Kanel Bulle - Swedish Cinnamon buns

In the food stakes the Swedes are at quite a disadvantage to every other country we have spent a long time in. Just about all produce has to travel large distances to get here. The presence of good, tasty, plentiful vegies and herbs is limited, thus the main diet is (in my opinion) quite bland. Except in the summer when the berries are truly amazing.

But what these folk do well, very well, is 'fika'. Which basically means coffee and cake. So they bake well and often. The most traditional of these baked delights is the kanelbulle (literally cinnamon bun). There is even a national day dedicated to these little treats. This recipe came from the back of a flour packet here, with reference to another blog for the technique (I think it was called goodmoodfood.blogspot hosted by an Irish guy from Dublin). My translating skills are pretty good for all ingredients, but my verb knowledge of swedish is still pretty rudimentary.

Here goes.....

Dough
150 grams butter
150 mls full fat milk
50 grams yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
150 ml caster sugar
800 grams plain flour
2 tablespoons cardamon (kardemumma)

For the "cinnamon butter"
125 grams butter
150 ml caster sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon

To paint the top of each bulle
1 whisked egg
Pearl sugar, or some other coarse sugar for sprinkling

Method
Dough
*Melt the butter in a saucepan, and add milk. Heat to lukewarm/finger warm.

*In a large bowl, crumble the yeast and add a little of the butter/milk liquid. Stir the yeast in until it becomes a smooth paste. Then add the rest of the liquid.

*Add the sugar and the salt.

*Add the flour and the cardamon the smell here is heavenly

*knead the dough lightly by hand a little (do not take it out of the bowl to do this). It's fine if the dough is sticky.

*Place a damp tea-towel over the bowl and leave the dough to rise, for about 45- 50 minutes.

Cinnamon butter
*Melt the butter and add the caster sugar and cinnamon. Leave to stand while you are waiting for the dough to rise (but NOT in the fridge!).

Putting it all together
*Once the dough has risen, place on a large table. If it's too sticky to handle at this point, sprinkle the table and the dough with a little extra flour. Knead the dough a little, very lightly.

* Divide the dough into two pieces. Roll each piece out into a large, thin rectangle and smear the cinnamon butter over the entire surface of each, right up to the edges.


Roll each rectangle up (as you would with a swiss roll) and cut each "log" into 2-3cm pieces.

*Place each piece on a large paper cup-cake case. Cover with a (dry) tea-towel and leave for 20-30 minutes.

*During this time pre-heat your oven to 210-220 degrees.

*After 20-30 mins, paint the tops of each bulle with egg and sprinkle with sugar.

*Bake in the oven for 7 to 9 minutes.

Make yourself a nice cuppa and have your own Swedish style fika.