Cardamom Bun Coffee Cake started out as a Moravian Sugar Cake experiment, but I'm already happy with my old Moravian Sugar Cake recipe and thought it would be fun to turn this one into a cardamom flavored cake.
This is a very soft textured 7x11 inch coffee cake. The crumb is pillowy and light and the topping is crunchy with a mix of sugar and spice. An optional addition is raspberry preserves and chocolate chips, which you can see in the photo above.
Soft Textured Crumb
Like Moravian Sugar Cake, a key ingredient in the Cardamom Bun Cake is mashed potato flakes. The potato flakes plus all-purpose flour instead of bread flour keep the crumb pillowy and soft enough to fork into easily. I also used a bit of shortening in the dough. Butter can be substituted, but the shortening helps keep the dough craters stiff and allows more butter to seep down during the bake. You won't be missing any butter flavor because there's plenty poured over the top.
Pan Size
Like Moravian Sugar Cake, this is supposed to be a thinner coffee cake with a high ratio of sugary top to soft crumb. For this reason, a 7x11 inch or 9-inch square pan size works best. You can use an 8-inch square pan, but the cake will be thicker with a higher ratio of plain cake to spiced sugar topping. I've been using 7x11 inch "brownie pans" from Dollar Tree.
Stretch and Fold
The kneading method I used was a little different. Since building up the gluten isn't a priority in this yeasted cake, I only kneaded the dough for about 2 minutes. And I wanted a really soft, light, crumb with air pockets, so instead of just letting the dough rise for an hour, I did 3 sets of "stretch and folds", letting the dough sit for 20 minutes after each, for a total rising time of 1 hour. Then on top of that there's a final 30 minute rise in the pan.
Cardamom Cake Variations
My family is really into cardamom. In fact, Fuzz just went to Copenhagen and couldn't stop raving about cardamom buns, which was the inspiration for this recipe. So go with cardamom if you like, but or just use cinnamon, in which case you're basically making Moravian Sugar Cake.
If you can't choose between cinnamon or cardamom, you can do what I did for the cake in the photos and put cardamom sugar over half and cinnamon sugar over the other half. As mentioned, adding raspberry preserves and chocolate chips was a last minute idea, but they honestly add so much! Any flavor of preserves would work. Little chunks of cold cream cheese poked into the dimples might also be fun.
Freezing This Cake
I'm hoping to impress my German ancestors when I meet them in the afterlife, so I've really been practicing these cakes. Luckily they (the cakes, not the ancestors) freeze well. To freeze, let the cakes cool, then lift from pan and cut into 6 or 8 large squares. Put 4 squares or 2 squares together on pieces of plastic wrap and wrap tightly. Freeze until solid, then put the frozen wrapped squares in a heavy duty freezer bag.
Recipe
Cardamom Bun Coffee Cake
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup mashed potato flakes (Hungry Jack Plain) (25 grams)
- ⅔ cup boiling water
- 3-4 tablespoons hot milk
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (190 grams)
- ¼ cup sugar, scant (45 grams)
- 1 ½ teaspoons instant yeast, SAF gold label works well
- 1 large egg yolk (16 grams)
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoons shortening or very soft butter (24 or 28 grams)
Topping
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar (25 grams)
- 2 tablespoons white sugar (25 grams)
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- 2 ½ tablespoons salted butter, melted and cooled (35 grams)
Optional Additions
- 1-2 tablespoons fruit preserves
- 1-2 tablespoons chocolate chips
Instructions
- Combine the mashed potato flakes and boiling water in the bowl of a stand mixer. Stir to make some really soft and hot mashed potatoes.
- In this order, add 3 tablespoons of the milk, flour, sugar, and instant yeast. Stir together, then add the egg yolk, vanilla and salt. It will be very thick. Add 1 more tablespoon of the milk if needed. Stir again with a scraper until well mixed, then add the shortening or butter and beat with the paddle or dough hook for two minutes until the dough is fully mixed. The texture should be something like a thick, stretchy muffin batter -- not stiff like bread dough, but not as soft as a batter.
- Scrape dough into the center of the bowl. Grab a section from the side, stretch upward and fold it over on the dough to make a ball. Cover and let stand for 20 minutes.
- After dough stands, repeat the stretching and folding process. Let stand for another 20 minutes. Repeat stretching and folding one more time for a total standing time of 1 hour.
- After you've done your series of 3 stretch and folds, Spread the dough evenly in a well greased 7x11 inch pan. Cover and let stand for 30 minutes or until it is puffy and light. While the dough is standing, preheat the oven to 375F.
- Mix together together both sugars. Divide in half and add cinnamon to one half and cardamom to the other if you want to do a cake with half cinnamon and half cardamom. Otherwise, just mix everything together.
- Rub your three middle fingers in melted butter or oil and poke dimples aggressively all over the dough going almost to the bottom.
- Drizzle evenly with about half the melted butter, focusing on getting it into the dimples. If using preserves, spoon tiny amounts in over the butter, poking them down in there and spacing as you wish. Sprinkle with half of the spice mixture. Put half the cinnamon mixture over one side (for the non-cardamom fans) and the cardamom mixture over the other half. Drizzle on all remaining butter, then sprinkle on all remaining sugar. Scatter some mini chocolate chips around
- Bake at 375 degrees F for about 20 to 25 minutes or until browned.
- Serve warm or let cool and serve later. You can also freeze it.
Leave a Reply