• At least 2 hours before making the buns, prepare your lemon curd by following the instruction in our lemon curd recipe. Place in the fridge to cool down.

MERINGUE

• Note - if you're serving all the buns right away, instead of making baked meringue cookies, you can make a stable/cooked meringue like Italian meringue, then top all the buns with the unbaked meringue at the end and torch it! We like to bake the meringue separately so we can enjoy these for a few days after making them.
• Start the meringue making process at least 1 and a half hours before making the buns. Preheat oven to 210F (100C).
• To make meringues for topping the buns, whip together egg whites with a splash of lemon juice in the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or using a hand mixer.
• Once the egg whites are frothy, add in vanilla extract. Then start adding sugar just a tablespoon at a time while whisking so it dissolves before the next addition. The speed on the mixer should be medium.
• Once you've added all the sugar, make sure to wipe down the sides of the bowl with a spatula so there isn't any undissolved sugar on the sides. Then continue whisking for at least 5 minutes until you have a glossy and smooth meringue. It should be at stiff peaks, meaning when you lift the whisk out of the mixture and turn the whisk upside down, you see a "peak" that stays in the same shape and doesn't flop over.
• On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, pipe out 12 meringue rounds. We used a round piping tip for this, but you can use a star one!
• Bake for around one hour, then let cool in the oven for another hour with the door cracked open.
• Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack; leave to the side while working on the rest of the recipe!

DOUGH

• You could start this dough while your meringues are cooling in the oven so you can start to bake them after the meringues cool down!
• Heat the milk, in the microwave or a saucepan, until it is "fingervarm" (finger warm), meaning it should feel warm to the touch but not hot. Add your active dry yeast/fresh yeast and 1 tbsp of sugar, stir, and leave it for 5-10 minutes until the mixture starts to bubble up, meaning your yeast is alive and not expired. If using instant yeast, you do not need to do this step; you can add the yeast directly to the mixing bowl with everything else.
• Add the salt, remaining sugar (½ tbsp), cardamom, and egg to a large bowl/bowl of a stand mixer and mix well. Once the yeast mixture has bubbled up a bit, add it to the egg mixture. Mix together.
• Slowly add the flour and softened butter, mixing with a wooden spoon or the dough hook on a stand mixer until the dough starts to come together.
• Knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Use a stand mixer if you would prefer! Add more flour if the dough is too sticky - if it sticks to the sides of the bowl or is really sticking to your hands, you need a little bit more flour! The dough should be soft and smooth, not too sticky nor too dry.
• Cover the dough with cling film or a clean dishtowel and let rise at room temperature (if room temp is very cold wherever you are, put it in a warm place, i.e. under a light) for 45 minutes to an hour or until doubled in size.
• Once your dough has doubled in size, shape it into 12 balls. Roll each ball on an unfloured surface to close any seam along the bun.
• Place the buns on two lined baking sheets (with parchment paper or a silicone mat), 6 buns on each sheet.
• Cover and let rise for about 15-20 minutes. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 390 degrees F (200 degrees C) - you won't need the oven for at least 15 more minutes after this, so adjust accordingly if your oven heats up very quickly.
• After 15 minutes, we are going to create a well in each roll for the lemon curd filling. We usually press down into the middle with our fingertips, and use the bottom of a small glass (like a shot glass) to help even out the indentation.
  
• It should look sort of like a donut but the hole is not fully punched through. The size of the indentation should be at least the size of a US quarter. After you've pressed an indent into each bun, cover and let rest for another 15-20 minutes.
  
• After 20 minutes, press down the indent again to make room for the lemon curd. It's important to make sure that the buns are proofed enough at this stage - if the dough is quite resistant or springing back easily, give it another ten minutes to rise before pressing down again.
• Once they are ready, egg wash the buns.
  
• Spoon lemon curd into each well in the buns (around 1-2 tbsp in each bun).
• Bake for 10-12 minutes. We bake both baking sheets at once, but rotate them halfway! You can also bake the sheets one at a time for more even cooking!
• After they are done baking, transfer to a wire rack and let cool for at least 30 minutes.
• Add a baked meringue to the top of each bun. Alternatively, if you're serving all the buns right away like mentioned above, you can use a stable meringue such as Italian meringue, pipe it on top of the buns, and then torch it!
• Enjoy! We store these buns in the fridge for 2-3 days after baking. The meringue will start to break down, so we recommend if you're not eating right away to store the meringues separately.