Sweden

Kanelbullar

Over the past few years, I’ve become more and more fond of pastries and breads that contain cinnamon, and you really can’t say you’ve done a world cuisine of Sweden without having done Kanelbullar, or cinnamon buns. The recipe I used came courtesy of Edd Kimber over at the SwedishFood.com website. While following that recipe, I did find that I needed about 20-25g or so more flour to bring the mixture together so that it wasn’t so wet. So, be sure to maintain some flour to the side, just in case. However, they turned out great and taste phenomenal.

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• Servings = 12 buns
• Preparation time = 20 minutes, + 2 hours for rising/proving
• Cook time = 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• 250ml milk
• 100g unsalted butter
• 1 egg
• 500g plain flour or bread flour
• ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
• 50g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 7g fast action dried yeast

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• 150g light brown sugar/Demerara
• 3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 60g unsalted butter, room temperature or slightly melted

To begin, you need to place the milk and the 100g butter in a saucepan over a medium to low heat. Allow the butter to melt, and once it does, remove it from the heat and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, in a bowl mix together the flour, salt, 50g caster sugar and ground cardamom. Once the milk mixture is cooled to tepid temperature, mix in the egg.

Then, stir the yeast into the flour mixture, before making a well in the centre and pouring in the liquid mix. Bring together to form a soft dough, adding more flour if the mixture continues sticking to the bowl, and once brought together well enough, turn out of the bowl onto a floured work surface. Knead the bread for five to 10 minutes, until it’s smooth and elastic. Then, place in a clean bowl and cover with cling film before leaving in a warm place for an hour or so, until doubled in size.

Once risen, remove from the bowl and place onto your floured work surface. Flatten the dough down into a basic rectangle shape, and then roll out to an oblong of about 35cm wide and 25cm tall.

Then, mix together the 60g unsalted butter, the cinnamon and the 150g Demerara/light brown sugar until you have a nice paste. Once done, spread out as evenly as possible along the dough before rolling it up from the bottom into a sausage shape.

Then, line a large single oven tray, or two smaller ones with baking paper and slice through the sausage with a bread knife to craft 12 sushi-looking rolls. Transfer these to the tray(s) and cover with a tea towel to prove for about 45 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 180C and once proving time has ended, place the Kanelbullar inside for 20-30 minutes, depending upon the strength of your oven. Mine took around 30 minutes. They’re ready once they’ve turned golden on top – and the whole room will smell of delicious cinnamon.