Sticky cinnamon buns

One of my favourite flavours, when I bake, is cinnamon. When we go to the bakery here in Denmark, I always pick a cinnamon Danish without a doubt.

Usually, when you try and replicate a Danish, it ends up rather dry because we make it with dough, and the bakers use real pastry. But not in this house! Because my Grandmother happened to have a recipe that will give you the yummiest, stickiest cinnamon buns ever. The proper Danish description name for this is ‘Kanelsneglekage’ and it is cooked in a baking tray, so the ‘buns’ end up sticking together’.

This recipe is quite easy to make and is perfect for a chilly Spring day like today, sitting in your favourite chair drinking coffee, and eating these:

INGREDIENTS

Makes 14–16 cinnamon buns

For the dough

25g fresh yeast, or 2 tsp dry yeast

100 ml of milk

1/4 tsp cardamom

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1 egg

130g soft butter

350g all-purpose flour

For the filling

175g soft butter

150 g brown sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cardamom

1 pinch of salt

For the topping 

Decorate with icing sugar. I like to ‘pipe’ mine out finely with a piping bag.

METHOD

For the dough

• Heat the milk in a small saucepan until it is warm but not too hot (so you can put your finger in it).
• Pour the milk into a mixing bowl, and dissolve the yeast in the warm milk and then whisk in the egg, sugar, salt, and cardamom.
• ‘Crumble’ the butter into the flour, so it turns fine and grainy.  Add together with the ‘wet’ ingredients in the mixing bowl.
• Get the dough out on the table top, and knead until the dough becomes smooth and soft. Cover the dough with a clean tea towel and leave to rise for 1 hour in a warm spot.

For the filling

• Heat the oven to 200 Celsius
• Mix together the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and cardamom to make a smooth, soft buttery paste.
• Take the dough and roll it into a big rectangle using all the dough, approx 1 cm thick. Spread the butter mixture thinly and evenly onto the dough.
• Starting at the shortest edge tightly roll the dough into a sausage. Cut the sausage into small swirly rolls – approx. 2 cm thick, you’ll get around 14-16.
• Place the rolls next to each other in a greased baking tray and leave them to rise for another 30 mins in a warm place. Sprinkle a bit of sugar mixed with cinnamon on top.
• Bake the buns in the oven for 22-25 mins.
• Remove the buns from the oven and leave to cool slightly before decorating them with icing sugar.

Enjoy! These buns are best served warm, and trust me they’ll be gone before they go cold…

Photography, styling and recipe – Anya Jensen Photography ©