really add to the flavour.
at what point can you refrigerate these to bake the next day?
I've made these a couple of time now. The first time I followed the recipe and directions as stated. Both times they came out great. When I made them a couple of days ago I changed a couple of things. I didn't want to use the stand mixer this time so I added the butter to the heated milk and let it melt as the milk cooled. Then I used my hand mixer to mix everything in until the dough got too thick for it, I stirred in a bit more flour and kneaded it for a few minutes, making sure the dough was still soft and a little sticky. I didn't want to wait for the 2nd rise so just made them into rolls and let them rise that way so there were only 2 rising times instead of three. I also rolled the dough a bit bigger than specified and cut them into about 16 pieces. Made the caramel and poured it into a greased half sheet pan (11"x17"x1") the rolls mostly filled the pan when finished baking. I also cooked them for about 30 minutes and could have taken them out probably at 25 minutes as they were a bit darker than I would have liked. There was no caramel spill over this time.
goodhealthgourmet--there is a new book just out , Healthy Bread In Five Minutes A Day, which includes gluten-free recipes. It uses a brioche type dough for sticky buns like these. I've made several of he breads but not the GF. A very moist dough which requires NO KNEADING to develope the dough. Store excess in fridge for use up to 2 weeks as needed.
English walnuts go well with anything and their crispy yet yeilding nature are easy on the choppers. I love them in cinnmon rolls.
These sound delicious. Pistachios pair nicely with cardamom, Jeniyo. Yeast bread isn't scary or difficult; it takes time, but most of that time is spent rising so you can get other things done!
do you guys think that pistachios can be thrown in the mix? i was just thinking of buns today... and here it is!
I think almonds would be fabulous as a nut, Samsooni! Very Scandinavian, actually. Hazelnuts be quite tasty too. I've never been brave enough to make a yeast bread from scratch, but this dosen't sound too impossible, or scary.
I love cinnamon rolls in the morning, but they take too much time to make. This cardamom roll sounds amazing. Are there any type of nuts that go really well with cardamom? To add some crunch. My mother is going to love the spice from the cardamom. I don't know about the yeast though. Yeast seems very difficult to work with.
oh man, these sound amazing. you guys kill me with all these recipes that i can't eat...how about doing something gluten-free one of these days?
I clicked on this under the following heading "Sticky rolls grow up with a kick of cardamom", and I find that somewhat ironic as I recently found that particular taste of Barnum and Bailey animal crackers is actually cardamom...how many of us liked the taste of cardamom as a kid and never even knew?
I made these for my NYD brunch and they came out rally nicely. Instead of walnuts I used cashews and I also added ginger and vanilla to the filling. The spilled caramel smoked up the house and I think if I make them again, I'll put them in a spring form pan with higher walls.