Norwegian Sweet Rolls

Ingredients:

  • 10 g oatmeal
  • 50 ml water (for soaking the oatmeal)
  • 100 g sugar
  • 50 ml canola oil
  • 225 ml water
  • 25 g fresh yeast
  • 2.5 g salt
  • 5 g ground cardamom
  • 500 g sifted wheat flour

Optional:

  • 175 g raisins (for raisin buns)
  • 1 beaten egg (for brushing, skip to keep the buns vegan)

Instructions:

  1. Boil 50 ml of water and pour it over the oatmeal in a small bowl. Let the mixture cool to room temperature.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cooled oatmeal mixture, sugar, canola oil, 225 ml water, fresh yeast, salt, cardamom, and most of the wheat flour.
  3. Knead the dough in a stand mixer for about 15 minutes, or by hand for about 20–25 minutes, adding the rest of the flour as needed until you have a smooth, elastic dough.
  4. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest and rise for about 1 hour, or until noticeably puffed.
  5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 10 equal portions. Shape each portion into a round bun.
  6. Place the buns on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rise until doubled in size, about 1–2 hours at room temperature.
  7. For golden buns, lightly brush the tops with beaten egg just before baking (skip this step if you want the buns to remain fully vegan).
  8. Bake the buns at 430°F for 8–10 minutes, or until lightly golden and baked through. Cool on a wire rack.

Raisin buns variation:

  1. Soak raisins in water for 15 minutes, then drain well.
  2. Add the drained raisins to the dough near the end of the kneading time in step 3 above, and proceed with the remaining steps as written.

Notes

We were in Norway in 2022 and fell in love with https://www.godtbrod.no/. This recipe is based off of a recipe we found for their sweet rolls which I can no longer locate on the internet.