Even if you don’t have memories of a Swedish konditori, cinnamon buns have a nostalgic effect, and they make your whole house smell delicious. By Kelsey Hilts
Behind every food and every meal there is a story, a memory, a connection.
“…When my father’s family bought my mother’s family’s four-level home, they leased out the basem*nt level to a baker, and ran the konditori on street level. As a 6-year-old living with my grandparents {in Sweden}, I woke to the smells of lovely yeast breads…and during Lent, fresh semlor on our Tuesday morning breakfast table were baked downstairs while we slept. With the train station, secondary school, and hockey rink nearby, as well as a street of shops, the konditori attracted townsfolk for fresh baked goods including specialties like buttery weinerbröd, kanelbullar, and princesstårta… Here students from the high school and townspeople met for coffee and pastry…”
Our dear Swedish family friend recounts living as a 6-year-old with her grandparents in a small Swedish town. Her grandparents lived above the family-run konditori so she woke to the smell of Kanelbullar {Swedish Cinnamon Buns} and other pastries. Her stories ignite memories of my own as I remember the sweet, intoxicating smell of our house when my mom baked breads and cinnamon rolls.
Through my opportunity with Honest Cooking and the NORTH Nordic Food Festival in New York City, I became so overwhelmed by all of the inspiring Swedish foods. How to pick just one recipe when each dish has a story to tell? I initially made pytt i panna, drawn to the comfort food with the goal of cleaning out the fridge because that is a goal that I (and people all over the world) can relate to. But I couldn’t stop there. I was inspired by kanelbullar because similar to pytt i panna, it is an iconic Swedish food that many people seem to connect with. The cinnamon buns trigger nostalgia and memories. And as I remembered my mom’s cinnamon rolls, I wanted to compare them to the Swedish version.
The Swedish buns are not iced nor as sweet and gooey as the American counterpart. They make the perfect accompaniment for your cup of coffee or tea. Fika, the traditional Swedish coffee break, is still an active tradition in Sweden. If you are alone, at work or with family or friends, it is custom to take a moment with your coffee and cinnamon bun or other sweet. October 4th is Kanelbullens Dag {Cinnamon Bun Day}. Even if you are not Swedish, take the opportunity to pause from your hectic daily life, have a cup of tea or coffee, and enjoy a cinnamon roll.
The smell of warm, intoxicating cinnamon enveloped our kitchen and entire home the day that I made kanelbullar. My son opened the front door returning from preschool and at first smell, ran into the kitchen to find the buns. Maybe one day he will tell his kids and grandkids about the smell of his home when his mom was baking cinnamon buns.
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Author:Kelsey Hilts
Total Time:1 hour 30 mins
Yield:about 40 cinnamon buns 1x
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Description
Even if you don’t have memories of a Swedish konditori, cinnamon buns have a nostalgic effect, and they make your whole house smell delicious.
Ingredients
Scale
Cinnamon Bun Dough
25 g yeast
50 g butter
3 cups milk
½ cup sugar
Pinch of salt
8 cups flour
2 tsp cardamom, optional
Filling
50 g butter, softened
2 tsp cinnamon
½ cup sugar
Glaze
1 egg
Pearl sugar and/or slivered almonds
Instructions
Cinnamon Bun Dough
Melt the butter in a medium-sized sauce pan over medium heat.
Add the milk and heat until just hot to the touch (98F/37C).
Pour about half of the hot butter-milk over the yeast in a large mixing bowl.
Stir gently and let rest for 5 minutes until the yeast dissolves.
Then add the remaining butter-milk, salt, sugar, cardamom and 7+ cups of flour, mixing well until the dough can be handled.
Knead the dough, cover the ball with a towel, and let it rise for 30 minutes.
Cut the dough in half and form each ball into a rectangle roughly 15×20 inches.
Spread half of the filling over one rectangle and the other half over the other.
Roll the dough up lengthwise to form a long spiral roll.
Cut each roll into roughly 24 (less than 1 inch-wide) pieces.
Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or in individual muffin liners placed on a baking sheet (roughly 12 to a pan).
Cover them with a towel and let rise another 30 minutes.
Brush the buns with egg and sprinkle with pearl sugar and/or slivered almonds.
Bake the buns at 475 degrees for 5-8 minutes or until lightly golden.
Store the cooled buns in a sealed container because they dry out quickly.
They can also be frozen.
Filling
Stir the cinnamon and sugar into the butter to form a mixture with a smooth spreading consistency.
