Cardamom Buns

During the summer of 2004 I moved from my home in Arlington, Mass., to Amherst, where I stayed in a friend's house and spent every day visiting my father, who was in the throes of Lou Gehrig's disease.  It was a dark, dark time, brightened only by the heartbreakingly beautiful Amherst landscape--flowers and birds and trickling streams--and by the vast outpouring of support given our family by a long list of friends.  I'm not sure my mother had to cook even once that summer.  We were the grateful recipients of soups and casseroles and lasagnas nearly every day.  One couple, friends of my mother's, brought us Cardamom bread nearly every week.  It was mostly helpful as a way to keep my children happy: the flaky sweet grain of a slice was just perfect for their 2 1/2 and 5-year-old palates, though its lightness and delicacy was also lovely for the grown-ups.  I asked for the recipe, which my husband and son adapted one Thanksgiving to make buns, rather than a loaf.  The recipe:

Cardamon buns (adapted from a recipe by Sydney Claunch, Amherst, MA)

(Mr. Claunch’s recipe was for Cardamon bread, made in a bread machine.  I also use a bread machine for these rolls, but only for convenience and out of habit: it could easily be made by hand, by mixing the ingredients by hand, kneading, and letting the dough rise for about an hour before forming the rolls.)

Wet ingredients:
7 oz. warm milk (or dry milk)
3/8 cup (3 oz.) oil (or melted butter)

Dry ingredients:
3 cups (13 oz.) flour
3/8 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 tsp. yeast
1 tsp. Cardamon powder (or seed from 8 pods)

Pour wet ingredients into bucket first, then dry ingredients on top.
Make a hollow at the end to put in the yeast and cardamon.
For a loaf, select the “medium” setting for crust.
For buns, select "dough."  
Punch down dough; knead 5-6 times; cut dough into 12 pieces.  
Roll pieces into 6 inch lengths, then tie into knots to form buns.  
Put each bun into a greased muffin pan.  Let rise one hour.  
Bake 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees.
Makes 12 buns.