Cinnamon buns

This very Finnish bake (some might say Nordic) brings back many memories of cold winter days, steaming cup of hot chocolate with a big cinnamon bun. I don’t make them very often, but have been thinking about them for a while now. I’m so glad I decided to make them, this batch is the best I’ve ever made!

5 dl milk
2 saches of quick action dried yeast or 50g fresh yeast (I used dried)
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 dl caster sugar
1 tbsp coarsely ground cardamom
1 kg wheat flour (400g plain flour / 400g strong white bread flour / 200g self-raising flour)
200g butter, melted
~~~~~
soft butter
cinnamon
caster sugar
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egg

1. Measure 900g of the flour in your mixing bowl. I use food processor for mixing the dough, but if you’re mixing by hand use a large wooden fork, as it’s important to get air in the dough mixture. Save the remaining flour until later. I have to confess I found the perfect mix of flours by accident. I have normally mixed plain and strong white flour half and half, but run out just a little bit, so had to finish with self raising, which turned out to be the best situation.

2. Heat the milk until lukewarm. Add the yeast, salt, sugar and cardamom, and stir until sugar has dissolved. Add slightly beaten egg.

3. Pour the liquid mixture to the mixing bowl with the flour in, whilst mixing.

4. Knead for 5 minutes, then start pouring in, little by little, the melted butter. At this stage, it’s a good idea to add spoons of the remaining flour, to help the butter to be incorporated with the rest of the dough. Knead for another 5 minutes. During this time, if the dough keeps sticking to the bowl, add some more flour until it doesn’t stick anymore.

5. Cover the bowl with cling film and a cloth,  and place the bowl in a sink with hot water in. Leave to rise for an hour.

6. I then knead the dough again in the food processor for 30 seconds (or alternatively, you can of course do this by hand too).

7. As this is quite a big dough, I then cut it in half, and do the following steps in each half. With a rolling pin, roll the dough onto a flat plate. About 5-10 mm thickness should be good.

8. Spread on soft butter, followed by ground cinnamon, and then sugar.

9. Let rest for 15 minutes, then roll the dough, and cut into desired size pieces with a knife.

10. At the top part of the bun, using your fingers bring the edges of the outer layer of dough to the middle part of top of the bun and press down, so that they stick. Let rise for 30 minutes, covered.

11. Heat oven to 200°C (fan) / 400°F. Just before baking the buns, brush them with slightly beaten egg. Bake for 15 minutes. Depending on your oven, keep on eye on them whether you need to turn your tray half way.

Author: luxlifefinn

Lover of good food. Fine dining as a hobby, home cooking as a passion. View all posts by luxlifefinn