Have you ever wondered where the very popularized Cinnamon Roll came from?
Well, most researchers have tracked its origin to Sweden around the mid-1700’s. In 1999, the Hembakningsrådet (Swedish Home Baking Council), invented the Kanelbullens Dag (International Cinnamon Roll Day) to celebrate it’s 40th anniversary on October 4th, but Swedish people have it every other day. A kanelbullar is not a stranger in a Swedish diet, specially with Fika, a well known tradition when people take breaks between meals with their friends, family and colleagues to enjoy a pastry or snack with coffee.
I’ve got a chance to visit Sweden in 2019 and had one of this fantastic goodies. My whole vision of what a Cinnamon Roll should taste like was changed and I’m glad it did.
So … What makes this version of the Cinnamon Roll so special and different from others?
Lets break down the Basics:
Ingredients: Cardamom really changes the game in this recipe, giving the dough an extra punch of flavor and aroma. It’s very common to use pearl sugar as a topping for the kanelbullar but you can also add a White Icing or Chocolate Icing; on the other hand you can see standard Cinnamon rolls topped with Cream Cheese Icing, this neutralizes the flavor of cinnamon and make it way more dense.
Shape: There are different types of shaping for the kanelbullar. Starting from the most traditional The Knot, this shape it’s all about rolling strings of dough around your fingers and tucking the end. The Twisted Knot, this shape is used mostly for Cardamom Buns and it consist of twisting one or two strings of dough to get a spiral, then roll the spiral around itself to make the dough look kind of a flower. The Snail or The Cut Roll, this one is the most simple, roll the dough and cut the log into slices, just like the regular Cinnamon Roll. The Cut Roll Braid, this one is almost the same as the last one, but instead of cutting each slice all the way through the dough, stop almost at the end so that the slices are still attached on the bottom. Then, chose one of the ends of the log and move one slice to the right and the next one to the left and so on, so then you’ll end up with a long bread that looks like a braid. The list goes on and on, but this are the main shapes for kanelbullar.
Texture: Most Cinnamon Rolls are known to be super fluffy and crazy big. Kanelbullar is a bit different, because of the shaping makes the dough a little more compact and more “flaky” than fluffy, and you get to taste the cinnamon filling in every single bite.
Now that we are more familiarized with the kanelbullar, lets get to business…
The Recipe
This recipe makes about 20 buns of 60g each.
Pre Dough
- 250 ml Milk
- 350 g Wheat Flour
- 20 g Fresh Yeast, or 10 g Dry Yeast
Dough
- 250g Wheat Flour
- 75 g Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 10 g Cardamom
- 75 g Butter
- 5 g Salt
Cinnamon batter
- 200 g Butter
- 250 g Sugar
- 60 g Wheat Flour
- 30 g Cinnamon
Egg Wash
- 1 Egg
- 10 ml Milk
- 3 g Sugar
– Pearl Sugar *optional*
Additional *These are in case you would like to add extra flavors to your dough*
- 10 g Rose-hip Shell Flour
- 10 g Vanilla Sugar
- 10 g Malt
DAY 1
In a bowl, mix together the ingredients for the Pre Dough until they are well incorporated. Leave the dough to rest for 10 minutes at room temperature and knead it for 5 minutes (you can use a stand mixer for kneading, I did it all by hand). Place the dough back to the bowl and cover with plastic. Let it rest on the fridge over night. *If you are planing on doing this recipe in 1 day, then at this point let the dough rest 3 hrs at room temperature and then continue with the instructions of Day 2*
DAY 2
Take the dough out of the fridge and deflate it with your fingers. Add the eggs, sugar, flour and cardamom, integrate with the dough and add the butter. Drop the dough to a clean table (or stand mixer) and knead until the dough is smooth. Place the dough in a clean bowl and cover it up, let it rise for 40 min.
Mix together the butter, flour, cinnamon and sugar of the Cinnamon Batter. Leave it at room temperature.
Dust the surface of the table with flour and place the dough on top of it. Dust a bit more of flour over the dough and use a rolling pin to extend the dough into a rectangle (about 73 cm X 57 cm, 7 mm thick). With a spatula, spread the Cinnamon Batter on 2/3 of the dough in an even layer. Make a Letter Fold by placing the 1/3 of the dough without spread over another 1/3 with spread, and then the remaining 1/3 over the folded parts. Place the dough facing you horizontally and extend a little more without adding too much pressure (we don’t want the spread to leak). Cut stripes of dough of about 2.5 cm (1 inch) wide.
To shape the dough, extend with your hands a little a stripe and roll it around 3 or two fingers. When reaching the end the stripe, tuck it in between your fingers making a loose knot. Place the knots in a baking tray with parchment paper and let them rise for 30 min.
Preheat the oven to 200 C (428 F). Mix the egg, milk and sugar of the Egg Wash and lightly brush the knots with it (sprinkle a bit of pearl sugar over the knots if you’d like). Bake the knot for 12 minutes (if you want a little more of color, bake for another 4 minutes tops).
Let the buns cool down and enjoy with a cup of coffee, tea or milk! I hope you’ll enjoy this recipe and impress someone with a surprise Fika.
If you happen to make this delicious treats, TAG ME! Instagram:@MrsSublimeBakes
This recipe was inspired by Nicholas Hemsida and Magnus Nilsson.
Mrs Sublime Bakes 