Finnish Butter-Eye Buns (Voisilmäpulla)

If you’re a donut person, a muffin person, or any other sort of something-sweet-with-your-coffee person, get ready to meet your new favorite. Seriously, I believe that these Finnish Butter-Eye Buns are that good! They’re moist and rich, fluffy and sweet. The dough is perfectly seasoned with cardamom, and the butter and sugar “eye” is just divine. Plus, they freeze beautifully, which is good, because you’re always going to want to eat these hot. If I had to choose one food to serve someone in order to sell someone on Finnish cuisine (or more specifically, Finnish baking), these would undoubtedly be the frontrunner.

My stomach is rumbling. Let’s continue.

If you haven’t already visited my blog post about pulla, start there. That pulla dough serves as the base dough for Butter-Eye Buns.

Tools & Equipment for Finnish Butter-Eye Buns

• Baking sheets
• Pastry brush
• Butter knife

Ingredients for Butter-Eye Buns

• Pulla dough. One recipe would make three dozen buns, or it can be halved to make 18. I sometimes make one braided loaf and two dozen buns. The possibilities are endless!
• Butter: fridge temp butter works well
• granulated sugar
• Pearl sugar
• Egg, for egg wash
• 1 Tbsp milk or cream, for egg wash

How to Make Butter-Eye Buns

Make Pulla Dough

Start with your pulla dough after its second rise, when it is double in size and ready for dividing. If you’re using the entire pulla recipe for Butter-Eye Buns, you’ll divide it into three, then each third into one dozen buns. For the purposes of this post, I’ll describe making one dozen buns. You can repeat for each other section of pulla dough if you’re making more!

Divide & Shape Dough

Lightly flour a work surface and gently turn the dough out onto it with a bowl scraper. Lightly grease baking sheets and set aside.

Divide pulla dough into twelve equal portions. I recommend using a kitchen scale to first divide into thirds, then each third into fourths- Or divide the entire weight by twelve and portion them off one at a time. I get them within 5 grams or so of each other, this helps them bake more uniformly.

Form each piece into a bun by pinching the dough together into a round shape. They will be a little bigger than golf ball sized. Place each onto a prepared baking sheet.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the buns in a warm place, lightly cover with plastic wrap or a clean tea towel and allow to rise until puffy but not double in size, about 20 minutes.

Add the Eyes and Bake!

Beat egg and 1 Tbsp milk or cream and use a pastry brush to brush egg wash on top of the buns. Cut 4 Tbsp cold butter into 12 equal cubes and press one piece of butter into the center of each bun. They’ll make little butter volcanoes!

Pour 1 tsp granulated sugar over each cube of butter. Sprinkle pearl sugar around the edges of the white sugar.

Bake in the preheated oven 12-17 minutes, until they’re golden brown and the scent of cardamom is filling the kitchen!

Let cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, then remove to a wire rack.

Eat these hot (or at least warm)! You will thank me. I highly recommend freezing any leftovers on the day of baking, then reheating in the oven when you’re ready to eat.

Pin for Later:

What Should I Make Next?

For more delicious Finnish cardamom-flavored treats, try Finnish Shrovetide Buns or Finnish Cinnamon Buns!

Did you make this recipe? Let me know how it went in the comments! If you share on Instagram, please tag me at @sisuhomemaker. And I always love to hear from you- send questions, comments, concerns, etc to carol@sisuhomemaker.com!