Swedish-Style Garlic, Herb, and Cheese Buns

These Swedish-style garlic, herb, and cheese buns are soft and enriched yeasted rolls shaped in the style of Swedish cardamom buns (kardemummabullar), but with a savory filling. 

These buns, made with an enriched yeasted dough, are soft, fluffy, and absolutely wonderful fresh from the oven. 

The dough to make these Swedish-style garlic buns is the similar to the dough used to make kardemummabullar or kannelbullar (Swedish cinnamon buns), except that the spice in the dough is replaced with a little dill weed, and the filling is a savory mixture of butter, parsley, onion flakes, garlic, dill seeds, and Parmesan cheese. 

I'm not sure if these will catch on in Sweden, but they sure are tasty. 

Possible Swedish Names for These Buns (according to Google Translate): 

Vitlöksbullar - Garlic buns

Vitlöksörtsbullar - Garlic herb buns

Vitlöksostbullar - Garlic cheese buns

Ostbullar - Cheese buns

Ingredients in the Dough:

Pantry Ingredients: Bread flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, instant yeast, and kosher salt. 

From the Refrigerator: milk, unsalted butter, and egg. 

Herb: Dried dill weed. 

Ingredients in the Filling:

Salted butter, chopped parsley, dill seed, minced garlic, dried minced onion, and Parmesan cheese.

Shaping These Swedish-Style Buns:

After mixing and kneading the dough, and letting it go through its first rise, form the dough into a rectangle, wrap it in plastic wrap, and chill it overnight. 

The next day, roll out the dough into a 25 inch by 10 inch rectangle. Spread your filling over 2/3 of the rectangle, and fold the unfilled third over the middle, and the other "filled" side over the middle, like an envelope. 

Roll the folded dough into a 11 inch by 8 inch rectangle and cut the dough, widthwise, into 15 strips. 

At this point, you have several choices for shaping the rolls to achieve the "look." 

The three methods I tried included the following:

Method One: Stretch the strips out, then roll the strips around two fingers three times, leaving enough dough for one more wrap around. Fold that strip over the top and tuck it under (Bake from Scratch Magazine, Jan/Feb 2024). 

Method Two: Rather than stretching out the strip, cut it in half lengthwise, leaving the end still attached. Then, wrap the strips as in Method One. The strips are more narrow but slightly fatter, and require less stretching (America's Test Kitchen). 

Method Three: Stretch and then twist the strips and then wrap them around your fingers and then tuck the end underneath through the middle (Milk Street Magazine, Nov/Dec 2021). 

Other methods that I have yet to try include: (1) cutting the strips in half (leaving one end intact), twisting the two halves together, wrapping them around your fingers, and then pressing one under and one over the center; (2) cutting the strips in half (leaving one end intact), and twisting the two halves away from each other, and then wrap each one around each other in a circle, tucking the ends up the middle; or (3) twisting the the strips and coiling it up like a snake (The Big Book of Bread from King Arthur Baking). 

The first photo below shows the shaping for methods one and two, and the second photo shows method three. 

I'm still partial to the first method I tried, where the strip is stretched around your fingers (the bun in the front). 

This is an example of rolls made with Method Two, where the dough strips are split in half (with one end still intact) and then wrapped in the traditional method. This makes it easier when the dough is particularly difficult to stretch. 

It kind of looks like a rustic Windsor knot if you squint a little. 

Finally, here is a photo of Method Three after baking. These rolls are a little easier to shape and just as pretty. 

Can you tell I'm a little obsessed? 

Recipe Variations: 

For the filling, I used one of my favorite combinations of butter, garlic, Parmesan, parsley, dill seed, and dried onion flakes. Plus, I added some dill weed to the dough. 

Feel free to play around with these ingredients. For example, herbes de Provence would be a great replacement for the dill weed, and you could use Gruyére for the Parmesan. For the dill seeds, you could substitute fennel seeds, tarragon, or thyme. 

You could also go all Italian with basil and rosemary. 

For the dried onions, you can substitute finely chopped fresh shallots or even caramelized onions. 

If you decide to skip the cheese, you should add a couple of teaspoons of flour or cornstarch to the filling to hold it together and prevent it from seeping everywhere while shaping and baking. 

