Swedish Cinnamon Buns (Kanelbullen).

Kanelbullen, Swedish Delicacy.

'Kanelbullensdag' (or Cinnamon Bun Day) in Sweden is on the 4th of October, so I am a little late (or early?) with this one. But I have been meaning to make these little guys for ages and today seemed as good a day as any to do it.

Especially as episodes 3 and 4 of Danish/Swedish drama 'The Bridge' air on British TV tonight, so these buns would be a fitting snack to watch it with.



Firstly, I wanted to say that my inspiration for this post comes from the beautiful blog Call Me Cupcake and I can only wish to have as beautiful photography as her. (Plus she is just generally really cool).

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Anyway, I have had a go at the recipe myself and here is my version, but with a few little changes:

(Makes around 10 buns)

Dough
50 g soft butter
30g granulated sugar
A pinch of salt 
Just under 1 tsp of cardamom, freshly ground
170 ml milk
20g fresh yeast
280g plain flour

Filling
60g soft butter
30g granulated sugar
Just under 1 tbsp cinnamon
A little pinch of cardamom, freshly ground
1 tsp vanilla flavouring

Egg wash
1 egg, lightly beaten
A sprinkle of icing Sugar

Method  
1. Mix butter, sugar, salt and cardamom until smooth in a large bowl. 

2. Heat milk in a saucepan until approximately 37°C (so kindof hand-hot), remove from heat and add sprinkled yeast. Stir until dissolved. When yeast is completely dissolved, add milk to butter mixture. 

3. Gradually add the flour, then work until dough is smooth and elastic. Cover bowl with a cloth and leave to rise until doubled in size, about 45-60 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, mix the ingredients for the filling and set aside.

5. When dough is ready, roll it out into a large rectangle. Spread the filling on top (a knife is easier than a spoon).

6. To make the shape pictured here, fold the dough two times (so you have three layers of dough, kind of like a business letter!). 

7. Cut out long strips of dough (about 2 cm wide) 

8. Twist together into a knot and put on parchment/grease-proof paper.

[The main thing that I found a little bit tricky about the recipe was the 'knotting' of the buns (which I soon improved at with a little practice) - but there is a nice video that shows how it is done - except I did a little more twisting.]

9. Repeat until you have finished knotting the strips.

10. Cover with a cloth and leave to rise for 30 minutes. 

11.  Heat oven to 250°C (or a bit less if you have a fan oven).  Brush with beaten egg. Sprinkle icing sugar and chopped almonds on top if desired.

Bake for about 8-11 minutes, depending on the size of the buns.

Let them cool (or not) AND EAT THEM!! :) 

(Good with coffee or milk. But I suspect tonight we will be munching them with tea).

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(The main adaptations to the original recipe were:

-Instead of Vanilla Powder I used Vanilla Flavouring
-Instead of Ground Cardamom (couldn't find this in the shops) I just bashed up a load of cardamom pods and removed the shells.
-I also only did 1/3 amounts because the recipe made 30 and I think after Christmas and everything my family probably didn't need 30 sugar-y buns...)


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(The original post from Call Me Cupcake that I am talking about is here: http://call-me-cupcake.blogspot.nl/2013/10/cinnamon-buns.html )

(This photo is from the Call Me Cupcake blog)

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