Grandmother’s celebrated Cinnamon buns

In celebration of the international Cinnamon bun day! What better to post than the recipe my mother would bake the most wonderful cinnamon buns from?

It was one of the best things when I was little; a cold day outside playing in the outdoors – only to come home to mother’s freshly baked cinnamon buns and a glass of fridge cold milk. It was almost magical, and you could smell the cinnamon scent getting stronger the closer you got to home.

Cinnamon buns are also a regular occurrence at events and birthday parties. Everyone loves them and they are quite mooreish. I believed I’ve had cinnamon buns at every major birthday and milestone party that I can remember!

They are also great to freeze and thaw/heat in the oven when unexpected guests come over. I believe my mother always have at least one bag fille with cinnamon buns stacked in her freezer. Because you just never know when people might decide to come over for a Fika!

They are regularly eaten at Fika – both at home and in the offices. You can get some fantastic cinnamon buns from most cafés and bakeries in Sweden – but I would say nothing can really top off home-made cinnamon buns like these!… but I might be a bit biased!

Of course, you can always vary your filling and flavouring of these buns! This is the base recipe – but where your imagination takes it – it’s up to you!
I’ve made these with chocolate filling, with apple and vanilla, with custard, fruit jam… I’ve so far not had a disappointment in trying varying flavours!

For a more ‘Lucia’-y or ‘Christmas’-y flavour you could try adding some saffron to the dough, and add an apple – cinnamon filling to this. It would combine the flavours of my mother’s ‘advent cake’ into a cinnamon bun!

This is one of the recipes I do regularly. I did them 3-4 times per year at the kindergarten I worked in. It is my go-to when I bring cakes/dessert over to friends’ houses, or into the office for a birthday or after a vacation. We had them at our wedding reception! And had people asking if they could bring some with them on the journey home! That’s a good review if any!

Grandmother’s celebrated Cinnamon Buns

the most delicious flavour bombs in small knotted buns. The secret ingredient cardamom brings these buns to higher hights.

Servings 20 Big buns

Prep Time 45 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Proofing 1 hour hr

Total Time 2 hours hrs

Equipment

• 1 Pot for melting the butter
• 1 Bowl to mix the dough
• 1 Spoon to mix the mixture
• 1 Dough Scraper/cutter for cutting the dough – can use a knife as well
• Baking Tray
• Baking Parchment

Ingredients

Dough

• 50 g Fresh Yeast or about 12g dry
• 150 g Butter I normally use slightly salted, it works well!
• 5 dl Liquid 500 ml
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1½ dl Caster Sugar ca. 135g
• 13-14 dl Plain / All Purpose Flour ca. 800-860g
• 1 tsp Cinnamon Ground
• 1 pinch Cardamom Ground

Filling

• Butter
• Cinnamon
• Cardamom
• Caster Sugar

Topping

• Pearl Sugar optional – traditional – topping
• Whisked egg or milk

Instructions

Dough

• Start by melting the butter on low heat on the stove. Add in the cardamom and cinnamon to let the flavour come out properly. Once all butter have melted, take it off the heat and add the liquid to it.

  This will lower the temperature. Let the melted mixture get to 37 °C (/97 °F – if using fresh yeast – 45 °C /113 °F if you're using dry)
  150 g Butter, 5 dl Liquid, 1 tsp Cinnamon, 1 pinch Cardamom
• Put the yeast in the bowl and crumble it up.
  50 g Fresh Yeast
• Add the liquid to the bowl with the yeast and dissolve it in the liquid (temperature need to be correct for the type of yeast used – or it won't rise).
• Add the sugar and salt into the mixture.
  1 tsp Salt, 1½ dl Caster Sugar
• Add half the flour in and mix it until there are no clumps in the mixture. Add more flour little by little until the dough passes the test – see the notes.

  Let the dough rest in the bowl for about 30 mins.
  13-14 dl Plain / All Purpose Flour
• Once the dough is nicely rested, and doubled in size, it is time to kneed it and roll it out to a big rectangle.

  Butter the rectangle generously. This will make the cinnamon buns soft and juicy.

  Spread cinnamon generously (almost cover) on top of the butter. Sprinkle in cardamom on top of the cinnamon.

  Evenly cover the spices with caster sugar.
  Butter, Cinnamon, Cardamom, Caster Sugar
• Fold the lower third of the rectangle up – covering the middle third. Then fold the upper part down on the middle.

  Cut into pieces, cut in the middle of the piece, twirl it and make it into a knot

  OR

  roll it into a swiss roll and cut pieces/coins
• Place the knots/rolls on a baking tray lined with baking parchment.

  Let it rise for another 20 – 30 mins on the tray. Or until doubled in size.
• In the meantime – heat the oven to 225 °C. ( 437 °F)
• Once the buns have rested, brush them lightly with egg (shiny finish) or milk (matte finish) and finish them off with a sprinkle of pearl sugar (optional).

  Bake in the middle of the oven for about 10-12 mins.
  Pearl Sugar, Whisked egg
• Enjoy with a glass of cold milk or with a fresh cup of coffee

Notes

To know when your mixture has had enough flour – test by dipping your finger into flour to lightly flour it. Then poke the finger in the dough. If it comes out sticky with dough it needs more dough. But if it comes out clean without dough sticking to the finger – don’t add any more or you risk over-saturating it with flower – and run the risk of dry pastry! It’ll get a bit more flour when you roll it out. 

Try to keep the buns of a similar size or they will bake unevenly. 

It is also one of the best things to bake as a first thing in a new oven – they are very sensitive to unevenness in the heat distribution, so you will see exactly how your oven behaves – and have a tasty reward as well!

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Nordic, Swedish

Keyword: Bakery, Buns, Cinnamon, Pastry

Did you make this recipe?

Please let me know how it turned out for you! Leave a comment below and tag @TinySaltySpice on Instagram and hashtag it #TinySaltySpice.