Lavender Cardamom Rolls

Welcome back friends, I am so excited to finally be posting about these rolls that I made earlier this week. They’re so amazing and I know you’re going to love them.

This recipe includes lavender milk. I steep the lavender into the milk, and here’s how.

Recipe for Lavender Milk: yields 1 & 1/2 cups

1 & 1/2 cups whole milk
7 lavender stems (1/4 cup dried lavender buds)

Directions:

Place the milk and lavender in a sauce pot on medium heat.
Let it heat just until it starts to simmer.
Cut the heat and immediately cover it tightly with plastic wrap so no air can escape.
Let it sit for about 15-20 minutes & strain. Tip: when steeping, especially in liquids with fat like milk, I like to do it very gently so I don’t scald my milk.

Recipe for the dough:

3/4 cup lavender milk, warmed to about 110 degrees
2 & 1/4 tsp. instant yeast (1/4 ounce package)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
3 c. all purpose flour
3/4 tsp. salt

Directions:

In a bowl mix together the milk, yeast, butter and sugar.
Add in the egg and egg yolk, stirring to incorporate.
Add the flour and salt, stirring with a wooden spoon until mixture comes together.
Transfer mixer to kitchen aid with hook attachment and mix for about 10 minutes until dough pulls from the sides of the bowl. If dough seems to be wet, add 1-2 tbsp. of flour. If you don’t have a kitchen aid, you can work this dough on a floured surface by hand. Knead the dough for the same amount of time, about 10 minutes.
After you’ve checked if your dough has proper gluten developed, let it proof in a bowl covered in a warm area until its doubled in size, between 1-2 hours. https://modernistcuisine.com/2018/04/gluten-how-does-it-work/ read this article to read up on how to properly form gluten.

Tips for proofing sweet rolls at home. Allow your dough time to proof, proofing multiple times allows the yeast to work its magic and makes for a soft and fluffy texture. That being said, over proofing is absolutely a thing, if your dough has more than doubled in size or starts to crack during the proofing it has sat for too long. Over proofing causes the yeast to die resulting in a rancid flavor and messes with the final rising.

Recipe for filling:

1 cup light or dark brown sugar
1 tbsp. + 1 tsp. ground cardamom
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. honey
3/4 cup salted butter, softened
1 tbsp. lavender milk

Directions:

Place all ingredients into a medium size mixing bowl.
With your hands or spatula, mix ingredients together until mixture is smooth.
Let sit at room temperature until dough is ready.
Tip: If you’d prefer, you can melt the butter and then add the remaining ingredients to the melted butter until a mixture forms. As long as the mixture is smooth and doesn’t separate, it will work beautifully. There is indeed, quite a bit of butter in this recipe. Feel free to cut the amount of butter in half in the filling and replace it with heavy cream if you’d prefer. The purpose of a heavy filling is it to keep the rolls moist throughout baking and for a few days after. I kid you not, I ate one of these rolls 3 days after baking and they tasted like they were fresh out of the oven – absolute heaven.

Recipe for the glaze:

3 tbsp. lavender milk
1 tbsp. ground cardamom
2-3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:

Place the confectioners sugar in a bowl, mix with a whisk briefly to get any clumps out.
Add the milk, cardamom and salt. Mix together, add more milk or powdered sugar to your desired consistency. I enjoy a more runny glaze.

Rolling the dough:

Once the dough has doubled in size, put it out onto a lightly floured surface.
Gently flatten the dough into a square shape with your hands, to about 2″ thick.
With a rolling pin, roll the dough starting from the center working your way towards the edges. Every couple of rolls, run your hands under the dough to ensure it’s not sticking and add more flour if necessary.
Roll into a somewhat even square, (your edges will be rounded, that’s perfect) until the dough is about 1/4″ thick. The dough is going to roll out pretty big, about 20′ wide x 14″ long. Tip: I enjoy using a ruler to measure my dough through the rolling and cutting, you should too!
Spread the filling on the dough with an offset spatula, coating the surface evenly.
Then, taking the bottom part of the dough closest to you, fold it over on itself tightly. Continue to roll the dough, ensuring that you’re keeping it tight, until it forms a log.
With a sharp knife, cut out rolls about 2″ thick.
Place rolls in a sprayed and parchment lined baking pan.
Melt about 2 tbsp. of butter, and brush on and around the rolls.
Let them sit in a warm area and proof again, until they noticeably start to gain size- about 30 minutes.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30-45 minutes.

Tip for baking sweet rolls: have a thermometer handy. We want our rolls to temp out at 180 degrees. This is the sweet spot temperature for baking almost all enriched bread dough at home. To temp the rolls, stick the thermometer right in the center of the biggest roll, going in on an angle.

There you have it! Lavender Cardamom rolls. These are such a great representation of spring, and I promise your friends & family will love them (if you don’t eat them all). It’s funny how little self control I have when these are in my house. You can guarantee I’ve eaten one daily until I’ve managed to send them off to friends & co workers.

I hope you have enjoyed this recipe, and I do hope you’ll make some for yourself. Have fun with this one, get a little messy, and reward yourself with a wonderful sweet treat. Make sure to let me know what you think about this post, and share this recipe with a friend! I hope you all have a wonderful week, cheers & happy baking!