Combine soy milk, sugar, and yeast in a mixing bowl and stir for two minutes until fully dissolved.

Add the flour and mix with the dough hook attachment for 4-5 minutes on KitchenAid Speed 2 (KS2).

Add the salt and water and mix on KS2. The dough will first get shaggy, it may also look like it’s falling apart, but then form a dough ball again and loosen from the sides of the bowl.

At this stage, add half of the butter in small cubes and mix until roughly incorporated.

Put in the rest of the butter cubes and mix on KS4 for 10 minutes or, more importantly, until the dough passes the window pane test, but no further than 24 °C.

Put the dough into an airtight container and let it cold ferment overnight in the fridge for 10-12 hours at around 6-8 °C. This step is important to develop flavour in the dough and makes the dough better digestible.

Take out the dough from the fridge.

Put the butter into a small microwave-proof bowl and heat it for 10 seconds. Repeat these 10 seconds until the butter is slightly softened. Don’t melt it completely, because the filling will just flow out of the sides of the buns.

Add the sugar, cardamom, cinnamon, and salt into the bowl and stir with a fork to combine everything into a paste.

Roll out the dough to around 50 x 50 cm.

Spread the filling evenly onto the dough.

Fold over one half onto the other. Now you should have a piece of dough with filling in between and 25 x 50 cm measurements.

Divide the 50 cm long side by 12 and cut roughly 4 cm wide (and 25 cm long) strips.

Hold a strip of dough on one end between thumb and index finger of hand 1 and use hand 2 to wrap the dough strip around index and middle finger of hand one.

Use the last 5 cm of the dough strip to wrap around the bun to create the iconic cardamom bun look.

Repeat this with every strip of dough.

Place them in a 30 x 40 cm baking dish and put them on the middle baking rack in your oven (turned off).

Turn on just the light of your oven and place a small glass of hot water in the front corner of your oven.

Close the oven door and proof the buns for 2 to 3 hours.

Check the temperature after one hour. If they are still below 28 °C, replace the hot water.

The goal is to proof them at around 28 °C but not beyond 30 °C; otherwise, the filling will flow out before baking has even started.

They are ready to bake when almost doubled in size or when you can perform the knuckle test (see also “Before getting Started...“).

Take the baking dish out of the oven.

Preheat the oven to 175 °C top/bottom heat.

Bake the buns for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown on top.

While the buns are in the oven, mix the water and sugar for the syrup in a bowl and heat in the microwave for 30 seconds.

Stir the syrup until all the sugar crystals are dissolved.

Brush the buns with the syrup when they come hot out of the oven.

Let them cool down to at least 40 °C to enjoy them still warm.