Orange & cardamom scrolls

The finished product in all its sticky glory.

When we ran our cafe for a number of years, these little winners were a staple of the Saturday morning pastry case. Our take on a traditional Scandi pastry, we had regulars line up for them and staff always hoping there were some left over at the end of the day! They're soft and sweet and dripping in sugary orange and cardamom spice, perfect for peeling apart and dunking in fresh coffee.

Making the scrolls is a bit of a process, best done the afternoon before and quickly reheated in the morning when everyone gets up. The sheer volume of butter in them will keep them from going stale too quickly.

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Ingredients

dough

700g bakers flour

300mL milk

130g sugar

1 tbs cardamom pods

150g butter

1tsp salt

1 egg

10g dry yeast

filling

200g butter

90g brown sugar

1tsp cinnamon

2tbs almond meal

zest of 1 orange

syrup

juice of 1/2 an orange

50g white sugar

toast and grind the cardamom

Method:

Firstly, warm the milk in the microwave and add the yeast. Stir and let sit for 10 mins to hydrate the yeasties. While that's underway, toast the cardamom in a pan and grind them into powder (a little electric spice grinder is a solid investment for $10 or sweat over a mortar & pestle).

Sift the flour and mix in the sugar, salt and ground cardamom. Now its time to rub in the butter. Once all crumbly, pour in the warm milk/yeast, crack the egg in and mix together. It will come together in a big sticky mess, which you should tip onto the bench and begin kneading. Give it time, after a minute or two the gluten will kick in and the blob will start to bind together, all the muck will come off your hands and the bench and you'll be left with a smooth, soft dough ball.

Wipe out the bowl, tuck the dough in and cover it. Leave it in a warm place for a good hour to increase in size (this dough won't rise as much as bread because of the milk, egg and butter richness).

At about this time we make our filling, which is to soften the butter in a bowl, throw in the brown sugar, cinnamon, almond meal and orange zest. Mix and set aside.

Cut your scrolls on an angle

Take the warm, stretchy dough and roll it out on the bench into a big rectangle. I tend to get about 50x30cm at maybe 8mm thick. Spread the filling evenly over the dough and carefully roll it up into a long sausage (try not to squish the filling out). Use your hands to massage it all into an even thickness along the dough-snake.

Now its time to cut your scroll shapes. Using a large, sharp, flat bladed knife (grease the sides of the blade to make it slice cleaner) slice the dough on alternating 30 degree angles. Place the scrolls, thin side up on a greased baking tray and rest for 30 mins or so. Get your oven pre-heating to 210 degrees while you wait.

Paint them with an egg wash for shininess and pop into the oven. They'll take 10 to 15mins tops, as you want a nice brown on top but just barely cooked dough inside.

While they're in the oven, quickly make the syrup which is to squeeze some of the juice from that orange you zested before into a pot and heat it with the sugar until boiling. Turn it off and let cool.

Pull your scrolls out of the oven, place on a cooling rack and after 10mins or so, paint a solid layer of syrup on each one. And try to leave some for breakfast, if you can.

Justin & Gareth | Hello Coffee

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