Recipe: Blood Orange, Cardamom & Pistachio Buns
Blood orange season arrives just as we move through Imbolc, a time of growing light and gentle renewal in the Celtic year. Their vivid colour and bright flavour cut through Winter’s greyness, and here they pair beautifully with warm cardamom and rich pistachios. These soft, zesty buns are a seasonal joy, finished with a fragrant blood orange glaze.
Ingredients
For the dough
250g plain flour
Up to 25g extra flour if the dough is sticky
150ml whole milk
40g butter
25g sugar
1 × 7g sachet fast action yeast
1 tsp cardamom
Zest of half a blood orange
For the filling
60g butter
60g light brown sugar
1 tsp cardamom
Zest of half a blood orange
30g pistachios, toasted and chopped
For the glaze
75g icing sugar
1 tbsp blood orange juice
Method
Warm the milk with the butter until the butter melts and the mixture reaches body temperature. Add the flour and yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer. Pour in the warm milk mixture along with the sugar, cardamom and orange zest. Knead for about 10 minutes until smooth and elastic, adding a little extra flour if the dough feels too sticky.
Leave to prove until doubled in size – either overnight somewhere cool or for a couple of hours in a warm kitchen.
Once proved, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly. Roll into a rectangle about 15 × 20 cm.
Make the filling by creaming the butter, sugar, cardamom and orange zest. Spread evenly over the dough and scatter with the chopped pistachios.
Roll the dough tightly lengthways into a long sausage and slice into 2 cm pieces. Arrange the buns in a lined baking tin, spaced slightly apart, and leave to rise again until doubled.
Bake at 180°C Fan for 18–20 minutes until golden. Brush with warmed golden syrup if you’d like added shine.
Mix the icing sugar and blood orange juice to make a glaze and drizzle over the warm buns.
A Seasonal Note
Imbolc marks the first quiet stirrings of the year, when light begins to return and early seasonal treasures lift the spirit. Blood oranges, with their jewel-bright colour and sharp-sweet flavour, feel perfectly tuned to this moment. These buns celebrate that brightness in the depth of Winter: soft, spiced and full of promise.