Spread the filling over the rectangles of pastry dough.
Kelsey Hilts is the founder of Itsy Bitsy Foodies, an online resource for families looking for ways to spend more time together enjoying food and exploring the world beyond the children’s menu.
The Swedish cinnamon bun is much less sticky than, for example, the American cinnamon roll. Swedish cinnamon buns also have the very specific addition of a bit of cardamom spice in the dough which adds another delicious dimension of flavouring.
The semla – a small, wheat flour bun, flavoured with cardamom and filled with almond paste and whipped cream – has become something of a carb-packed icon in Sweden.
Structurally, cinnamon buns share the same spiral shape. They are sometimes thinner and more delicate. The most significant difference between cinnamon rolls and cinnamon buns is the inclusion of nuts. Cinnamon buns often have pecans, walnuts, or even raisins in the filling.
Origins. Roman spice traders introduced the Sri Lankan cinnamon spice to Europe. The spice later began to be used in Swedish pastries, with the modern kanelbulle ( lit.''cinnamon bun'') being created after the first world war.
These cinnamon swirl pastries and buns are common throughout Northern Europe. They are most popular in Sweden. There's even a National Cinnamon Roll Day (Kanelbullens dag) on October 4 that is celebrated in Sweden. Cinnamon rolls are typically enjoyed with afternoon coffee.
Here are the best cinnamon buns in the UK and where to buy them. Cinnamon buns are also known as cinnamon rolls and kannelbullen, and in Denmark they are even called Kanelsnegl; 'cinnamon snail'.
Kanelbullar or cinnamon buns are a classic at Swedish coffee parties. During the golden age of home baking, such parties turned into orgies of sweet yeast breads, small cookies, cookies with fillings, pastries and cakes. This tradition lives on in Sweden.
While oatmeal or porridge may be the historical breakfast choice of everyone from Vikings to peasants, there are plenty of other traditions ingrained into typical Swedish fare. The most basic staple is filmjölk, a soured buttermilk.
The average Swede consumes as many as 230 cinnamon rolls a year and the pastry is so popular that it even has its own day in the calendar. Kanelbullens Dag (Cinnamon Bun Day) takes place every year on October 4th, with an estimated eight million cinnamon rolls sold across Sweden on that day alone.
This special Indonesian cinnamon, called Makara, is trademarked by Cinnabon. And because of that trademark, you won't find this product in your local grocery store spice aisle.
synonym ▲ Synonym: cinnamon bun. (slang, neologism) A person perceived as good, gentle and kind. Often a fictional character who undergoes emotional suffering.
Take a breather from your Cinnabon-eating frenzy and you would notice that it's actually the sum of their parts — the oh-so-tender dough, the massive amounts of cinnamon and sugar, and the frosting you could eat by the spoonful — that makes them so darn tasty.
Today's Swedish cinnamon buns are part of a tradition tracing back to the 1920s. The cinnamon buns were created after the First World War. During the war, there were restrictions put on the import of several goods such as sugar, egg and butter. People didn't always have the luxury to bake what they wanted to.
The cinnamon roll or bun (or 'kanelbulle' in Swedish) was first created after the First World War, but, as the ingredients (flour, sugar, egg, butter, cinnamon and cardamom) were expensive and hard to find, it did not become popular until the 1950s.
The modern day version of the kanelbulle has ties to both world wars. During WW1, goods such as sugar, egg and butter were difficult to come by and thus, the traditional pastry took a backseat to political strife. Swedes had to give up their cinnamon fix for a time.
Kanelbullar or cinnamon buns are a classic at Swedish coffee parties. During the golden age of home baking, such parties turned into orgies of sweet yeast breads, small cookies, cookies with fillings, pastries and cakes. This tradition lives on in Sweden.
Today's Swedish cinnamon buns are part of a tradition tracing back to the 1920s. The cinnamon buns were created after the First World War. During the war, there were restrictions put on the import of several goods such as sugar, egg and butter. People didn't always have the luxury to bake what they wanted to.
Despite being celebrated as a must-have in the Swedish fika culture, the cinnamon bun pastry did not become commonplace until the 1920s (after World War I), when its ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, yeast, and cinnamon) went from being on a list of rationed goods (ransoneringslista) to becoming more affordable.
Introduction: My name is Mr. See Jast, I am a open, jolly, gorgeous, courageous, inexpensive, friendly, homely person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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