Kanelbullens Dag-Swedish Cinnamon Roll Day

                  Get ready, October 4 is Cinnamon roll day!

What's the big deal? This is not the grocery store bakery or factory produced and packaged pastry, or dripping with sugary glaze mall bun most Americans know.  Swedish Kanelbullar are nothing at all like cinnamon rolls we find here. In fact, they don't even compare. The typical Swedish cinnamon roll is a lightly sweetened yeast white bread with ground cardamon baked in the dough along with a vanilla sugar, real butter and cinnamon filling, with  a small pearl sugar topping baked on top-no icing, tack!
It definitely deserves it's own day of honor.

This holiday is relatively new. It was invented in 1999 by the Home Baking Council, a club of baking ingredient producers which is now run by the Danish sugar company Dansukkar. The company wanted to honor its 40 year history with a baking tradition. Seems the cinnamon rolls were perfect since they already were such well known and loved tradition all over Scandinavia.

I began experiencing life in Sweden and Finland back in 1978. This is when I first had the experience of "fika". Rarely is there a time when one visits a Scandinavian home when you don't have coffee and something sweet to go with it. Sitting down to "fika" is a ritual that I would tend to compare with the Japanese tea-although less formal and with few expected guidelines. It seems, though, that there must always be nice coffee cups, preferably with saucers, a clean table-not fancy, flowers perhaps, and always a plate of cookies and cinnamon rolls. I think the cinnamon roll is usual and  expected in most places.

My in-laws would always have a pretty plate  filled with cookies which they had baked and set out-one for each guest, plus, there always was a cinnamon roll for each person at the table. Farmor would count how many were left and ask who didn't have their roll or specific cookie. I could never cut down on sweets on those visits. Along with the traditional cookies they had grown up baking, often there was a new recipe they had tried from one of the Swedish homemaking magazines. If that cookie was very well received, it became a tradition. We have a few of those recipes which I'll share in my upcoming cookbook.

Sadly, Farfar and Farmor are gone but we still keep up that tradition of baking the bullar and serving them with coffee. Only at Christmas though, do we add in the large array of beautiful Swedish cookies.

It took me years to perfect this recipe-with the help of another friend who married a Swede and had lived and had a home in Sweden for some years. Flour and butter are a bit different in each country, and Swedes still use the fresh cake yeast and let it sit and proof in the liquid. Here, we are so used to "instant" everything so I have had  to use trial and error to get this process down.

From the exclamations of many friends over the years, our Swedish Cinnamon rolls are amazing. In fact, even today, when we are asked to bring baked goods, always the first request is the Swedish cinnamon rolls. I have looked around for decent vanilla sugar and pearl sugar and only find it online-or in Sweden. Right now I have a young friend visiting his parents back in Stockholm and I'm sending him out shopping for my kardemumma, vanilla sugar and pearl sugar. Fall is coming, Christmas will be here before I know it, and after this sweltering 100 degrees fades into a temperate fall, we will be ready to bake again...just in time for the October 4 celebration.

Cardamom from Sweden. It can also be found in many stores. I like to  grind mine first since it gives an even stronger aroma and flavor.

I let the warm milk and sugar and butter and yeast proof in the mixer bowl. It should look,like this before adding the flour and cardamon.

When the dough is mixed it should be a bit sticky. I then turn it out onto the counter for a final knead. I think the Ankersrum does a perfect job, but I like the true hands on feel and satisfaction of  a  "just right" feel of  the dough.

rising beautifully under a tea towel

This recipe divides into about four good sized lumps. I roll them out one at a time, smear softened butter all over and sprinkle with cinnamon and vanilla sugar. I've used "other" vanilla sugar not from Sweden and they suffice. Also, I've substituted vanilla extract into the dough before mixing . It's good to be innovative with with you have around in the kitchen cupboards.
There are even recipes for making your own vanilla sugar with the actual vanilla bean submerged into powdered sugar. I think I'll experiment with that soon.

Here is the finished result...I'll post as soon as I get back to my kitchen the how to of  rolling  and twisting and  the various shapes-even the  famous Swedish Tea ring is made with this recipe.

I  THINK   EVERY   DAY   IS   A   GOOD   DAY   FOR  A  SWEDISH  CINNAMON ROLL !



RECIPE FOR SWEDISH KANEL BULLAR

Ingredients

1 1/3 sticks of butter

2 ¼ cups of milk

5 tsp dry yeast

½ tsp salt

2/3 cups of sugar

1 egg

1 tsp crushed  cardamom seeds

6 cups of flour

Filling:

softened butter

vanilla sugar- or granulated sugar

cinnamon

Pearl sugar 

walnuts or almonds

almond paste -grated

In a small sauce pan heat the milk, sugar and salt till just warm. This is about 105 – 100 degrees. Add the butter and let it melt. Far far taught me to add an egg here and it makes the rolls very moist-it is an option.

Next, place liquid in the mixer bowl to proof the yeast.

Sprinkle the yeast over the liquid and gently stir it in until just wet. Let it set for about  10 minutes. You will see it become foamy and bubbly. This tells you the yeast is active and working. I always make sure to do this step before adding any other ingredients. If the yeast is too hot it won't work -and it definitely won't work if the liquid is too cold. The key is to  learn by touch what is the best temperature. If I can put my finger into the liquid and keep it there even though it's a bit hot-then its about right. If I have to take it out-too hot.  We learn by doing and I have had my share of sad ,small, unchanging lumps of dough that won't rise.

Next,add the crushed cardamon and begin adding the flour. I add one cup at a time so I can gauge the amount-it's easier to add than to take away! The best dough is ready when it is pulling away from the sides of the mixer bowl and is still just a bit sticky to the touch yet can still be handled.

Once you have a nice lump of dough , place it in a lightly greased then flip the dough over so the greased part is on top, cover with a tea towel and let rise-about 30-45 minutes.

When the dough has doubled in size, uncover and punch it down with your fist and let it rest.

Divide into  two and begin the forming of the rolls. 

On a  lightly floured surface use a rolling pin and roll out the dough into a rectangle about ½ inch thick.

Spread softened butter over the surface, and then sprinkle with  vanilla sugar and cinnamon.

If you don't have vanilla sugar then regular sugar will work. 

Another option is to grate almond paste and sprinkle over the butter, omit the cinnamon-then roll up and slice as below.

Pre heat oven to 450

Option one:

Roll the rectangle up and slice about  1 inch apart. 

Place rolls on cookie sheet lined with baking paper and brush with whipped egg then sprinkle with pearl sugar.

 Cover  the rolls with a tea towel. Let rise for about 30  minutes. I like to set the cookie sheets by the warming oven away from drafts. They seem to rise nicely this way.

Bake for 5-7 minutes-until lightly golden on the tops

Option two:

Roll out the dough into a 1/2” thick rectangle, spread with the  softened butter and sprinkle the vanilla sugar and cinnamon. Next fold over in half- from the long side of the rectangle, cut ½ inch strips and hold each end in your fingers and twist from one end and then roll up into a spiral. Place on the cookie sheet and brush with egg and sprinkle sugar on top.

You can also do a braided loaf without a filling. These taste wonderful with coffee in the morning. This was always a staple in Finland.

FarFar often places his small bullar in paper cups and sprinkled them with chopped walnuts or almonds along with the pearl sugar. Our American cupcake papers are too small but now days we can find all sizes of paper cups. They freeze nicely this way  and look festive when serving with other small cookies.