Sticky cinnamon buns

One of my favourite flavours, when I bake, is cinnamon. Cinnamon reminds me of autumn, leaves falling off trees, golden sun-rays and warm sweaters. 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 day sitting in your favourite chair sipping tea and eating these:

INGREDIENTS

Makes 14–16 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 (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 photography Anya Jensen Photography