As much as I’ve tried to avoid baking sweet things, I do love the reaction I get when I share these treats with friends and family. The festive season has been the ideal time to test, tweak and perfect the recipe, although it’s a frightfully early start if you want to get them on the table in time for breakfast.

Ingredients: (makes 12)

Buns:

• 100g unsalted butter
• 200ml milk
• 5g salt
• 7g sachet dried yeast (Easy Bake or Quick Yeast)*
• 250g plain flour
• 250g strong bread flour
• 90g caster sugar
• 2 tsp ground cardamom
• 2 eggs

Filling:

• 100g unsalted butter (softened)
• 100g caster sugar
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tbsp ground cardamom

Coating:

• 1 egg, beaten
• 50g caster sugar
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Method:

1. Start the buns by melting the butter in a pan with the milk and the salt. Allow it to cool a little.
2. Mix the flour, yeast, cardamom and sugar in a bowl and incorporate the eggs and the melted butter and milk.
3. Knead the dough for 5 minutes until smooth. A dough scraper will help as it will be quite wet and sticky at first.
4. Leave the dough covered in a warm place to proof for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
5. For the filling, mix the softened butter with the sugar, cardamom and cinnamon until combined.
6. Roll out the dough out into a square about 35 x 35cm.
7. Spread the filling over evenly and then roll the dough up.
8. Slice it up into 12 pieces and place them onto a baking tray or into muffin cases. You can use a fine piece of string/cotton/wire to loop around slice the dough instead of a knife – this will prevent the dough getting squashed out of shape.
9. Cover and leave the dough to proof for a further 30-45 minutes.
10. Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan or 200°C conventional) and mix together the remaining caster sugar and cinnamon.
11. Brush with beaten egg, dust with plenty of the sugar mix and bake for 12-15 minutes.

*If you’re using ‘easy bake’ or ‘quick yeast’, you can add it straight to the flour mix, otherwise, you’ll need to activate the yeast by first mixing it with a splash of warm water and a sprinkle of sugar. It will be ready to go as soon as it starts to bubble.