Kanelbullar/Cinnamon Buns

Kanelbullar should be on the Swedish Flag, they are everywhere! When you arrive at the airport you can even smell them. When I first moved over to Sweden, my friend Martin gave me 20SEK to buy my first cinnamon bun when I arrived. It worked. I was hooked.

They really are not a difficult thing to make, but some may have difficulty with using yeast if they haven’t used it before… but don’t let that stop you.  If you are having trouble shaping the cinnamon buns, there are loads of videos online of different ways, I found this one quite useful.

Kanelbullar are the ultimate Fika treat. Cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun. Sorted.  If you do give them a try, I would really love to hear about it, leave me a comment below.

This recipe is adapted from the blog of Linda Lomelino
Makes about 30 buns

Ingredients
Dough
150g soft butter
90g caster sugar
½ tsp salt
1tsp freshly ground cardamom
500ml milk
50g fresh yeast
840g plain flour

Filling
175g soft butter
90g granulated sugar
2tbsp cinnamon
1/4tsp cardamom, freshly ground
1/4tsp vanilla extract

Egg wash
1 egg, lightly beaten
Pearl sugar to sprinkle on top

Method
Begin by grinding the cardamom with a pestle and mortar until you have fine dust, leave this to the side.

In a stand mixer begin to mix the butter, sugar, and salt until smooth in a large bowl. Then start to heat milk in a saucepan until tepid, remove from heat and add sprinkled yeast and stir it until dissolved. Add cardamom to the milk (remember to leave some for the filling) and then pour into the butter mixture.

Using a dough hook, or your own hands, gradually add flour, then work it until dough peels away from the bowl and feels smooth and elastic. Cover and put in a warm place and let rise to double size for about 45mins.
Meanwhile, mix the all the ingredients for the filling until you have a paste and set aside.

When the dough has risen, divide it into two pieces. Start by rolling out the first piece of dough into a large rectangle, about 40×50 cm. Spread half of the filling on top. To make the shape pictured here (the knotted one), fold the dough twice (so you have three layers of dough, kind of like a folded business letter)