I’m two days late with baking the traditional Finnish Laskiaispulla eaten on Shrove Tuesday so I made it in a new shape to show I ♥

Ingredients (makes 17 I Heart buns)

For the sweet buns:

• 225ml milk, lukewarm
• 25g fresh yeast
• 65g sugar, divided
• about 600g plain flour, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons of crushed cardamom seeds
• 75g butter or margarine, softened
• 1 egg

For filling:

• Raspberry jam or almond paste
• Whipped cream

You also need:

• egg, lightly beaten for glazing
• powdered sugar, for dusting

Instructions

1. In a mixing bowl dissolve the yeast into lukewarm milk and then add 1 teaspoon sugar and 150g plain flour and mix.
2. Cover the bowl and place it in a warm place for 20 minutes.
3. Mix in the egg, salt, remaining sugar, cardamom and about 300g plain flour, continue beating until evenly incorporated.
4. Add about 300g plain flour and knead, by hand or if you prefer in bread machine or with KitchenAid using the dough hook.

   I prefer kneading by hand, great work for the arms when working with big dough can skip the gym :)

5. Add the soft butter/margarine and the rest of the flour little at time, to keep the dough soft, continue kneading until you got an elastic dough that comes off the surface you are kneading on, if it’s still sticky you may add some more flour little at time.
6. Preheat oven to 225ºC and line two baking sheets with baking paper.
7. Divide your dough into 18 pieces, shape them from balls to hearts leaving one aside to add the “I” on top of each heart. Divide the extra piece to 17
8. Glaze the heart buns with lightly beaten egg and bake in your preheated oven for 12 minutes until you got nice golden brown color on top.
9. Place the buns on a wire rack and let them cool for about 15 minutes before cutting the top and filling with your choice of jam or almond paste topped with whipped cream lightly flavored with vanilla.
10. Cut the top, place your filing inside and put the “hat” back on top
11. Dust with sugar powder and you are done!