Kanelbullar

While I was living and studying in Sweden I had fika quite often with my friends and I've been missing that lately. Since I can't really hang out with my friends and have coffee with them in person right now, I thought I would try making some of the Swedish cinnamon buns, or kanelbullar, that we used to eat all the time. 

And I must say, these kanelbullar are really good! I wish I could tie them in the fancy knots like some Swedish bakeries do, but besides that, I think these are pretty close to the real thing. If you are looking for a little taste of Sweden, try baking these cinnamon buns!  

Kanelbullar / Swedish Cinnamon Buns (from Call Me Cupcake)

makes about 40 buns (I halved the recipe and got 16)

For the buns:

150g butter

5 dl milk

50g fresh yeast

1 dl sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp coarse cardamom (not finely ground)

850g flour

For the filling:

100g butter, softened

1 dl sugar

2 tbsp ground cinnamon

For decoration:

1 egg, lightly beaten

Pearl sugar or chopped almonds

To make the dough for the buns, melt the butter in a small saucepan. Add the milk and heat until it reaches 37 degrees celsius. Crumble the yeast in a large mixing bowl and stir until the yeast is completely dissolved. Add flour, sugar, cardamom, and salt and stir with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together. Work the dough with the dough hooks on your mixer for 5 minutes or knead the dough by hand for about 10 minutes. When the dough is ready, cover it with a tea towel and let it rise for 30 minutes. 

While the dough is rising, combine the butter, sugar and cinnamon for the filling. When the dough has doubled in size, knead the dough for a few minutes until it feels elastic. Divide the dough into 4 parts (or 2 if you halved the recipe) and roll out each part into a long rectangle on a well floured surface. Spread the filling over the rolled out dough and then roll it into a long roll/log. Divide and cut each roll/log into 8 to 10 pieces. Place cut pieces on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and cover them with a tea towel so they can rise for another 40 minutes.

Finally, brush each bun with the beaten egg and sprinkle some pearl sugar or almonds on top. Preheat the oven to 250C and bake them in the middle of the oven for 5 minutes, or until buns are golden brown. 

Let cool and eat them the same day or freeze them for later. 

(I'm sorry that the recipe is in deciliters but that is the system they use in Sweden and since I have a deciliter measuring cup on hand, I didn't need to convert any of the measurements.)

Happy Thursday!