This month, the Bread Baking Babes are baking Swedish Buns and our host kitchen is Cathy of Bread Experience. 

She is a passionate bread baker and bread guru. She's well versed in all things sourdough, wheat, ancient grains, grain milling, and everything else when it comes to artisan bread. Be sure to explore her site, especially if you are a bread geek like I am. 

After the recipe, be sure to check out all of the Bread Baking Babes' versions of these Swedish rolls. 

Swedish-Style Garlic, Herb, and Cheese Buns

Yield: 15 Buns

Author: Karen Kerr

Prep time: 1 HourCook time: 40 MinInactive time: 12 HourTotal time: 13 H & 40 M

These Swedish-style garlic, herb, and cheese buns are soft and enriched yeasted buns shaped in the style of Swedish cardamom buns (kardemummabullar), but with a savory filling.

Ingredients

For the Dough

• 429 grams (about 3 1/4 cups) bread flour
• 48 grams (about 1/2 cup) whole wheat flour
• 50 grams (1/4 cup) granulated sugar
• 7 grams (2 1/2 teaspoons) instant yeast
• 6 grams (2 teaspoons) kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons dried dill weed
• 76 grams (1/3 cup) unsalted butter
• 240 grams (1 cup) milk
• 1 large egg, room temperature

For the Filling

• 6 tablespoons salted butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 2 teaspoons dill seed
• 1 tablespoon dried onion flakes
• 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic

Egg Wash

• One egg plus one tablespoon water, whisked with a pinch of salt

Instructions

To Make the Dough

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat 1 1/2 cups of the bread flour, the whole wheat flour, granulated sugar, yeast, salt, and dried dill until just combined. Set aside.
2. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat and then add the milk. Bring the mixture to about 110 degrees F. Remove from the heat.
3. Add the milk and butter mixture to the flour mixture and beat at medium speed for about 2 minutes. Add the egg and beat for an additional two minutes.
4. Scrape down the bowl and switch to the dough hook.
5. Begin adding the rest of the flour, by tablespoon, until just combined. Knead on medium speed for about 10 minutes. The dough should be soft and elastic.
6. Turn the dough out onto your work surface, form it into a ball, and place it into an oiled bowl, turning it to coat all sides. Cover and let rise until doubled, about an hour.
7. Deflate the dough and press it into a 10 inch by 6 inch rectangle and wrap it with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.
8. The next day, remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes while preparing the filling.
9. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to a 25 inch by 10 inch rectangle. Spread 2/3 of the dough with the filling. Fold the uncovered side of the dough over the middle. Fold the other side over, like a letter. You should have three layers with filling in between each.
10. Line two half sheet pans with parchment paper.
11. Roll the folded dough into an 11 inch by 8 inch rectangle. Cut the dough into 15 eight inch long strips, about 3/4 inch wide each. Cover with plastic wrap while you work with each strip to shape.
12. To shape traditional buns, stretch the 8 inch strands out to 22 inches. If the strands resist stretching, let them rest, covered, for 10 minutes, then continue stretching.
13. Grab the bottom end of a strip between your index and middle fingers and thumb of one hand. Loosely wrap the dough three times around the index and middle finger of the other hand. Overlap the dough slightly. While securing the dough strands with your thumb, twist the remaining end of the strand and wrap it perpendicularly over the wrapped strands and tuck the end under the shaped dough. It should look roughly like circled dough with a strand of dough over the top.
14. Place the shaped roll onto the parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the strips, 7 rolls per baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise, about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until doubled in size. Heat the oven to 375 degrees F.
15. Whisk together the egg wash and brush over the shaped buns.
16. Bake the buns, one sheet at a time, for about 20 minutes, until the buns reach 190 degrees F.
17. Let the buns cool on the pans for five minutes before serving.

To Prepare the Filling

1. Combine the ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

229

Fat (grams)

11 g

Sat. Fat (grams)

6 g

Carbs (grams)

28 g

Fiber (grams)

1 g

Net carbs

27 g

Sugar (grams)

4 g

Protein (grams)

6 g

Cholesterol (grams)

49 mg

https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2024/12/swedish-style-garlic-herb-and-cheese.html

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