Kanelbullar – Cinnamon Buns

Pretty much every home baker wants to make cinnamon buns. They smell wonderful and taste great. When I was in Sweden a couple of years ago I managed to have a few great Kanelbullar or cinnamon buns.There are not a lot of recipes out there for Swedish Kanelbullar, so finding one that works was a bit of a task.

After a lot of searching I came across a recipe that seemed like it would work out well. Sweden.se/food,  The Official Gateway to Sweden. It’s always best to get things from the source if you can.

KanelBuller – Cinnamon Buns

For this recipe I used:

For the Dough:
750 Grams Pastry Flour
4.25 Teaspoons of Dry Yeast
75 Grams of Unsalted Butter
250 ml Whole Milk
60 ml Sugar
1 Pinch of Salt
1 Teaspoon Ground Cardamom

For the Filling:
100 Grams of Unsalted Butter (room temperature – see here for a quick tip)
120 ml Sugar
2 Teaspoons of Cinnamon

Glaze:
1 Large Egg
2 Teaspoons of Water
Pearl Sugar

Kanelbullar – The Ingredients

Starting with the dough, I proofed the yeast in warmed (100˚F) Milk and a tablespoon of Sugar for 5 minutes. While the yeast was proofing I melted the butter in the microwave until just melted ans set it aside.

Kanelbullar – Proofing the Yeast

Once the yeast was proofed, I added the melted butter to a larger bowl then added the milk.

Kanelbullar – Yeast & Melted Butter

In the bowl of my mixer I added the flour, the balance of the sugar, and ground cardamom

Kanelbullar – Flour & Cardamom

With the mixer running on “2” I added the yeast mixture to the flour.

Kanelbullar – Mixing the Dough

And let the mixer knead for 15 minutes. While the dough was kneading I heated my oven to 190˚F.

Kanelbullar – Kneading  the Dough

Once the mixer was finished I kneaded the dough on the counter for a couple of turns and returned the dough to the mixer bowl.

Kanelbullar – Fully Kneaded

I placed a tea towel over the bowl and put the bowl in the warmed oven and turned off the oven. I let the dough rise for about an hour.

Kanelbullar – Risen Dough

After the dough had risen I deflated it on my four covered counter.

Kanelbullar – Deflated Dough

Then rolled the dough out to about 25″ wide by 12″ tall.

Kanelbullar – Dough Rolled to 12″ x 25″

In a medium bowl I mixed together the cinnamon and sugar.

Kanelbullar – Cinnamon & Sugar

Next I spread the room temperature butter over the dough and, as evenly as I could, I spread the cinnamon mixture over the butter.

Kanelbullar – Spreading the Filling

I used my fingers to spread the cinnamon/butter out as evenly as I could.

Kanelbullar – The Filling

Then I rolled up the cinnamon buns into a tight roll. It is best to avoid any air spaces when doing this.

Kanelbullar – Rolling into a Log

After rolling I cut the log up into 25 even pieces.

Kanelbullar – Cutting into Buns

On a baking pan I laid out 24 parchment cupcake cups and placed a cinnamon roll on each cupcake liner.

Kanelbullar – Ready for Proofing

I repeated on another baking pan with the rest of the pieces.

Kanelbullar – Ready for Proofing

Of course before laying out the cupcake liners I missed putting a silpat on the empty baking pan. I covered the pans with a tea towel and placed the pan back into the oven for another hour of proofing.

Kanelbullar – Proofed

Once the Kanelbullar had proofed for an our I mixed the egg and water together creating an egg wash.

Kanelbullar – Egg Wash

I brushed the top of each bun with the egg wash and topped each bun with a few granules of pearl sugar. I also heated the oven to a very hot 480˚F!.

Kanelbullar -Egg Washed & Sugared

The second tray.

Kanelbullar – Egg Washed and Sugared

Once the oven was to temperature I baked the tray of buns. The recipe says 6-8 minutes. Mine took 9! I removed the pans from the oven and let the buns cool for about 10 minutes!

Kanelbullar – Fresh from the Oven

The bottoms were nicely browned and carmelised!

Kanelbullar – Crispy Bottom

Bakers Notes:

• a pretty easy recipe
• my North American taste suggests I should add at least 1/2 teaspoon more of cardamom to the dough mixture
• these are best when eaten within a couple of hours of making them
• day old Kanelbullar are great when you split them and then use them as french toast
• Update May 2015 – updated to use pastry flour instead of all-purpose flour